A pound of 18th century flints?

[TNGhost]

Has anybody ordered the "pound of 18th century flints" from IMA?

 

[FishDFly]

Has anybody ordered the "pound of 18th century flints" from IMA?

Who orders flints by the pound and who is IMA???????????

 

[Tom Compton]

IIRC flint takes millions of years to form so what's 18th century flint? :hatsoff:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I have not, yet...,

The website says you get from 30 to 40 flints in a pound, and they are sized for military muskets. So with the shipping to where I live, and assuming I get say 35 flints, that would give me a price of $1.10 each. That would get me about 40% off what I pay for musket flints, but it's assuming they are all good enough to work in my musket.

I'm not sure how they established the location the English flints are from, let alone their date of manufacture..., it's not like they are stamped with a maker's mark or anything. :haha: Since most of this stuff is coming out of royal arsenals in Nepal, who knows if the product was really as labeled. :shocked2: But so what if they are actually early 19th century flints? They would still be antiques.

So it's a gamble, but you might save a couple of dollars and have some good quality flints. Unless you are going to resell them as souvenirs, then they all work, right? :haha:

If you think you're going to knap them smaller for use with fusils and rifles, I'd say save your money and hand pick your flints if you can.

LD

 

[TNGhost]

Has anybody ordered the "pound of 18th century flints" from IMA?

Who orders flints by the pound and who is IMA???????????

I did :v , out of curiosity, not to save money or resell them. Was wondering if anyone else had and what they got. IMA is International Military Antiques.

They're the ones that brought in a bunch of older firearms and other antiques, including a number of flintlocks and percussion guns, from Nepal a few years ago. Mostly of British extraction, from Bess muskets to Martini-Henrys. I've seen some really nice ones, and I've seen some dogs.

 

[TNGhost]

I have not, yet...,

The website says you get from 30 to 40 flints in a pound, and they are sized for military muskets. So with the shipping to where I live, and assuming I get say 35 flints, that would give me a price of $1.10 each. That would get me about 40% off what I pay for musket flints, but it's assuming they are all good enough to work in my musket.

I'm not sure how they established the location the English flints are from, let alone their date of manufacture..., it's not like they are stamped with a maker's mark or anything. :haha: Since most of this stuff is coming out of royal arsenals in Nepal, who knows if the product was really as labeled. :shocked2: But so what if they are actually early 19th century flints? They would still be antiques.

So it's a gamble, but you might save a couple of dollars and have some good quality flints. Unless you are going to resell them as souvenirs, then they all work, right? :haha:

If you think you're going to knap them smaller for use with fusils and rifles, I'd say save your money and hand pick your flints if you can.

LD

Not really counting the pennies, just thought I'd take a flyer out of curiosity.

I'm thinking, given the rest of what they have, that they're on the level, and I wouldn't doubt their origin. I have a couple of muskets that they should fit and 30-40 isn't really a lot. :wink:

Like I said above, I have some coming and was curious as to what to expect, that's all. :idunno:

When they get here I'll post up my reflections on them in the Vendor section.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well as I wrote, "yet" because I too am going to order some, probably today.

I don't doubt they are probably from England, and antique, I just question sales people some times with absolute claims. Either way they are antique....if rocks get antique. If I could afford a good copy of a LLP or SLP Bess, I'd get several to place in the jaws of the lock, just to complete the arm...., though the lead wrap would be a reproduction.

Price? Well say you get five that are napped well enough to use, and 30 that are not. You have 30 chunks of flint at $1 each. See, we don't know if these were found in boxes in the dungeon below the armory as they were forgotten, OR if they were rejected. :shocked2: But, on the other hand if they were all serviceable ....they are a bargain. So I too will give it a go.

LD

 

[Eric Krewson]

I remember reading about these flints on another site. The people that bought them said some were used, some were good and some were not.

 

[Bill Ladd]

I ordered some.

I haven't gone through the bag very carefully, but mostly very large flints, a handful of large ones and then some medium size that may fit one of my larger locks.

Oh, and some chert.

 

[TNGhost]

Thanks for the replies. According the tracking info they sent, looks like mine are at the P.O.Box to be picked up Monday. Fast service at the least, I ordered Wednesday night. They seem to have a lot of other interesting stuff related to BP guns as well, so maybe this is just a test run :grin:

 

[hanshi]

I went in with a friend and ordered a pound. There were 45 flints in the box. About a third were amber "French" flints, the rest black English. Some were brand new, some were used and some were pieces of a much larger flint. I found most of the pieces to be a good fit for my rifles with small/medium locks and some were even too large for my large Chambers Colonial Va lock. Some could easily cut or knapped to either fit or to produce 2 usable flints from one large. It was not a screaming good deal by any means; but my order was worth what I paid for it. Divided between the two of us left each of us with 22 flints and one left over which went to my friend.

 

[TNGhost]

If the ones they sent me are like that, I'll be happy. :grin:

 

[TNGhost]

Well finally got to the post office and picked up my flints and had a chance to look at them. I was hoping to get to shoot with them but that hasn't materialized yet.

As far as what I got, looks like about what hanshi said. Some were obviously used, others were new, and a few just hunks of flint. Mine were about half "French" amber and half English black. The bag held a total of 62.

The English flints were mostly quite large although there were some even down to pistol size. The amber ones averaged smaller, with several that would fit well in my Tenn Mtn. Rifle and the one I tried in it sparked quite well.

All in all, I am not disappointed. Not a great deal but over half usable now, and some to fool with and try to make usable.