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- May 24, 2005
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Hello all. A friend has run into a possible dilema.
Many of us have had the occassional flint that needs the bevel on the bottom ground flat to fit snug in the jaws. Because of the toxic nature of the powder in flint I wear safety goggles, a mask, and do the job outdoors on the deck. The little diamond wheel on the Dremmel tool works great and only takes a couple minutes. I learned this trick from here on the Forum.
We know that the sparks from a flintlock occur from the tiny pieces of hot iron scrapped from the frizzen face. But with a wheellock and pyrite it's the opposite. The spark being generated by the pyrite itself.So I don't know if the diamond wheel is the correct/safe way to cut/shape pyrite?
While trying to research this on the Web he ran accross these comments:
"Did some online research on shaping pyrites last night, there is a whole blog page with contributions from a number of lapidarists on the subject. Bottom line -- proceed with caution, this stuff can be dangerous if worked with power tools. One guy had a shop fire start when a spark ignited the powder residue as he was sawing it with a diamond blade. He was doing it dry, and another guy who was using water as a lube was nearly overcome with sulphuric acid fumes when the dust combined with the water! A guy with medical background says that if the dust gets onto your mucus membranes, it will form sulphuric acid in your mouth/nostrils. Yikes!"
My friend has a few 1" square cubes of pyrite that he needs to cut/shape to fit in the jaws of a pair of wheellock pistols for display in place of the flints that are there now. And based on the comments above is not sure how to proceed in a safe manner.
So, I thought I would touch base here to see if you wheellock shooters have any experience/ideas for safely cutting/shaping/chipping pyrite into a desired shape? :hmm:
Thanks for any help.
Rick.
Many of us have had the occassional flint that needs the bevel on the bottom ground flat to fit snug in the jaws. Because of the toxic nature of the powder in flint I wear safety goggles, a mask, and do the job outdoors on the deck. The little diamond wheel on the Dremmel tool works great and only takes a couple minutes. I learned this trick from here on the Forum.
We know that the sparks from a flintlock occur from the tiny pieces of hot iron scrapped from the frizzen face. But with a wheellock and pyrite it's the opposite. The spark being generated by the pyrite itself.So I don't know if the diamond wheel is the correct/safe way to cut/shape pyrite?
While trying to research this on the Web he ran accross these comments:
"Did some online research on shaping pyrites last night, there is a whole blog page with contributions from a number of lapidarists on the subject. Bottom line -- proceed with caution, this stuff can be dangerous if worked with power tools. One guy had a shop fire start when a spark ignited the powder residue as he was sawing it with a diamond blade. He was doing it dry, and another guy who was using water as a lube was nearly overcome with sulphuric acid fumes when the dust combined with the water! A guy with medical background says that if the dust gets onto your mucus membranes, it will form sulphuric acid in your mouth/nostrils. Yikes!"
My friend has a few 1" square cubes of pyrite that he needs to cut/shape to fit in the jaws of a pair of wheellock pistols for display in place of the flints that are there now. And based on the comments above is not sure how to proceed in a safe manner.
So, I thought I would touch base here to see if you wheellock shooters have any experience/ideas for safely cutting/shaping/chipping pyrite into a desired shape? :hmm:
Thanks for any help.
Rick.