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Fear no humpy flint

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Brokennock

Cannon
Joined
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Messages
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Location
North Central Connecticut
So you have a collection of flint rejects like these?
20200816_175854.jpg20200816_175952.jpg
Only a few of many. And not the worst of them.
Want them to look, and function, more like these,
20200816_175932.jpg
?

I've seen many posts in the parts about grinding or filing the humps on poorly constructed/kidnapped flints with a hump or peak on top. I tried this with an Edgecraft diamond file I had bought years ago for sharpening broadheads. It has a magnetic handle that allows different plates of various grit diamond abrasive. The problem was how to hold the flint, especially if there was a lot of material to remove. And, over time I've accumulated many flints I've put aside do to what I felt to be unacceptable geometry.

Enter, the tongue depressor,
20200816_175823.jpg

Two cheap plastic clamps, a tongue depressor, a scrap board, and a diamond file or other grinding device that will cut/abrade flint, and it doesn't take long to fix these.

This flint, deemed unacceptable, has poor angles for the jaws to hold as well as a lack of surface area for gripping,
20200816_190222.jpg20200816_190240.jpg
Clamped in place,
20200816_180007.jpg
100 file strokes later,
20200816_180037.jpg20200816_190311.jpg20200816_190330.jpg

100 file stokes doesn't take long. I probably gave it another 175 after the pics were taken. And another few seconds to round those rascally corners that like to find fingers and such.

The question now is how do I turn all that flint dust into a nice polishing compound? Waste not, want not.
 
Those humpy flints look exactly like the ones I get from TOW. The flat ones look like the amber French flints I get from Heritage. As a flint knapper, I understand the humpy ones are easier to make because blades like to follow ridges. The amber flint maker appears to know his trade very well.
 
Those humpy flints look exactly like the ones I get from TOW. The flat ones look like the amber French flints I get from Heritage. As a flint knapper, I understand the humpy ones are easier to make because blades like to follow ridges. The amber flint maker appears to know his trade very well.
A few of the ones I fixed the other day were French Amber's. One was triangular in cross section, almost like it was meant to bereversible, but the peak at the top made it so it couldn't be clamped into the flint jaws.

Pretty sure, if memory serves, all the flints I've fixed over the last few days came from Track Of The Wolf. (The inverse isn't true, not all the flints I've gotten from Track needed fixing.)
 
I use a wooden clothes pin. You can clamp the flint in the jaws and once the wooden ends wear off, it holds the flint in the grooves pretty snug. A variable speed grinder would work best. The slower speed keeps the flints from overheating and cracking. I did several flints at a time and switched out to let them cool off. You can get in a hurry and crack them. I burnt up a regular grinder trying to get fancy and use a dimmer switch for a speed control. I read it wouldn't work on that type of motor but tried it anyway. I let the smoke out of the motor.
 
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I use a wooden clothes pin. You can clamp the flint in the jaws and once the wooden ends wear off, it holds the flint in the grooves pretty snug. A variable speed grinder would work best. The slower speed keeps the flints from overheating and cracking. I did several flints at a time and switched out to let them cool off. You can get in a hurry and crack them. I burnt up a regular grinder trying to get fancy and use a dimmer switch for a speed control. I read it wouldn't work on that type of motor but tried it anyway. I let the smoke out of the motor.
I think I'll stick with the diamond file, thanks. It doesn't take that long to make a flint usable manually.
 
with either method be careful of the dust, silica is no good for the lungs, use a good mask( no pun intended n95 or better) I use a diamond stone to do the same ,and can also sharpen the edge when rounded
 
Hardly worth all that effort to de-hump them.
When I order the Fuller flints from ToTW, I specify: "Flat flints only, No Humps". Usually they're really good at sorting. On the rare occasions when they slipped up, I just contacted Customer Service about it & they sent out replacements (only happened twice in about 6 years).
 
You can acquire the Fuller black English flints with or without the hump. They are purposely made with the hump to provide a greater range of contact with the frizzen. I use them with good success, and no issues with the larger Queen Anne style locks on my early colonial rifles.
29D57BFC-9D21-4C01-B916-F5389570453C.jpeg
 
I think I'll stick with the diamond file, thanks. It doesn't take that long to make a flint usable manually.


These days I just use a Mizzy wheel on a Dremel. These are the wheels that dentists use to shape and polish crowns, etc. They have a variety of grits.
 
how does a DENTIST get one of them into a mouth?these are the wheels that a DENTIST uses to shape a tooth?
 
Hardly worth all that effort to de-hump them.
When I order the Fuller flints from ToTW, I specify: "Flat flints only, No Humps". Usually they're really good at sorting. On the rare occasions when they slipped up, I just contacted Customer Service about it & they sent out replacements (only happened twice in about 6 years).
Same experience here. But, for the ones I do have I grind with a diamond wheel on my drill press.
 
how does a DENTIST get one of them into a mouth?these are the wheels that a DENTIST uses to shape a tooth?
He doesn't wotk in your mouth. The dentist polishes the dental work in his lab after he gets it fitted to your bite. Then after the final fitting and polishing, he glues it in.

Mizzy is a brand name. Google it. There may be other brands.
 
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