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Flints wrapped in Lead

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Gene Perryman

36 Cal.
Joined
Nov 16, 2005
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I was reading Flintlock How To and my question is who sells sheet lead that you can use to wrap your flint ?
Gene Perryman
 
I get my sheet lead from Home Depot in their roofing department. If they don't have simple sheeting I purchase the molded roof vents and cut it up with scissors. Alternately you can simply hammer out a ball and trim it with a pen knife. If you want to get fancy you can make a pattern in the shape of the leads issued by the US military for flint lock muskets. A tip on using lead to hold your flint: after tightening it down, dry-fire the lock three or four times then re-tighten. It takes a couple of strikes to seat the irregularities of the flint's surface into the soft lead. Once re-tightened, it should be good until the flint becomes too short. When this happens, I loosen the jaw-screw and insert a folded lead shim behind the flint and re-tighten for another go.
 
I only use lead in musket size locks. To get the lead, I simply put a ball on the anvil, pound it flat & trim it as desired with tin snips.
 
Coot said:
I only use lead in musket size locks. To get the lead, I simply put a ball on the anvil, pound it flat & trim it as desired with tin snips.

I've always used the hammer and concrete method using .45 pistol balls. Have found the irregular face of the concrete clobbered lead holds the flint more securely.
 
never tried it but the idea makes sense ... the advice about dry firing the flint and then tightening it down is good - this has worked well for me in the past ...

of course, now you've opened the lead vs. leather thing ... this ought to get interesting, but i'll stick my two cents in before I duck for cover:

I tried the darkened room trick (where you turn the lights out in a dark room and try both lead and leather) and I was at that time convinced that lead was the way to go, but then Pletch (who does interesting stuff all the time) put together some high speed video and the conclusion was to leather by a slight margin, if I remember correctly. So I went and tried out which worked better and on some of my guns, lead worked better, and on some it was flint, but in most it wasn't really that big a difference, so ...

go with what works best for you, but try it out first, then, with confidence,

make good smoke!

:stir: :grin:
 
Thanks fellows..........I just pounded a 54 cal RB into a lead sheet...It works and now I'm back ,in the flintlock business !!!
I got out of ML about 6 years ago because I was going thru flints like candy and it got expensive and annoying to change flints and have misfires after about 5 or 6 shots.....I didn't like having to replace a flint on a loaded gun!!!
Thanks again'
Gene
 
MSW said:
of course, now you've opened the lead vs. leather thing ... this ought to get interesting,

Yeah, this is just one of those subjects. In the FWIW category, the gun I did the lead smack for was a Bess with a big hammer and long throw. Haven't found lead to be all that efficient with smaller rifle locks. Just to make me nutz, of the two different Besses I had at that time, one did it's best work with a lead wrap and the other liked leather. Go figure! :wink: Humility training!!
 
I have done the ball smash thing to get lead wrap. We all try different things in this game. I have used leather and lead. Will probably stick with leather from here on. It does grip better but dries out and needs replacing periodically.
 
Does the added weight slow down the hammer? Maybe it is not enough weight to matter. I think will try it on my trade gun when I change flints.
 
gard72977 said:
Does the added weight slow down the hammer? Maybe it is not enough weight to matter. I think will try it on my trade gun when I change flints.

I got my fingers slapped for some comments I made here about lead at one time. Chambers does not warranty his locks if the customer uses lead. He believes (and he is an acknowledged guru) that the extra weight over stresses the lock innards. In nearly 50 years of doing the flint thing, his opinion on this is the only time or source from which I have heard that notion/idea/theory/whatever. Not doubting him but do wonder why no one else seems to find it to be an issue. :idunno: :stir: The laws of physics would dictate the lock time is slower but, in use, I doubt if there is a practical difference.
 
Who else offers a Lifetime Warranty of his/their locks?
Might be Mr. Chambers experience that he's had to repair more locks that used the lead wrap than leather?
 
To me the wrap is just one more "tool" in the kit. Use what works best for you.

I'm a leather worker and have scraps of all sorts as a result. For me it's just a lot more convenient to play around and find the "right" leather for a particular gun or flint. On the rare occasion I haven't been able to meet the needs with leather, I've mooshed lead balls. Seems okay, but awfully danged fiddly when switching flints, especially as noted, with a loaded gun.

Bud of mine has a different approach I've never seen or heard of anywhere else.

At home he fashions a "wrap" of wet rawhide on each flint, sets them in the jaws and lets them dry. Once dry, take the combo out and make another. He then carries spare flints with the rawhide wrap already attached. Danged quick and easy to use in the field, and as secure as lead claims to be. His deal, and I've never tried it myself.
 
necchi said:
Who else offers a Lifetime Warranty of his/their locks?

I do. And I don't give a ratz tail end whether you use lead or leather.

Personally I find lead wrap to be an unnecassary complication. You will find that the flint gets loose after a few shots and then gets loose again then when you change out flints the process starts alll over again as no two flints have the same deformities and odd shapes so the lead needs to form itself to it over and over again. With leather you install the flint, tighten down, forget about it.
 
laffindog said:
...then gets loose again then when you change out flints the process starts alll over again as no two flints have the same deformities and odd shapes so the lead needs to form itself to it over and over again. With leather you install the flint, tighten down, forget about it.

That's why my bud played with "prefitting" rawhide leathers to individual flints. He hates lead with a purple passion. You even end up with grooves from the jaws in the rawhide for really reliable mounting and positioning in the field and perfect performance. Gotta try it myself, but so far I haven't found any round to-its.
 
When I was working, I used to get scrap lead from the people who did our building maintenance. I have a bunch of sheet lead still but don't use it for flints as I had intended when I got it. I just didn't like it. My preference is to use some scrap 5 oz. leather. I cut several pieces to size and wet each well. Next I clamp a piece in place on each of my flints with clamps until it dries. This makes it fit nicely to each flint. Once they have dried completely, I store them in my flint wallet until I need them. I have no problem with the leather working loose. When the flint gets too dull to re-sharpen on my rifle, I put the flint back in my flint wallet to be re-knapped and another piece of leather fitted to it. It's a pretty handy method. The clamps that I use are the plastic spring clamps that I buy at Home Depot.
 
My old shooting buddy used to superglue his leather to the flint, smooth side against flint, obviously. Seemed odd to me but worked fine for him. What the heck, whatever turns your crank.
 
I'm in the smooshed lead ball camp myself but it's pretty clear that a lot of approaches will work, with one approach working better than the others on some particular gun just often enough that people will form strong opinions about the subject.
 
I know I'll get an "Oh my God, the horror", but when I first got a flintlock I didn't have any leather, and never could get lead to stay in the cock, so I used emery cloth.

Not historically, or politically correct, but it worked surprisingly well.
 
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