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I though it would be fun to expand on this subject after learning of it in last month Muzzle Blast article by Fred Stutzenberger. He said to use Diekem or magic marker but I felt soot would do the job as well and not mess up the frizzen face. I tested this on a Kentucky flint pistol I have and it worked perfectly. What was eye opening for me was to see how little of the frizzen face was actually contacted by the flint edge and still developed a very heavy spark shower.
There was no bounce or chatter but one does not find an even scrape pattern across the frizzen face, only linear, vertical scrapes from the high points of the flint edge on the frizzen arc. This makes perfect sense when one considers that the knapping is about flake removal from platforms that set up an irregular set of chips (saw teeth) more or less, evenly across the edge face. The chips or scarps leave high points between them and these are what are making contact with the frizzen and shear off steel to produce the sparks.
I'm going to get out all my flint guns and give them this test !
I found this test both interesting and educational in how these machines work and how to improve them.
There was no bounce or chatter but one does not find an even scrape pattern across the frizzen face, only linear, vertical scrapes from the high points of the flint edge on the frizzen arc. This makes perfect sense when one considers that the knapping is about flake removal from platforms that set up an irregular set of chips (saw teeth) more or less, evenly across the edge face. The chips or scarps leave high points between them and these are what are making contact with the frizzen and shear off steel to produce the sparks.
I'm going to get out all my flint guns and give them this test !
I found this test both interesting and educational in how these machines work and how to improve them.
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