Leonard Day synthetic pyrite

[Teleoceras]

On Monday I got a package in the mail from Leonard Day. It is three chunks of synthetic pyrite to deal with some of the problems of the vent blast taking out my natural pyrite chunks when shooting my Wheellock.

As you can see, the two black pieces are striker "flints" with a piece of brass on one corner. The chunk is supposed to be placed in the dog with the brass piece towards the vent.

The brass is supposed to act as a shield for the strikers.

I'll let you all know how they shoot when I can get to the range later in the month.

Slowmatch Forever!
Teleoceras

 

[benvenuto]

VERY interesting...great lateral thinking! :thumbsup:

 

[Charles D. Prokopp]

The pyrites are embedded in ..what? Aluminum, pewter, lead?
Great idea!

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

I was over at Leonard's a while back and he showed me the first one he made. The matrix on that one was lead. Pretty nifty idea I think!

 

[Teleoceras]

CProkopp:

The pyrites are embedded in ..what? Aluminum, pewter, lead?
Great idea!

He used lead.

Slowmatch Forever!
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[Leonredbeard]

Teleoceras,
I hope your results are better than mine. I embedded striker flints in a wood block. They worked fine and repeatedly for lighting the pan. But once I put a charge in the barrel they just would not work beyond one or two firings It didn't matter if I was using the big ones for a torch striker or the small ones for zippo lighters. Then a friend watched me shoot and told me that the 'flint' glowed red for quite some time while I was looking down range. So I tried wrapping a brass flange around the 'flints' but it did not improve matters. So I gave that up and continued searching for the mother lode of natural pyrites.

Sorry, I know you did not want to hear this. Like I said, I hope these work better for you.
volatpluvia

 

[Teleoceras]

Volatpluvia:

I won't know unless I try. I am hoping that the angled vent might help. We'll see. I'll still bring chunks of natural pyrite and some slowmatch just in case.

Slowmatch Forever!
Teleoceras

 

On Monday I got a package in the mail from Leonard Day. It is three chunks of synthetic pyrite to deal with some of the problems of the vent blast taking out my natural pyrite chunks when shooting my Wheellock.

As you can see, the two black pieces are striker "flints" with a piece of brass on one corner. The chunk is supposed to be placed in the dog with the brass piece towards the vent.

The brass is supposed to act as a shield for the strikers.

I'll let you all know how they shoot when I can get to the range later in the month.

Slowmatch Forever!
Teleoceras

Gee, seems I remember somebody suggesting this idea before!
[url] http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/194999[/url]

CP

 

[Teleoceras]

I took Sparky out today to see how the synthetic pyrites would fair during repeated ignitions.

Well it turned out to be a non-issue since I couldn't even get ANY ignition with the cursed things! :cursing: :cursing: :cursing: :cursing:

Now mind you that they did give a small spark, but not a single one would fire off the priming.

I had to resort to going back to my natural pyrite to get Sparky to go off.

I don't know if it was my Wheellock or not, but Sparky never has liked the synthetic stuff. At least I had enough of the natural pyrite to do some shooting, but overall it was a frustrating day.

Slowmatch Forever!
Teleoceras

 

[Leonredbeard]

Teleoceras,
Thank you for posting your results. I am sorry that you had such a frustrating day. I had hoped that something had been improved.

I learned something new on Wednesday. I was shooting with my son at a public range in Missouri. It was sprinkling rain and very humid. The redhairedgal fired quickly for the first three shots with natural pyrites but then refused to light the pan. Putting a new one in from a plastic ziplock baggie fixed the problem. I now believe that moisture and BP soot actually penetrate the surface and grease it so that it wouldn't strike sparks. So if I grind the surface and then try it and and it fires again then I would know I am right. So on a soggy day it takes a bunch of prepared pyrites to go to the range.
volatpluvia

 

[mckutzy]

I have been thinking of this subject for a wile now and after reading this post and thinking about it, i went and checked a striker i had for a torch.
I noticed that if i had just pressed the lever i got some sparks(of course to light a torch thats all right), but if i pressed the lever a little harder into the rasp of the striker i got a fare amount of sparks and some times a little or two pieces came off and were burning and scuttling about in the bowl of the striker.
My question, is the pressure of the pyrite jaws just enough to get pyrite to lite the pan or is there a fare amount of pressure involved with the jaws spring acting against the wheel?
If this is so, maby just a spring change is nessisary to use the striker flints

 

[Leonredbeard]

McKutzy,
You have just driven the tack from 100 yards! I, too have examined the way they are used in a torch lighter. The wheellock is exactly wrong for their effective use. The torch striker is a slow movement with any pounds of pressure. The wheellock is so fast you can't see the wheel spin and a very light pressure compared to the torch striker. I am not sure one could get that kind of pressure on wheellock dog. The torch striker uses a massive surface for the strike, or really, scrape, while the wheellock uses a tiny surface for the scrape. I don't think you could get a spark off a pyrite in the jaw of a torch striker for love nor money. Just my humble thoughts. I could be wrong, of course, considering that there was a rasp lock where the trigger actually pulled a rasp across a pyrite. Seems like that lock should work well with torch 'flints.
volatpluvia

 

[mckutzy]

well thank you :thumbsup: and :hatsoff: .
maby if the wheel had a more agressive cut on the face of contact or a an increased angle of aproach to the direction of turn on the wheel, some thing to dig the "flint" into the wheel ?
I agree with there maby no way to increase pressure with the dog against the wheel,( i had to look at several referances for this, im not to formiliar with this ignition type);
there is just not much room to increase pressure even with a slightly new shape of spring.

 

[ChrisPer]

Look at the length from pivot to the dog spring compared with that from the pivot to contact surface. The leverage is way wrong, so no strength of spring is likely to put much pressure between the pyrite and the wheel. It requires a different geometry.

 

[PitchyPine]

Just an uneducated thought on this topic but as i read i kept thinking of all the sparks that come off of a generator brush, ya know those big square ones like are in a tractor generator.
Anyone ever try one? :redface:

 

[mckutzy]

oh ya i forgot about them, but i thought the brushes were a carbon type of material, not to sure :hmm:

 

[PitchyPine]

I think they are and probably too soft unless they make some modern ones out of something else.

 

[mckutzy]

maby a sharp angled "flint"

 

[Cmabie]

I tried artifital flints in a Schroeter wheellock and on one that I made up from parts from TR shoppe. I did not have much lucki with ignition. I think the spark was not hot enough. Real iron pyrites works the best although the type that I have been using is only good for about 4-5 shots. I am wondering if there is a better grade of pyrites out there somewhere.
:thumbsup:

 

[Leonredbeard]

Chris Per,
When I first made the redhairedgal I had an extra wheel made up that was smooth on the circumference. I filed forward slanting cuts across the outer rim to use with the torch flints.
This did not work at all. I am thinking that if one took a standard grooved wheel and filed forward leaning cuts across the grooves at really close intervals, as close as one could make them, and then hardened the wheel it might work. I hate sacrificing my last wheel to try it. Maybe go back to the smooth wheel with the cuts and turn grooves into the rim, hmnnn! Just for curiosity of,course, Har!
volatpluvia