vertically grooved frizzen

[steven gordon]

Just back from a trip to Israel, where I went to the museum of islamic art in Jerusalem. There was a weapons exhibition; guess where I went.

There were two flint locks and a matchlock. The frizzen for both flint locks had vertical grooves about two mm deep and about two mm wide, and there was no curl at the top of the frizzen and the frizzen itself was flat with no curve to it at all.

Now the Arabs at one time were the smartest people in the world; we get the following words from Arabic: arithmetic, algorithm, algebra, alcohol, almond...If the word starts with AL it probably came from Arabic. They were among the first to deal with steel well.

Why would there be grooves in the frizzen? Would they serve any useful purpose now? Has anyone every seen a grooved frizzen? Has anyone dealt with original flintlocks NOT made in Europe?

PS I got a piece of flint from Israel I'm planning to chip into a gunflint.