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.

[Adam Helmer]

steven,

Welcome to the Forum. You pose an interesting question about grooved frizzens. I never thought about verticle grooves and in the 200 +/- years of flintlock use in Europe and the colonies, I never read anything about such a practice. I do polish my curved frizzens with crocus cloth now and then to remove horizonal flint-induced grooves to prolong flint "life."

Off hand, it seems to me any grooves in the frizzen would wear away the flint faster than a smooth frizzen. Maybe some of our posters have a clue?

Adam

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Two thoughts come to mind for me; the first is that it may just be for decoration....if you look at a lot of those North African muzzleloading rifles, they are quite ornate, so maybe it is just 'for show'.
The other thing I was thinking of is that it might be for more consistant ignition? If you stop and think about it, most of thier fighting was done on horseback in windy, dessert conditions....maybe the grooves helped direct sparks more readily/consistantly in the pan with the grooves under those conditions than without them? Just a thought.