I am flint KNAPPING Challenged!

[Adam Helmer]

Ok, I have read much on the talent of flint knapping both in the hammer jaws and in a vise. All I ever managed to do was make a dull flint worse! That is, until just after Church today.

Last week I bought a nice Corborundum 4-inch X 2-inch whet stone that is medium aggressive on one side and smoother on the other. I successfuly sharpened 15 old, dull flints today to the point my .54 flinter gave me 31 reliable shots before the dull "Thunk" occured and I resharpened that flint and reset it in the hammer jaws with a thicker leather gasket.

A sharpening stone will resharpen dull flints. I find it gives a nicer edge than knapping and I get fewer split out edges. At the price of flints today, I would suggest trying a whet stone on all dull flints before they are tossed out.

Adam

[Johnny Reb]

Adam
I will have to go and get me a whet stone. Knapping my flint in the jaws usually gets me another 6 or 7 shots before I have to knapp my flint again, maybe this will give me more shots and less down time.

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Tried the whetstone/grinding stone route with my flints a while back....didn't work too well for me, but it did work better than knapping for some amber flints that I have.
I had a fellow who owns the muzzleloading shop where I buy my black powder and traditional supplies from show me how to do it. He uses a brass clapper from an old bell, and it worked GREAT!!! I'm keeping my eye out for a similar style device at the local garage sales......so far, not much luck.
I'm still only getting about a half dozen shots with my musket before getting misfires.....seeing as how I can get this thing to spark constantly w/o powder in the pan, yet the minute I start shooting it it has poor sparking ability is leading me to believe that there is some type of fouling building up on the frizzen; more experimentation is needed, but I haven't had the time to do it yet.