Shiloh Rifle Forums

Yeah, they are habit forming and once you get them tuned up and learn what they like the accuracy and reliability will amaze you ! They also will teach you to be a very good offhand shot if you stick with it and master follow through. Some folks really have a hard time with the pan flash going off beside their head !

Yep, military paper cartridges did have an extra 10 grs. for priming. The Bess likes French amber flints, dark English flints, and white shards. It sparks like a grinder with a new flint. The trick is to tune the lock to reduce friction and get a faster lock time.

I have many , many pounds of "flint'.., yep I know the difference , that I have made arrowheads and tools out of. I was wondering if this flint, chert, whatever..will work in a flint lock??

Most probably Glen, I was told that heat treated chert would not spark and that was wrong information. The Keokuk heat treated chert not only sparks well but is more durable than the English flint I tried from TOTW. The pressure flaking skill you learn from point knapping is what makes flints last so long and keeps then sharp. Most folks bang on them with little hammers and nippers that cut the flints life by half or more.
You can test how well your chert will work against a carbon steel knife spine or fire striker.

Novaculite sparks really well but fractures easier than chert does. The chert out of Missouri , Oklahoma and Texas all seems to spark well heat treated or not.

Most of the Hill Country stuff in TX works well, as does Georgetown and Knife River material.

Rick

I got some dark flint ship ballast from the Boston area that came from England in the square rigger days and as it was very tough to knapp I heat treated it.
I did something wrong as it all fractured and became very crumbly. I think I must have gotten it to hot or it already had moisture in the fissures.