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Booshway
posted
I just placed an order for some Black English flints and I was curious as to what flints sold for back in the 1760tys I tried to do a search but nothing came up if someone could point me in the right direction would be helpful......B Staley


The best thing about owning a dog is that someone is happy when you get home.
 
Posts: 959 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 09 December 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of SCLoyalist
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I posted the question on the ML Association of Great Britain's forum, and got this reply:

"According to the Edinburgh Journal printed in 1832, good gunflints cost from four pence halfpenny to seven pence per hundred. In France in 1745 they cost 'one shilling per hundred'."


A shilling in 1776 had the buying power of GBP 3.18 (approximately $5.00 today). That probably puts you in the ballpark, but I believe the buying power of a shilling back in the colonies varied, depending on which colony. Anyway, a 'shilling per hundred' is about five (modern)cents per flint, which is a danged sight cheaper than the $1.75 per flint they cost these days.


Here's a health to the King and a lasting Peace. May Faction end and Wealth increase....Old Loyalist Ballad
 
Posts: 767 | Location: Panhandle Florida | Registered: 02 February 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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SC thanks for that info


The best thing about owning a dog is that someone is happy when you get home.
 
Posts: 959 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 09 December 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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I did a cost comparison to see which was more economical- flints or caps, and found them to be roughly the same. This was several years ago,
so don't know if it still holds true today. I was getting about 50 shots per flint, but if I knapped them, don't know how many more shots I could get. Never have tried, just replaced the flint when it started not sparking. Used english flints sold by Dixie Gun Works. Can't get flints here locally, so have had to rely on mail-order sources.
 
Posts: 9 | Location: Georgia | Registered: 22 August 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
<mtnmike>
posted
Last pack of flints I bought;$6.95 last box of caps;$6.99 flints are cheaper,you get 330( more or less) shots with the flint,only 100 shots with the caps.
 
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Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Let's see. Roughly on average I get 60 plus shots from the typical flint and often get many more. A flint will cost from $1.00 to $2.00 and a box of caps will cost $5.00 give or take with musket caps costing much more. At the very least I'll get 250 shots for the price of 100 shots with caps. Powder and lead cost the same for both so the flintlock wins hands down, cost wise.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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My least favorite flint are the English black. At one time, eons ago, they were fine. Today's are either so fat and humpy backed they don't stay in the jaws and have to be ground down before use. (I bought two diamon wheels for this task) Lately they have been breaking and I get very litte use from them. Best I ever used were the Gunter Stifter sawn flints from Germany. They last, and last, and last and.......
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I remember seeing somewhere where folks were soaking their flints in kerosene and/or olive oil to make them less brittle. Doesn't sound like it would be very conducive to making sparks, but some seem to swear by it. Sort of like some of the goofy sounding patch lubricants and cleaning solutions. If it works.....why not.
 
Posts: 332 | Location: South Coast (MS) | Registered: 16 September 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of roundball
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quote:
Originally posted by Pete G:
I remember seeing somewhere where folks were soaking their flints in kerosene and/or olive oil to make them less brittle.
Big Grin
In looking over various flint knapping sites I read one article about flint minng where as a large section of flint was broken off a jagged wall out splashed about a gallon of water from a little enclosed pocket. The water had been trapped in there for millons (?) of years and it didn't get absorbed anywhere.
So unless/until something new comes along, my personal belief is that something as dense as flint does not absorb anything.
Others mileage may vary of course...


Flintlock Rifles & Smoothbores
Hunt Like The Settlers
 
Posts: 1867 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: 28 January 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I did a google search on 'soaking flint' and found a flintknapping forum where several folks felt that soaking flint in water for a few days improved its workability. Doesn't seem like it should make a difference, but some people who regularly work flint believe it, so well and good and more power to them. Heat treating flint is another approach to improving its flaking properties (and its color). Keep in mind that soaking or heating flint might have advantages if you were producing an arrowhead or knife but be ruinous if you were trying to produce an edge for striking sparks in a flintlock. Unless you find somebody to ask who works flint in both disciplines, you're kind of guessing.


Here's a health to the King and a lasting Peace. May Faction end and Wealth increase....Old Loyalist Ballad
 
Posts: 767 | Location: Panhandle Florida | Registered: 02 February 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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quote:
Originally posted by SCLoyalist:
I did a google search on 'soaking flint' and found a flintknapping forum where several folks felt that soaking flint in water for a few days improved its workability. Doesn't seem like it should make a difference, but some people who regularly work flint believe it, so well and good and more power to them. Heat treating flint is another approach to improving its flaking properties (and its color). Keep in mind that soaking or heating flint might have advantages if you were producing an arrowhead or knife but be ruinous if you were trying to produce an edge for striking sparks in a flintlock. Unless you find somebody to ask who works flint in both disciplines, you're kind of guessing.
There are usually two camps / opposite assumptions & opinons on any issue...I'll just have to stay with the flint mining factual example where there are no assumptions / opinions, just the fact:
"The water had been trapped in there for millons (?) of years and it didn't get absorbed anywhere".
Smiler


Flintlock Rifles & Smoothbores
Hunt Like The Settlers
 
Posts: 1867 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: 28 January 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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At one time, on another forum a long, long time ago and far, far away, I posted that flint does not absorb water.
In fact I wrote to several geology professors at universities and the USGS. One professor said if soaked in water for 500 years, flint might absorb to one micron into the surface.
The owner of the forum was so infuriated with that because it challenged his belief he threw me off the forum.
The soaking in water/kerosene/olive oil thing is a myth.
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Some years back , Dixie had for sale , original English flints that they got from a sunken British supply ship . As I recall they were selling them at something like 5.00 for 3 and you got a certificate of authenticity .
So I figured I try 6 or 9 after all they had been under water for 200 years .
Personally didn’t find them to work any better then fuller flints . Back when fuller was still the one making the majority of English flints .
Still have around 500 of his flints in the cabinet.
Today I mainly use French ambers . The rifle I shoot the most likes them better then English flints

PS I average around 90-120 falls per flint , roughly
 
Posts: 687 | Location: Payette ,Idaho | Registered: 23 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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