Gun Flint

spot

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Good afternoon,

Pictured is an un-used gunflint as would be used to provide the spark when the hammer holding it struck the frizzen of a flintlock rifle or pistol to ignite the powder in the pan and then through a small hole in the breech of the barrel to ignite the main charge and cause the gun to fire. These are not terribly unusual except that all the ones I have ever seen were worn out and had been discarded I'm sure. They become narrow and have a triangular shape when they are exhausted. They were formed by flint knappers who used soft steel hammers to "chip" them out in the late 1600's through the 1700's or even longer.

This particular gunflint is unusual in the sense that the flint is from France according to the late Greg Perino. He said that it would have been imported by boat to supply some French trading posts during the time periods mentioned above. These trading posts provided supplies to fur traders and trappers and also to local Native Americans in exchange for hides, bear fat, etc.

I recovered this inside the city limits of my city on a small bluff overlooking an old bayou that has now been channelized with concrete. There were a few homes being built on this little bluff and I found a few sherds, a broken point or two and this. The gunflint was 150 yards from the other items and was recovered with no supporting material.

Thanks for looking,

spot
 

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Cool! Here is a flint I found not 50 feet from my back door in a washed out bank.
 

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I found a small gunflint the exact same color in Tensas Parish LA.

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I also found this one at a separate site in the same parish.

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Interesting. I don't think i've ever found one. but then again I wouldn't have known if I did.

Cool find.

StevenX
 

Nice, I have one as well but no pictures of it. The honey colored ones are French flint and I believe the darker ones are German, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Nice Gun Flints though guys. I'll have to get a picture of mine and get it on here.
 

Afternoon,

Yep...the yellow flint is from France. I found two of those things in a site near where I work. Didnt know what they were and wrongly thought they were of indian manufacture. An archaeologist from the local University here set me straight. Very neat little artifacts.

HH,

Atlantis
 

Good afternoon,

Well, I was surprised and pleased at the same time to see some other posters had found some really nice gun flints that are obviously in unused condition. Way to go!

Also, the one from Tensas Parish being the same material was very cool to see and then there is the poster who has found two of these of the same material right here in Louisiana also.

Thanks to all for your photographs and written contributions.


spot
 

Hi... cool topic and nice finds. Here's what I THINK is a crude gun flint. It's flint and is worked into that distinctive rectangle. Judging from the site it could be either Indian or colonial.
BTW, I've heard the "honey" flints were French (used by Americans in the Rev War) and the black flints were British. I don't know how accurate that could be but that's the "rule of thumb" I heard. (Mine is black but I think it's a locally made piece.)
 

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Great information and cool pics of those Ohio finds. I didn't know that they were produced in this form.

Thanks for sharing,

spot
 

I'm glad this post was started, I haven't even thought about the possibility of finding gun flints. I'll have to keep a close eye out from here out. I appreciate y'all sharing.
 

Anyone know where my grey flint is from?
 

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Ohio_Doug said:
Anyone know where my grey flint is from?
All this talk about Britain and France really would just apply to "manufactured" high-quality flints that were imported and would likely be found on battlefields and such.
Probably most flints in America were made by local people of local materials. I'd guess yours fits that description (mine, too). So, my answer would be: it probably originated within a few miles of wherever you found it.
 

MarkDz said:
Probably most flints in America were made by local people of local materials. I'd guess yours fits that description (mine, too). So, my answer would be: it probably originated within a few miles of wherever you found it.

On this point I will disagree... On the crudely made pieces, which the one from Ohio might represent I believe is of local manufacture. The honey flint and several of the darker pieces are definitely of European manufacture. The evidence is in the method of manufacture of the gunflint. To make a high quality flint, a proper nodule of flint is necessary. Blades are struck from this nodule, from which 5 or 6 gunflints can be made.

Trade in muskets and flints is well documented in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. There are no major sources of flint material high enough quality and large enough size to manufacture in the European style. Perhaps some could have been made from Georgetown Tx material, but this would have been unknown to those in the Mississippi valley.

As for battlefield material, I doubt people changed flints during battle. The process requires too much concentration to secure the flint, and this would have been done in camp prior to any action. By the time the Civil war came around, very few people were using flintlocks for any length of time. The pieces I found came from plantations settled in the early 1820s.
 

Morning,

I would have never believed that this thread woul;d have received this much interest and I'm glad ity did because I've learned a lot reading the posts of others.

Some of the photos posted are superb, especially the close ups of the "flints" and of the actual flintlock rifle with the flint in place.

Thanks to all for sharing so much,

spot
 

this is the only one i have ever found ,same field as the lead pendant and bead
Picture001.jpg
 

found these detecting
 

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