A Flash In The Pan…Or Not.

Click here to read the original posting.

Peter Steiner.The New Yorker on July 5, 1993

Swapping yarns can be addictive, especially when many of us were/are alone at home with time on our hands and opinions to be posted. Hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet, I feel emboldened to share my many years of shooting experience with the entirety of the World Wide Web. However, always remember one of my favorite quotes:

"On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog"

The subject of flintlocks was brought to the front by an inquiry made by a blogsite reader. He was interested in getting into flintlocks and asked for some advice on where to begin.

For those of you who have not been seduced by the Dark Side (black powder shooting), there is an eclectic collection of expressions used to describe some common, and unwelcome, outcomes that sometimes follow that careful press of the trigger. To wit:

Klatch is the sound made when a flintlock fails to ignite the priming powder. Dull flints and dirty frizzen surfaces are the usual causes.  Also, a heavy accumulation of powder residue can build up on the flint, often to the point where this hardened crud can prevent the flint from contacting the frizzen. There is an old expression, "Lick your flints", that acknowledges the problems caused by crusty flints.* When this happens:

• Keep your gun pointed in a safe direction and place at half-cock.
• Brush away the old priming powder as a precaution. A stiff-bristled brush should be part of every flinter's basic tool kit.
• Check to see that your flint is securely clamped in the jaws of the cock (hammer).
• Check the sharpness of the flint. Knap (sharpen it) it if it's real flint, or replace it if it's an agate flint.
• Wipe the face of the frizzen with you thumb. Wipe the cover surface of the frizzen with your brush.
• Re-prime with fresh powder and start again.

Flash In The Pan is when a spark ignites the priming powder, but fails to ignite the main charge. When this happens:

• Keep your gun pointed in a safe direction and place at half cock.
• Brush away the old priming powder as a precaution. A stiff-bristled brush should be part of every flinter's basic tool kit.
• Use your vent pick to push away unburned powder residue that may be blocking the vent. You should be able to feel grains of powder as you push the pick through the vent.
• Check to see that your flint is securely clamped in the jaws of the cock (hammer).
• Wipe the face of the frizzen with you thumb. Wipe the cover surface of the frizzen with your brush.
• Re-prime with fresh powder and start again.

Hangfire describes the situation when the priming powder is ignited, but the main charge is not. When this happens:

• Keep your gun pointed in a safe direction and place at half cock. Take a deep breath and count to 10 because the gun could go off at any moment. Really. It happened to me. The rifle, pointed in a safe direction, discharged on the 5-count.
• Brush away the old priming powder as a precaution. A stiff-bristled brush should be part of every flinter's basic tool kit.
• Use your vent pick to push away unburned powder residue that may be blocking the vent. You should be able to feel grains of powder as you push the pick through the vent.
• Check to see that your flint is securely clamped in the jaws of the cock (hammer).
• Wipe the face of the frizzen with you thumb. Wipe the pan cover surface of the frizzen with your brush.
• Re-prime with fresh powder and start again.

In all three of these cases, safety cannot be over-emphasized. Modern metallic cartridges have made the misfire both rare and easily remedied. Shooting muzzle loaders strips away the modern safety "firewalls" and exposes us to the real hazards black powder shooters must deal with.

Flint! Golfers yell "Four" before swinging. Flinters yell "Flint!" before firing. This is a warning that a flintlock is about to be fired. This is important because:

• Standing beside a firing flintlock in an invitation to be blasted by hot gases escaping from the vent hole, so flinters should always be on the right side of any shooting party unless the shooter has a true, left-handed flintlock, and
• You need to be aware that a misfire, hang fire, or klatch may result.

Priming Powder: Most flinters us 4F powder to prime their pans. It is the finest granulation you can get, and is said to ignite easily, a critical factor. A variety of priming devices made from brass or horn,  are available from a variety of sources.

Bucking The Trend: When I started to get serious about my historical correctness, I gave up on priming with 4F because there were (apparently) no historical references proving that anybody actually used 4F, or if 4F was actually available. So choosing authenticity over custom, I primed with the 3F I normally carried in my main horn. 

Anecdotally, priming with 3F seems to be more reliable during humid weather. I proved this to my own satisfaction during the Stone Cellar's Rendezvous many years ago. I was invited to join shooters from the Santa Cruz Muzzle Loaders, a bunch of serious flinters. While shooting, they were all experiencing klatches, while my ignition was positive throughout. I had been led to believe 3F had a coating of graphite that made it less prone to moisture absorption, and subsequently looked high and low for somebody who could verify this theory. Instead, I found some contributions on the Muzzleloading Forum from a member who goes by "Zonie", and picked two of his explanations. Emphasis is mine.

October 3, 2003

"...My conclusion is that 4F Black Powder can maintain it's explosive, easily lit nature after being subjected to over 20 hours of 100 percent humidity if it is in a clean pan or even in a opened can or keg.

If the powder is in a previously powder fouled pan it can and will absorb the additional water the fouling absorbs from the air making it useless for priming.

Although the small vent hole limits the amount of air circulating inside a loaded gun barrel, I would expect a main powder charge to also be contaminated with moisture if left in a fouled gun overnight in a very humid environment..."

October 4. 2003

“...I know a lot of you Flintlock shooters wipe your pans after you've made a shot but based on my findings, I just thought I might remind folks that the underside of the frizzen (the pan cover) needs to be wiped too.

If fact, it may be the most critical area to wipe as it is right next to the top of the priming so moisture that collects on it will collect right where it will do the most damage. :hmm:”

I think I am ready to revise my thinking and rely on a clean pan AND frizzen/pan cover to encourage more reliable ignition. The "waterproof" 3F vs. 4F powder theory couldn't be proven, but everything Zonie said make sense.

Feathers: Mark Baker, in one of his videos, commented on how frequently feathers were found in the patchboxes of antique flint longrifles. Through years of experiencial archelogy (re-living history), he surmised that just before retiring, the longhunter would insert the quill end into the touch hole, and close the frizzen to keep in in place. This way, anybody seeing the rifle would know it was loaded, but not primed, while the quill kept moisture for affecting the powder charge.

I hope this series of posts proves that there is more to shooting a flintlock than meets the eye. The obvious conclusion is that you should keep the pan and the frizzen surfaces clean and dry, and your flints sharp and secure.

Woof!**



* Lick your flint and try again: Start over. In the days of “long rifles,” when the flint failed to strike fire and set off the powder charge, the way to insure (sic) a fat spark was to dampen the flint with the tongue and pull the trigger again. Wilder, Jr., Roy. You All Spoken Here. Brown Thrasher Books. Publication date unknown.

** And you thought I was a dog!