64 Spring 



made of thin layers that the workman has parted. 

 Anyone placing three gun-flints in a row with the 

 smooth side downwards will obtain a fairly accurate 

 idea of the shape. But there are knots, and twists, and 

 seams, and turns, in the grain that produce a great 

 variety in the peelings. To get them off like that is 

 a triumph of manual skill that cannot be achieved 

 except by those who have practised it a long time. 

 Flint-cores, such as are left by the knapper when his 

 flaking is done, have been found in circumstances 

 that seem to point to their survival from the Stone 

 age. 



The second operator sits with a tubful of flakes at 

 his elbow, a tiny steel anvil three or four inches long 

 in front of him, and a peculiar hammer in his hand. 

 In shape it is something like a miniature pick, only 

 its chisel-like face is nearly two inches long. Years 

 of practice have enabled him, when he takes a flint- 

 peeling in his hand, to decide instantaneously what can 

 be made of it. The exporter of gun -flints desires to 

 have many different kinds to suit the various sorts 

 of weapons. There are in all twenty-three different 

 kinds of flint made, but it requires some ingenuity to 

 stretch them out so far. For instance, to make up 

 the list you have grey muskets and black muskets, 

 where difference is not at all in the workmanship but 

 in the alleged quality of the flint. Setting aside 

 minor kinds, the main classes of flint are for the 

 common gun, the pocket and horse pistols, the musket, 



