Knapping Flints 65 



rifle, and carbine. From the narrow point of his flake 

 the workman chips a diminutive flint for a pocket- 

 pistol, though not so many of these are required as of 

 a larger size for horse-pistols. But the flints most in 

 request are the neat and well-shaped ones used for 

 rifles, and the biggest, of all required for carbines. 

 There is also a continuous, though not a very con- 

 siderable, demand for strike-a-lights, meant for the 

 use of travellers and sportsmen who have had ex- 

 perience of damp matches. As each of these has its 

 own shape and size, which must be accurately repro- 

 duced, it will be seen that the knapper at the anvil has 

 a task demanding both skill and judgment. Yet its 

 execution has become so much a habit with him that 

 he talks and chips away as if by instinct. At every 

 sharp pop down drops a gun-flint, which he takes 

 in his hand and lets the hammer play round till the 

 sharp edges are blunted and the size made exactly 

 what is required. The speed at which he works may 

 be inferred from the fact that each man calculates 

 to turn out on an average three thousand a day. In 

 time of pressure a knapper has been known by 

 commencing very early in the morning and working 

 to a late hour at night to make nine thousand. But 

 that is deemed an extraordinary and prodigious day's 

 work. The employers as well as the men reckon that, 

 taking all the year round, a third of that number 

 represents the output of a man. This means about 

 twelve thousand a week, for it is an old custom in the 



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