42 JLrt of Making Gun-Flints . 
inches and one third in diameter. Its weight does not 
exceed twelve ounces, it is made of steel not hardened, 
and is fixed on a small handle six indies long, which 
passes through a square hole in its center. 
4. A chissel bevelled on both sides, seven or eight 
inches long, and two inches wide, of steel not harden- 
ed ; it is set on the block of wood which serves as a work 
bench, out of which it rises to the height of four or five 
inches. To these four instruments we may add a file, 
for the purpose of restoring the edge of the chissel from 
time to time. 
The process : 
After selecting a good mass of silex, the whole opera- 
tion may be divided into four manipulations. 
1. To break the block. The w orkman being seated 
on the ground, places the flint on his left thigh, and strikes 
it gently with the larger hammer, Fig. i. to divide it into 
portions according to its size, that is to say, of about a 
pound and a half each, with broad surfaces nearly fiat. 
He is careful not to crack or produce shakes in the flint 
by striking it too hard. 
2. To cleave the flint, or break it into scales. The 
principal operation of this art is to cleave the flint w ell : 
that is to say, to separate from it pieces of the length, 
thickness, and figure, adapted to be afterw ards fashioned 
into gun-flints ; and in this part the greatest degree of 
address, and certainty of manipulation are required. The 
stone has no particular direction in which it can be most 
easily broken. The course of its fracture depends en- 
tirely upon the choice of the workman. In this process 
he holds a piece of flint in his left hand, not supported, 
and strikes with the hammer, Fig. 2. on the broad faces 
produced by the first fracture, in. such a manner as to chip 
off the white coating of the stone in small scales, and to 
lay bare the silex in the manner represented, Fig. 5. ; 
