44 
Jlri of Making Gun-Flints . 
face upon the edge of the chissel, which is supported 
with the fore-finger of the left hand, at the same time 
that a small blow or two is given above the point of sup- 
port with the Roulette, Fig. 3. by which the stone breaks 
exactly along the edge of the chissel, as if it had been 
cut. In this manner the sides and posterior edge of the 
stones are made. 
4. The stone being thus reduced to its proper figure, 
the finishing operation consists in completing its edge in 
a strait line. For this purpose the stone is turned, and 
the under flat part of the edge is placed on the chissel, 
in which situation it is completed by five or six small 
strokes with the Roulette. 
The whole operation of fashioning a gun-flint is per- 
formed in less than one minute. 
A good workman can prepare a thousand good chips 
or scales in a day, if his flints be of good quality, and 
he can also fashion five hundred gun-flints in a day ; con- 
sequently in three days he will cleave and finish a thou- 
sand gim-flints without further assistance. 
This manufacture leaves a great quantity of refuse; 
that is to say, about three-fourths of the whole stone. For 
there are not more than half the scales which prove to be 
well figured, and nearly half the mass in the best flints 
is incapable of being chipped out : so that it seldom hap 
pens that the largest piece will afford more than fifty gun- 
flints. The larger pieces of refuse are sold for the culi- 
nary purpose of striking a light. 
The gun-flints when completed are sorted out, and sold 
at different prices, according to their degrees of perfec- 
tion, from 4 to 6 decimes (or pence) the hundred. 
They are classed into fine flints and common flints ; and 
according to their application into flints for pistols, fowl- 
ing pieces, anti muskets. 
The fabrication and commerce of gun-flints in France 
