The French gunflint industries

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to provide the outline dimensions for one class of artifacts, French gunflints and the closely related strike-a-lights. Documentary sources are assembled in order to provide sufficient controls for experimental replication of fireflints which could lead to classification. Gunflints represent a unique situation, because they were a reapplication of ancient fire and steel techniques for the ignition of firearms. With antecedents in prehistoric times, fireflints became critical munitions items during the flintlock era, in addition to domestic fire production. With the coming of the industrial age, gunflints retained their importance by switching to worldwide colonial markets during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. In effect a fragmentary ''time capsulen has been preserved concerning the working of lithic materials . The economic history of French gunflint making can only be presented in outline form, because of the difficulties in obtaining information. Fortunately, the tools and manufacturing processes can be compared and contrasted, including available information for other “recent" flintworking. It is hoped that this paper can be useful for creating replicated decision model types for future experimentation relating to Bonnichsen's (1973) 5 overlapping levels of input and output attributes.