KeVd-8:1029 (Fort Selkirk I) This is a typical gunflint found at Hudson’s Bay Company fur trade posts during the mid-19th century. It is a glossy English chert that is dark grey in colour. This flint shows obvious signs of use, which can be seen around the edges. Gunflints are pieces of rock used to generate sparks to ignite gun powder in muskets (guns).
“Muskets had a metal piece called the flash pan that was mounted on the outside of the gun and held a small pile of gunpowder protected from wind and rain by a movable lid (a ‘frizzen’). When the trigger was pulled, the gunflint pushed the frizzen, opened the flash pan, and created a spark. A small explosion of gunpowder on the outside of the gun (the ‘flash in the pan’) was then sent through a hole to a larger load of powder inside the musket barrel. This explosion then launched the musket ball towards future food or enemies” (from Todd Kristensen, Flash in the Pan: The Archaeology of Gunflints in Alberta).
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