The left lock EATS flints from frizzen rebound. If you look at the right lock profile in the photo above, you can see the feather-spring roller pretty much bottomed in the "valley" (for lack of a better term) between the cam and the tail. On the left lock, the roller only only goes partway into the "valley" and the angle of the cam at contact produces a HARD rebound every time, and the heel strikes on or close to the edge of the flint. It's a design/manufacturing problem - you can see the same difference in the left and right lock illustrations in the ToTW catalog. It may be that subtle differences in individual locks as assembled may make a major difference in how significant the rebound is in the left locks. To prevent flint breakage in MY lock, I have to use thick flints with the most obtuse angles of the edge, set to just barely clear of the frizzen face at half-####, but then I can't use a hammer-stall (I haven't tried sheet brass stalls yet) and these flints are a pain to resharpen either by pressure flaking or with a diamond lap. Because ignition is excellent and I have a work-around, I've been loath to reshape the cam but I suspect that I may eventually do so. The only other thing that has worked is to use a thin lead sheet on top of the flint (wrapped transversely around the flint to keep it in place) set almost to the edge to cushion the blow from the frizzen, but I don't particularly care for lead flint wraps.
<edit> I had forgotten that this difference in my locks also can be seen more subtly in the rest positions of the frizzens in the top view - the left one is one is slightly further forward.
Regards,
Joel
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