Flintlocks

alco, you asked,

"Is there a way to resharpen the ends on a cut flint ???"

Gunflints sawed or knapped are both sharpen able. Developing the skill isn't so easy. I generally resharpen flints in the jaw of the hammer with pressure flaking and shearing. The principles and mechanics of that need understanding and experience to do well   First efforts generally fail badly.

I use a whitetail antler tine about 6" long. Not a sun bleacked pickup antler but a hard fresh one not a weathered one. Sharpen the tip to a rounded point with sandpaper to a 1/4" radius. You will use this like a push knife tool so it should fit your hand easily to use as  tool. I push the point directly on the part of the edge I want to start, Push in toward the middle of the flint  with the tine held in that line. Then simultaneously increase pushing into and pushing down 90 degrees.  About of half of your maximum arm strength should be needed to take flakes at all. A flake will tear off. With experience you will control the size of the flakes but that is the basics of resharpening a flint by "pressure flaking". A well executed flake when sharpening a gun flint looks teardrop shaped and about 1/4" long and pointed where your pressure flake tool push started the tear.

The edge can also be sharpened by shearing on the edge of the frizzen or with a simple shearing tool. A 1" wide steel paint scraper makes a good simple shear. Hold the scraper by the blade with only 1/2"  extended past your thumb tip and forefinger pinching the blade like a big key you are going to turn. A shear is used by holding the flat edge against the flint edge, pushing straight into the rock and rotating one end of the blade down  a little like a scissor does to shear off bits of flint. With practice, you can sharpen and straighten the flint edge. I learned shearing on the frizzen well for hunting necessity. It can be learned and there are YouTube videos on the subject.  Both using the frizzen or the paint scraper method are just a matter of practice figuring how much arm power to use to get the stone to shear gradually into a new edge. Using the frizzen as a shearing tool right on the rifle to touch up a flint is total AMERICANA and invented by Americans. ...find a video, it is hard to understand from just words, But I hope I have helped. I don't even think about it when I am doing it as I have been doing it for 60 years.

Important to remember is that after you flake or shear a nice new straight edge, loosen your jaw and reset the flint position to your new edge.

Watch whole thing, there is a short part on using the frizzen as I do for a field touch up in this video.  The flaking method he shows is poor, this guy is not a flint knapper, but he makes it work:

Gary