Hobbies And Interests
Flints
One of the simplest homemade tools for flintlock muzzleloaders is a homemade flint. Colonial-era hunters always knapped their own flints, and modern hunters can too. Choose a piece of flint that is clear of chalky inclusions. Break the flint into roughly the right size, and shape the blank by pressure flaking. The best tool for this is a pointed antler tine, or a short piece of copper wire set into a wooden handle. Hold the flint in a piece of leather in your left hand, and use your right hand to press tiny flakes of flint off the blank until the correct wedge-like shape is achieved.
Leather Accessories
Once you've made your own flints, storing them in a store-bought pouch would be a shame. A little scrap leather and some basic sewing skills are all you need to make your own leather pouch for holding flints. If you use a percussion firearm, the same leather pouch can hold your percussion caps and capper, and a similar leather pouch can hold your shot and sabots.
Powder Horn
Hunters have made their own powder flasks for centuries. The earliest powder flasks were powder horns, made of hollowed-out cow horns and often decorated with scrimshaw. A cow horn can be acquired from a local meat-packing plant. Trim the flanged base from the horn, and sand away the brittle scale that coats the lower part of the horn's surface. Drill the spout hole through the point of the horn, and shape a wooden plug to fill the open base of the horn. After gluing the plug into place, shape a removable plug to fit the spout hole. The finished powder horn can be decorated with carving, paint or scrimshaw. Note that a homemade powder horn should be combined with a store-bought powder to ensure correct loading and safety.
Ball Starters and Ramrods
Ball starters and ramrods are both simple tools that can be easily handmade. A ball starter is a very simple tool -- nothing more than a piece of wood with a 1/2-inch projection to seat the bullet and a 4-inch short starter to start the bullet in the bore.
A commercial ball starter is usually a wooden sphere with brass-capped projections, but a homemade ball starter can be much simpler and still get the job done. A simple ball starter may be nothing more that a small hardwood handle drilled to accept two hardwood dowels: one short and the other longer. The dowels can be capped with discarded brass .45 casings or even left plain.
The ramrod is even simpler; it is a strong hardwood dowel or metal rod capped in brass. A homemade ramrod can be customized to your specifications -- for example, by adding a T-handle to make ramming easier or adding a screw-adapter to one end to attach cleaning accessories or your ball borer.
The Whole Package
If you have the necessary skills and an adventurous mindset, the ultimate homemade muzzleloader accessory is the muzzleloader itself. Building a muzzleloading firearm from scratch is dangerous and illegal in many places, but a number of companies sell kits in various stages of completion. Crafting the wooden stock and assembling your own muzzleloading musket or rifle allows you to customize the gunstock to your exact specifications.