To flute or not to flute? - Page 2

Dwight Gruber · 03-14-2017, 12:33 PM

After the fluted firing pin was introduced, an instruction was published that non-fluted firing pins currently in service were to be modified with the fluting. Don't have the documentation at hand.

--Dwight

4 Scale · 03-14-2017, 05:10 PM

Dwight’s post motivated me to check my references and I discovered the following:

Gortz & Sturgess p.1115-1117 states that the primary or stated purpose of the flutes was to allow accumulated residue a means of travel away from the face of the firing pin. The thinner middle of the FP is intended to reduce friction and provide a “dirt trap”; the flutes provide a channel to the trap. It states that build-up of foreign material (absent the flutes) on a FP face could dampen the forward motion of the firing pin, so the flutes were primarily intended to make ignition more reliable. The section also mentions the flutes as providing an escape channel for gas in the event of a blown primer, but states that this was a secondary purpose.

A Reichswehr directive of 9/17/30 ordered the flutes added to all firing pins in official inventory. Grinding wheels or files of 2.5mm were used to add the flutes; new production from the factory then included the flutes through the end of production in 1942.

I can attest that the center section of the firing pin does indeed serve as a debris trap, even on non-fluted pins. I recently purchased a 1906 model American Eagle that included a non-fluted firing pin. There was so much dried residue on the thinner middle section of the FP that it would barely move. At the time I cleaned the pistol, I marveled at the debris quantity and why it chose to collect on the middle of the firing pin. Thanks to this thread, mystery solved.

unitedcs · 05-28-2017, 10:10 AM

Don't mean to step on this thread but had a question about fluted pins. Don mentioned that "the Germans made it all the way from 1900 to 1930 without grooved striker" When were fluted pins introduced? Could I assume that a numbered fluted pin in a mid 20's DWM commercial would not be original to the gun ?

03-14-2017, 05:10 PM	#22
4 Scale User Join Date: Nov 2014 Posts: 544 Thanks: 194 Thanked 489 Times in 251 Posts	Dwight’s post motivated me to check my references and I discovered the following: Gortz & Sturgess p.1115-1117 states that the primary or stated purpose of the flutes was to allow accumulated residue a means of travel away from the face of the firing pin. The thinner middle of the FP is intended to reduce friction and provide a “dirt trap”; the flutes provide a channel to the trap. It states that build-up of foreign material (absent the flutes) on a FP face could dampen the forward motion of the firing pin, so the flutes were primarily intended to make ignition more reliable. The section also mentions the flutes as providing an escape channel for gas in the event of a blown primer, but states that this was a secondary purpose. A Reichswehr directive of 9/17/30 ordered the flutes added to all firing pins in official inventory. Grinding wheels or files of 2.5mm were used to add the flutes; new production from the factory then included the flutes through the end of production in 1942. I can attest that the center section of the firing pin does indeed serve as a debris trap, even on non-fluted pins. I recently purchased a 1906 model American Eagle that included a non-fluted firing pin. There was so much dried residue on the thinner middle section of the FP that it would barely move. At the time I cleaned the pistol, I marveled at the debris quantity and why it chose to collect on the middle of the firing pin. Thanks to this thread, mystery solved. Last edited by 4 Scale; 03-14-2017 at 08:48 PM.

05-28-2017, 10:10 AM	#23
unitedcs User Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: Land O Lakes, Florida Posts: 90 Thanks: 8 Thanked 30 Times in 15 Posts	When were fluted pins introduced Don't mean to step on this thread but had a question about fluted pins. Don mentioned that "the Germans made it all the way from 1900 to 1930 without grooved striker" When were fluted pins introduced? Could I assume that a numbered fluted pin in a mid 20's DWM commercial would not be original to the gun ?

03-14-2017, 12:33 PM	#21
Dwight Gruber User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,902 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1,318 Times in 431 Posts	After the fluted firing pin was introduced, an instruction was published that non-fluted firing pins currently in service were to be modified with the fluting. Don't have the documentation at hand. --Dwight