The earliest flintlock guns (that relied on a spark from flint hitting steel) were made in the early 17th century in France. By the time explorers were hitting the BC Coast, this was the primary type of gun used. The caplock gun was introduced in the early 1820s, but would not have made their way to western North America until years later. Gunflints were originally made of European flint and were imported relatively cheaply to North America. Gunflints were made using stone flaking technology that had been in use for about 2.5 million years - well a little more refined than the earliest ones - but for a VERY VERY LONG TIME. Because of this, it sometimes is hard to tell a gunflint from a stone tool like a scraper. I wonder how many gun flints are sitting in repositories named as scrapers or knife fragments? The first difference is usually the material - as mentioned, most gun flints came from Europe and the material is usually a waxy flint. The shape is a giveaway, too. When whole they are an irregular trapazoid shape with a flat base and a somewhat parallel flat facet on top. The edges will get use wear on them. The image below is a collection of gun flints from northwest Alberta.