Bucket of rocks

[dlpowell]

I got a bucket of Kentucky flint. Mostly 2 and 3 lb. pieces. Outside of busting 'em up for fire starting. I don't have a clue what to do with them. Kentucky flint any good for gun flints?

 

[ameling]

I don't happen to know how "good" Kentucky flint is for various things. But, in theory, any "flint" could work for gun flints. The "quality" of the flint would determine how easy it is to knapp them out, and how long they might last.

Rich Pierce from St. Louis knapps out gun flints from a white flint he finds in his area. And they work very well as gun flints - altho they are kind of hard to knapp into shape. He wrote an excellent article on knapping gun flints in the August/September 2007 Vol. 14 No. 4 issue of On The Trail Magazine. It has many good pictures and drawings of how to knapp them out to shape, and a good description of that process along with finding flint in your own area that might work.

He started his "search/research" from the point of view of a person out on the frontier far away from any re-supply, who needed some more gun flints and decided to try to make some for himself from flint he found. So his gun flints are not as even/finished/consistant in size/shape as ones by the big English gun flint makers like Tom Fuller, but they are still very good. And his prices are better.

Historically, his flints are a little easier to fit into the Middlewaters of the Illinois country. Many gun flints were shipped into the area along with all the other trade goods, but it would/could have been a local "cottage industry" for the areas around the fort and settlements of Kaskaskia ang Fort de Chartres where a lot of hunters operated out of.

There's also a little book all about making gun flints if you are really interested in the process and the whole "industry" of it.

The Manufacture of Gunflints
by Sydney B. J. Skertchly, F.G.S.
London, 1879 - reprinted in 1984 as part of the Historical Arms Series
isbn 0-919316-86-7

Rich's article in On The Trail will really help you. Check it out.

As for general flint knapping, look for a copy of the book Art of Flintknapping. And there are a number of videos out there also. A web search for "flint knapping" should lead you to them. Even evil-bay has books/videos listed.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[pichou]

If it is at all grainy or dull when you chip it, it will not work well. I think you need a smooth "grain" and a hardness that is between obsidian (too hard and brittle) and grainy or soft stuff that won't work up a edge.

There are two kinds of "white." Hydration rinds are weathering. Some say this is bad for flint making, some say it doesn't matter. There is also white chert. If you put white chert in the fire, it will come out harder and will be a conch shell pink. You have to put it in the fire after you have made things, not before.

I'm guessing yours is dark grey brown. If it chips smooth and has the same amount of gloss (+- "satin finish" ) as gun flints it will probably be fine.