Chert

[Gvilleddie]

Kind of recently, someone posted about a vendor that sold chert gun flints. I’ve looked around and can’t find the post. Can anybody help me out? Thx, E…

 

[BlazingIron]

This place sells chert that can be knapped into flints http://GoKnapping.com

 

[Rifleman1776]

Chert is flint. The only distinction is to how it is found in the earth. Flint, as we often know it, is usually found as nodules, sometimes in chalk pits. Chert is found embedded in the earth in many locations. I'll admit I have never found chert that we suitable for knapping into gun flints.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I’m going to be headed down into Texas in a couple weeks…I want to head down through eastern Kansas and Oklahoma.

Are there places along side the road one could stop and pick up chunks of flint?

Or are there good rock shops in the regions I’ll be passing through that might have sizable chunks of flint????

If you are not comfortable posting this to the open thread, PM me if there are such locations.

 

[Kansas Jake]

If you head south through Kansas on Kansas 99 Highway it will take you through the Flinthills and it is a pretty drive through ranch country. There would be many places where you could pick up flint along the road through cuts. I would suggest bringing a fire steel and hammer or better yet a very hard rock such as granite. If you find what appears to be decent flint knap off a piece and try to strike a spark. Look for knapped pieces that are shiny. They seem harder and knap sharper.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Here is an old nodule I found along the lake where we live north of Manhattan KS. I assume it was used by someone in the distant past to make flint tools. I’ve not tried to knap anything off of it because I don’t want to damage it. I’ve not found other flint like this one.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Yes, I noticed a lot along hiway 24 but just grabbed one. Some were bigger.

 

[Brazos John]

Yes, I noticed a lot along hiway 24 but just grabbed one. Some were bigger.

These look like what I would call river rocks. I found some in a low-water crossing of a small stream near the Colorado River in central Texas, but I haven't tried to chip them - I gave them to my wife for around landscape plants. Keeps the squirrels away from the roots.
What do good chert or flint stones look like in the wild? Like the rounded rocks in Phil's photo?

 

[Phil Coffins]

The nodal of chert is laying on river rocks, some places have it in flat layers but those don’t often knap well.

 

[ord sgt]

I have been in touch with two forum members. I will let them share their names. They have kindly sent some chert pieces, knapped down to flintlock sizes. So far, the chert that I have tried in my locks all spark very nicely. One piece broke. I have pieces in two different locks and yet have to wear them down to a nub.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

If you head south through Kansas on Kansas 99 Highway it will take you through the Flinthills and it is a pretty drive through ranch country. There would be many places where you could pick up flint along the road through cuts. I would suggest bringing a fire steel and hammer or better yet a very hard rock such as granite. If you find what appears to be decent flint knap off a piece and try to strike a spark. Look for knapped pieces that are shiny. They seem harder and knap sharper.

I have a rock hammer, I’ve taken the grand kiddos out a few times walking river banks looking for Flint, Agate, Jasper, etc. not very much to be found along the front range of Colorado.

 

[deerstalkert]

there is good chert in Texas as well as other locale's other than where i live!
i buy Georgetown Chert. it comes in a node, but when found in a river after some washing it looks different.
these pictures show what a node looks like. the chalky crust is called the matrix and is just the way the stuff forms. the dark core is what i knap flints of. just changed one off my TC Hawken. 72 shots, 3 sharpening's. the white flints are burlington. they work well also

 

[Brazos John]

I buy Georgetown Chert.

Thanks for the photos.
Is that from Georgetown, Texas, or is the name just a coincidence?
The Hill Country is mostly limestone, which is pretty soft, so I don't know if there is any Georgetown chert around there. I would love to find some in the wild.

 

[deerstalkert]

well you know i can't say for sure that it comes from Georgetown but the guy i get it from is there! Actually he is in Round Rock.
i will go out on a limb and say yes it is named for that locale.
Georgetown Chert is associated with the Georgetown Member of the Edwards A Formation of southern Texas. Occurring as nodules, lenses, and seams outcroppings occur in Williamson County and southern Bell County, Texas.
the Edwards Plateau is west of Austin and San Antonio.

those flints in the previous post are just rough shaped via percussion. when i need one for a certain rifle i pressure flake the edge sharp and size it for the specific lock.
getting 70+ shots makes that pile a lifetime supply!

 

[Brazos John]

... southern Bell County, Texas.

Thanks. Next time I get out that way, I'll see what I can find. I'll need to research how to get to that formation.
I have about a half ton of flat limestone rocks that I brought home, a dozen at a time, from a New Braunfels hilltop.
Any reason is a good reason to get out to the Hill Country.
Speaking of Bell County, my son married a Bell from the Bell County Bells, so my grandson has genuine Texas lineage, all the way back to San Jacinto!
I think that's so cool!!!
Sorry, I digress...
But, thanks for the chert info. There's so much to learn about flintlocks, and this is the place to learn.

 

[deerstalkert]

i'd bet there is some chert around the lakes just north of you Brazos. see a rock that looks like it has a chalk coat .... grab it!
was talking to a fella i used to get English flint from and he was about to cry. the best quarries his family had gotten their flint from for centuries had been developed and had houses built on them.

New Braunfels has chert.

 

[bldtrailer]

 

[deerstalkert]

oh! be still my beating heart. nice stuff there!

 

[Brazos John]

If you got that in Berks County, I was born in the Palmerton Hospital, and lived in Tamaqua. I wish I had known!
My Mom's father was an anthracite miner in Summit Hill, from the age of 9. 🕳 ⛏⚒
I wonder does anthracite coal spark? I won't use any of my samples, but if any other coal crackers have tried it in their locks, let us know.

 

[deerstalkert]

don't know as i have never tried coal for spark, but, thinking about i doubt it, or those poor sob's that mined it with picks would have burned themselves up. i have seen coal dust explode, or the results that is. responded to a train fire. coal car was a simmering mess on the track.
Wit's said there was a mushroom cloud above it like a nuke when it went off. bad bearing on the axle.