Chert

[deerstalkert]

Nice video. Now if you can get them to send me some samples...say a gunnysack full.........

road trip! a gunnysack full would only wet my appetite!

 

[Justin.44]

my wife calls knapping, "making sand the hard way". but when the gods smile, the planets align, Scorpio is in Gemini, and the effort all comes together, i can produce something that makes me smile. others may just shrug, but i treasure it. wish i lived where there was chert just laying about!

Hey deerstalkert, this stuff here is all over in the woods behind my house here in MO. I don't know much about flint or chert, and I don't shoot a flint gun (yet) but it looks to me like it might be something usable. What do you think? I busted some up while I was looking for morels the other day and took these pics.

 

[deerstalkert]

looks like burlington chert to me. that is nice stuff.
strike some down the spine of a knife blade (carbon steel) and i bet it will shower sparks.

 

[Justin.44]

looks like burlington chert to me. that is nice stuff.
strike some down the spine of a knife blade (carbon steel) and i bet it will shower sparks.

Thanks! I'll try it tonight.

 

[deerstalkert]

Thanks! I'll try it tonight.

Justin44, you could sell that just like the lead! i'd buy some!

 

[Justin.44]

Justin44, you could sell that just like the lead! i'd buy some!

I'd pack up a flat rate box and send it for the cost of shipping, pm me if you want some.

 

[Cvkotvkse]

Collecting Flint
Here I am, in Texas visiting my son as he starts his new job. Wow what an amazing area.

My wife is fairly supportive of my crazy ideas. We drove around the Georgetown/Leander area looking at road cuts and construction sites looking for flint.

View attachment 136455
I probably collected about 40-50lbs of flint. It’s hard to find the dark grey high quality knappable flint. I did find some…

This has been a fun

Collecting Flint
Here I am, in Texas visiting my son as he starts his new job. Wow what an amazing area.

My wife is fairly supportive of my crazy ideas. We drove around the Georgetown/Leander area looking at road cuts and construction sites looking for flint.

View attachment 136455
I probably collected about 40-50lbs of flint. It’s hard to find the dark grey high quality knappable flint. I did find some…

This has been a fun trip. Great people, wonderful community

With Georgetown flint, even the gray stuff is VERY high quality!

 

[bldtrailer]

test for chert >>>-->take a glass bottle if chert it will scratch it , then if it does take a file using the smooth edge and strike a sharp edge of your rock if hard chert it should spark

 

[Fitzhugh Williams]

I used to work at a paleoindian archaeological site at a chert quarry on the Savannah River. Some of the others there could make a beautiful Clovis point, but when they tried to make a gun flint for me, it was only marginally successful. They are two very different concepts of flint knapping.

 

[M. De Land]

Pre
I used to work at a paleoindian archaeological site at a chert quarry on the Savannah River. Some of the others there could make a beautiful Clovis point, but when they tried to make a gun flint for me, it was only marginally successful. They are two very different concepts of flint knapping.

I knap both gun flints and arrow points. The shapes are different but the techniques to make the shapes are the same. I make my gun flints from flakes rather than blades. The reason is to eliminate the hump backs which blade produced flints of necessity must have.
I like and use indirect percussion mostly now days and finish with pressure flaking using copper and mild steel pointed tools. Pressure flaking is so superior to make and sharpen flint edges that I most highly recommend all take the time to learn how to do so.

 

[stewart.leach]

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.

Look up chert in Colorado on the net. Most easily worked deposits are on the far side of the divide. I have found good stone in the Sand Wash Basin in Moffat County. While there check out the wild horses.

More than a few years ago on an antelope hunt I stopped for lunch near a spring just south of Moss Agate Ridge in the Shirley Basin in Carbon County, WY. I soon realized I was not the first hunter to have paused there- debitage- flakes- was all around. Took some of the stone home to a knapper- he liked it and asked for more.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Look up chert in Colorado on the net. Most easily worked deposits are on the far side of the divide. I have found good stone in the Sand Wash Basin in Moffat County. While there check out the wild horses.

More than a few years ago on an antelope hunt I stopped for lunch near a spring just south of Moss Agate Ridge in the Shirley Basin in Carbon County, WY. I soon realized I was not the first hunter to have paused there- debitage- flakes- was all around. Took some of the stone home to a knapper- he liked it and asked for more.

I am well acquainted with both those areas.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Finally have time to mess around with the flint I collected down in Texas. After whacking a chunk of flint…here is what I was able to form in about 10 minutes. And the leading edge is amazingly sharp.

So I’ll be messing around with this today. I’ll let you know how it goes…

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I have to admit…I’m learning a lot about taking bigger rocks and making them into smaller rocks.

Bandaids are also pretty nice to have around

Some limited progress has been made. I don’t think it’s been bad…I’m having fun, enjoying the conversation, and making a few useable flints. Not sure how many shots I’d get from them, but useable just the same

The work area. I’m definitely making more waste than actual product.

 

[springfield art]

View attachment 134232
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.

This thing looks like it should be in a museum! Probably right, ancients must have used for tools, etc. Nice photo!

 

[springfield art]

View attachment 142587
I have to admit…I’m learning a lot about taking bigger rocks and making them into smaller rocks.

Bandaids are also pretty nice to have around

View attachment 142589
Some limited progress has been made. I don’t think it’s been bad…I’m having fun, enjoying the conversation, and making a few useable flints. Not sure how many shots I’d get from them, but useable just the same

Please wear a mask. Invisible aerosol-borne flakes inhaled can cause tiny glass-like cuts in the lungs many years later. I have to hand it to you, I wouldn't have the patience to try this, but some guys seem to have a natural talent. Good Luck!

 

[Kansas Jake]

Those look like workable flints. Nice job. Also recommend a mask and safety glasses. I would need to wear leather gloves too due to blood thinners. A few of those nicks and I’d bleed out.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Please wear a mask. Invisible aerosol-borne flakes inhaled can cause tiny glass-like cuts in the lungs many years later. I have to hand it to you, I wouldn't have the patience to try this, but some guys seem to have a natural talent. Good Luck!

Eye protection and face masks both

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Those look like workable flints. Nice job. Also recommend a mask and safety glasses. I would need to wear leather gloves too due to blood thinners. A few of those nicks and I’d bleed out.

Not Pretty…but useable. Who knows, another couple years…I might actually be almost proficient at this…

 

[HighUintas]

There is a lot of chert and agate in Utah. I have a good little pile of agate in my garage waiting to be busted up.

Any of you geologists or rock hounds know the technical difference between agate and chert? I think I have seen someone say agate is harder and eats up frizzens faster.