Finding flint/chert

[bigted]

Well now I been thinking again. Thinkin bout finding and chippin flint/chert for my flinters. I can make the guns(kinda) make my powder but caps and flints got me dependant on others.

Which brings me to the point;

If a feller lived in Oregon(and I do) and wanted to cast around lookin for sparker stones (and again I do) and learn to chip em into something that I could tighten into the jaws of my flintlock and make her shoot like it do with the good ol English flints ... where in my area would a feller look?

Id purely like to get a bit independant with my flint acquisition without a middle man. Might just decide it be too much trouble ... however I would purely admire the thrill of pickin it up offa the ground ... chip it to proper form ... and prime my pan an fire it with my own hunted and refined fire stone.

Any hints?

 

[tenngun]

???
It grows wild here in the Ozarks, but I don’t know in the Pacific Northwest. Obsidian works great for tools, but I understand it won’t spark as it’s glass.
many tribes in precontact times in that area, coast and plateau used Neolithic stone polishing or napped obsidian. Obsidian even got traded across the country. Northwest obsidian has been found in the Mississippi and Ohio valley.
flint hills in Kansas was useing lots of chert/flint and lots in the Great Lakes. Indians were trading for it for a long time. It’s not found everywhere.

 

[Ponderosaman]

I’ve looked into this a little bit and don’t currently have a flinter, but there are plenty of things that will work though it would take some effort to find what you like and what works best. Quartz of different varieties is what flint is.

 

[necchi]

https://www.google.com/search?clien...XNrJ4KHQgNCYEQ1QIwHnoECCYQAQ&biw=1680&bih=897

 

[andy52]

As tenngun said here in Missouri just walk up a creek bed and you can pick up a 5 gal bucket full.
I do pick some up at times but I use it mainly for my fire starter kit.

 

[Daveboone]

Upstate NY is pretty devoid of flint. I understand that there is a vein of some low grade flint material not too far away, but it is a last choice of knappers. One of these days I need to wander over there and see if I can find some. Early Americans traded for thiers from elsewhere

 

[Treestalker]

Soak a couple of cotton floor mop strands in a potassium nitrate solution (black powder will work). Clamp one in the cocked jaws of your flintlock cock, light the end of it, and open the frizzen to expose your priming powder. Pull the trigger. Satisfaction guaranteed, and you just took off another 100 years! And saved money on flints!

 

[BillinOregon]

Lived most of my life in Oregon and never found any material I would want to try to knap into a gunflint. You might get something useful out of some of the cherts, but you might also have heat treat the heck out of it first.

 

[andy52]

Lived most of my life in Oregon and never found any material I would want to try to knap into a gunflint. You might get something useful out of some of the cherts, but you might also have heat treat the heck out of it first.

I live In the area of Missouri that was heavily populated by Native Americans finding artifacts is common. Worked flint is everywhere
including some that are pink due to it being heat treated.

 

[fiddler]

Soak a couple of cotton floor mop strands in a potassium nitrate solution (black powder will work). Clamp one in the cocked jaws of your flintlock cock, light the end of it, and open the frizzen to expose your priming powder. Pull the trigger. Satisfaction guaranteed, and you just took off another 100 years! And saved money on flints!

Dropping your hammer on an open pan is a good way to bust a main spring. Ask me how I know…..

 

[user 34300]

Dropping your hammer on an open pan is a good way to bust a main spring. Ask me how I know…..

You will probably bend your cock too.

Cotton sash cord makes excellent slow match material. Stump remover is a source of potassium nitrate. You can skip the potassium nitrate if you put a few granules of smokeless in the prime. Smokeless ignites at a lower temperature than black. Skipping the potassium nitrate makes the match burn much slower. I shot a match lock a lot when I was younger.

I imagine a lock that used wooden matches could be a solution when it all gets impossible to find.

 

[Hatchet-Jack]

If you find some you will need some large pieces or spalls.

I'm doing research on how to make gun flints, what tools etc. Here's what I have learned. There's not much in the way of pressure flaking in the technique to making gun flints. You need med to large spalls in order to break off long shards with the right shape along the back. This is done with a large hammer, antler or hammer stone. Once you have a shard you snap the sides off forming the gun Flint. So picking up small pieces won't work unless maybe you luck out and the piece is the shape of a gun Flint.

This guy uses the method I found in a few books.

 

[hanshi]

I did try an obsidian flint once. It sparked and fired a few times then stopped. Not worth the effort.

 

[nkbj]

Did a serious search about the interseine and didn't find diddly for flint outcroppings in Oregon.
If it was me in Oregon I'd pro'bly look for knap-ins.

 

[smo]

I just shot in a woods walk match a couple months ago where at the first target the instructions were too remove the flint from your lock and place it on the provided bench.

Then you were too locate and make your own, from rocks in the area..

I located a natural spall about 3/4”wide x 2” long snapped it in half and tighten it in the cock.

I walk too the line primed and had a miss fire with the fall of the cock.

I proceeded too wipe the flint once again ( it had rained the day before) on the 2 Nd throw it fired and hit the gong up the hill.

It didn’t count however, because in this match….. the fall of the hammer counts whether the gun fires or not….

 

[Hatchet-Jack]

I just shot in a woods walk match a couple months ago where at the first target the instructions were too remove the flint from your lock and place it on the provided bench.

Then you were too locate and make your own, from rocks in the area..

Wow that's a challenge. How did it go?

 

[smo]

Sorry look at the original post for the answer..

Plenty of good rocks in my area.

 

[1950DAVE]

SMO, quite a number of years ago one of the rangers at Russell Cave Park told me that native Americans traded in a superior flint used for arrowheads that came from the general area where you live. That is if my memory serves me well. I carried him some from Indian Camp Creek at a later date fromwhich he removed a large flake and proceded to produce a point. He said ir was similar to Dover flint, what ever that is.
Dave

 

[Cvkotvkse]

The non-obsidian knappable stone that I have seen utilized for points in Oregon was agate; I have seen these listed as "Columbia gem points." Agate is another variety of cryptocrystalline quartz, like chert or flint, and I believe it would spark well. We have archaeological examples of broken points of our agatized coral here in FL being used as "strike-a-lights" during the Colonial period; I suspect a suitable spall from an agate nodule would do the same... IF you want to sacrifice semi-precious gemstone material to do so. On the other hand, a stonecutter/polisher might pay you enough for that same nodule to buy a couple of years'-worth of commercial flints...

 

[Treestalker]

I imagine a lock that used wooden matches could be a solution when it all gets impossible to find.

This got me to thinking about the 'snapping' matchlocks that used a sliver of wood or -?- to ignite the pan powder. I believe this is what the Portuguese introduced to Japan around 1543. It used a milder mainspring; the Japanese used a brass spring; of course a flintlock mainspring would be overkill, lol. I thought the cord trick might be an alternative, but it looks like some alterations to the lock would have to be made. My post was made half in jest, but it could be done for and alternative. Just the crazy world we live in. Have a great day!