Flint Life

[kodiakmarine]

I have no idea what you said Joel, but it sure sounds convincing!

 

[kodiakmarine]

Whenever muzzleloaders talk flints the sparks fly :haha: . Sorry, I just could not resist that.

 

[roundball]

I don't profess to know anything about flint...just tossing out a finding, not challenging anything in this thread.
In searching / reading various articles about flint / flint knapping a few years ago, I specifically searched out some dealing with whether or not 'flint' absorbed water because someone had posted they kept their Fuller black English flints stored in a jug of water so they wouldn't dry out.

In just the searching I did on and off over a few day period, I came across at least 2 articles (more than 1) about flint mining that mentioned when breaking into a large section of flint, they observed a gallon or two of water come pouring out of a void or pocket, apparently locked in there since that section of flint was formed lord knows how long ago.

 

[jerrywh]

Yeah. We do have a strange sence of humor. But we love to hear from you Englishmen. The concept of flint having retained water sounds very probable to me because of the fact that opal does also and flint and opal are similar in nature. I think by the time we get the flints over here thay are probably pretty stable even if they might have had a moisture problem originally.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Yeah. We do have a strange sence of humor. But we love to hear from you Englishmen. The concept of flint having retained water sounds very probable to me because of the fact that opal does also and flint and opal are similar in nature. I think by the time we get the flints over here thay are probably pretty stable even if they might have had a moisture problem originally.

Now, we need to go off on the tangent about heating flint to make them......uh.....hot? :stir:

 

[tg]

From most of the knowledgable folks with experience and a study of flint suggest that after the flint has been knapped to its usable form the moistutre issue is moot. There should be no need to store flints in liquid, though they likley would not "absorb" enough to cause freeze cracking. Joel hit it pretty well overall I believe.

 

[jerrywh]

I have about 500 flints in my shop. They have been there for a couple of years. No ptoblem so far.

 

[aeatwood]

I'm wondering if the problem wasn't water, but temperature changes. Temperature varies depending on depth, but for every dept it is pretty much constant. Once a nodule is on the surface, that changes. And it may have been on the surface a VERY long time.

A century or two after digging up and knapping is literally the blink of an eye, and no changes would be noticed from a dug flint.