Homemade obsidian flints?

[Musketeer]

When I was a kid growing up here in Arizona back in the '70's(1970's that is, I'm not THAT old!) My dad and I belonged to the YMCA Indian Guides. One time we all went out to an open pit mine southeast of Phoenix, and for something like a dollar a head we were able to fill up bucketloads of obsidian chunks(we call them Apache Tears here). I still have hundreds of these things, and I was wondering if anybody knows if they can be knapped into suitable musket flints. I'm pretty new to flintknapping(always bought them readymade 'til now), so I'm not good enough at it yet(will I ever be?)to get a decently-shaped flint; therefore, I haven't been able to try any myself.
Hopefully, Zonie, Wulf, or some other Arizonan will read this and be able to help me. :thumbsup:

 

[kentucky bucky]

I don't think obsidian is hard enough to work as rifle flints.( too glass like) It is great for cutting edges though!

 

[wulf]

I agree....But I have been exparimenting with quartz,,which we have in abundance here in hotcountry..just needs a stone cutter wheel to make some good shaped ones for the flintlock. Hope this helps...Wulf

 

[tg]

I have made some flints from obsidian it is easy to work but I have found it does not hold up well in a lock.

 

[Musketeer]

Thanks for the info guys. Wulf, quartz souns like a great idea! I do have some grinding and cutting equipment, and as you know out here you can literally go out and pick it up off the ground just about anywhere. Let me know if you get any decent results. I kinda thought obsidian seemed a little fragile, but I thought I'd ask anyway... :RO: :thumbsup:

 

[wulf]

I just finished shooting a Harpers Ferry pystol using the quartz as flint.. It worked OK but not like a good flint,,I think the reason being the quartz was not shaped well enough. That particular pystol doesn't have that good a geometry..so the test wasn't too fair...I can try it on a small Siler lock...will report.... Wulf

 

quartz (silicon dioxide) should work if shaped right--after all, flint is a variety of silicon dixode, too. Quartz is crystalline and flint (chert) is cryptocrystalline, but have similar hardness....obsidian is volcanic glass and is softer, so it wouild not be an ideal source for rifle "flint".

 

[robinghewitt]

Black flint is what we call rocks hereabouts :: I don't think it's much good once it's been on the surface for a while though. The really hard stuff is the gray flint down on the beach, all weathered into smooth rocks from the size of your toe to the size of your head.

 

black obsidian will not hold up, gray obsidian really isnt obsidian but more along the lines of chert which works real well for flints .
i have also tried black and red obsidian , whil it is harde then the black it will only hold for a few shots .

 

Obsidian IS volcanic glass and therfore is VERY HARD & Brittle - too brittle for flints, but makes beautiful Arrow, Atalatle and Spear points.

 

.... where I differ here is with the words "very hard" with respect to volcanic glass (obsidian) or any other glass. Geologists (I am one) have a general hardness scale from 1 to 10 (not linear), where 1 is talc and 10 is diamond. The glass (if I recall) is about 5 and quartz is 7. Flint (quartz family) is both harder and tougher than obsidian (glass family). The grey areas in obsidian are typically not chert, but rather pumice--frothy glass.

Obsidian IS volcanic glass and therfore is VERY HARD & Brittle - too brittle for flints, but makes beautiful Arrow, Atalatle and Spear points.

 

what i was getting at wasnt that obsidian is churt but more to the fact that many time a good peice of churt is mistaken for a solid gray peice of obsidian . lots of it around here that deep gray

 

I guess it depends on what you think of as being soft or hard. Soft in terms of a flint, would be something that was too soft to bite into the steel of the frizzenm would bend ot just slide. Obsidian will bite, but is too brittle/fragile to remain in one piece long enough to shave a slice or particles of steel from the frizzen & thus heat them incandescent.
; Basalt also has a concoidal fracture, like obsidian, common glass, quartz, flint and chert, it is too soft for the purpose of striking flints, I assume. Basalt was used for arrow heads in the Chilcoten area of B.C. by the Chilcos who traveled to the Prince George(my) area looking for slaves. I found a broken arrow head in a fire pit at a lake, while duck hunting, severel years ago. The locals here didn't have archery, and only fish spears, so became easy slaves for any raiding 1st Nations.