Knapping flints

[Gene L]

Who knaps (if anyone) flints for their ML rifles? I can't do it at all, I'm still at a very level of flint knocking. I won't call it knapping.

If you do, please direct me to a source where I can find out how to do it. I can freshen a flint, but am nowhere near knapping a flat top-bottom flat flint that will stay in the cock.

I don't know but I believe most Colonials couldn't fully knap a flint either. They used to import hogsheads of them.

 

[George]

You might find this interesting and helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XPEoiY3NnI

Spence

 

[Kansas Jake]

Thanks Gene for posting this thread. I have been thinking in the last couple of weeks about starting a knapping thread. There have been a number of posts on other threads with good information, but not in one thread. Also, as Spence posted, there are some excellent youtube videos available.

I was burning some wood in the fire pit a few nights ago and thought I would throw in a couple of rocks from the back yard to see if I could temper it. Didn't work too well. They were just flinty rocks laying in the back yard. I live in the Flint Hills area of Kansas. Once they got hot they started cracking and popping and shooting pieces of sharp stone all over the place. Must be a problem with my rock or technique.

 

[smo]

I wish Paul V were still around , he could give you a good 4 pages or more of advice . RIP Paul you are missed.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Thanks for that link Spence, that was pretty cool.

I noticed the weird skinny hammers they were using to trim the blades that they knocked off with their heavy hammer. I'd never seen anything like it. Well, lo and behold there was another video on making gunflints by Paleoman52. In his first video he shows you how he made one of these skinny hammers out of 1/2 of a file, using the other half as an anvil to strike against by sinking the skinny handle end of the file into a log so it sticks straight up at 90° from the log. The hammer he makes looks just like the type they were using in the video you linked to.

Now unfortunately when he starts showing you how to make the blades from the core into individual gun flints (usually 2 to a blade) his camera angle obscures what he's doing. Luckily he made a second video that places the camera on the opposite side and he demonstrates it very well.

So, when the first video gets to the part where he's actually going to show you how to trim them, stop it and start the second video.

Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x8J8KRMEb0

Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb_qdqEmza8

All of these videos presuming you are working with a pre-shaped core which allows you to knock blades off the side of it. It's a lot of work to set such a core up presuming you can find big enough pieces to do this.

One other thing I'd like to point out is that the knapping of gun flints is much different than flintknapping a point out of flint. Bi-faces and cores are worked much differently for points that will be used for knives, spears, arrows, butchering tools, etc., than the methods used for making gun flints.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan