Knapping gun flints

[Daryl Crawford]

Lots of threads deal with finding flint and chert. I also just read on another thread that cheap arrow points for crafts can be had cheaply and knapped into useful gun flint.
Not being aware of any experienced knappers in the Lehigh Valley, I have two questions for experienced folks here.
1. What tools are a must to have in order to start knapping?
2. Which videos, YouTube sources, or books are the best to self-teach knapping gun flint?
I'm so ignorant that I wouldn't know a poor source from an accurate one..
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

[deerstalkert]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_Dj6JqOd5Naz6Nguw3c0aQ is good.
most arrow points for crafts are glass or obsidian, both are useless for gun flints.
chert is what we have here in the US that most knap. some knap agate but for beginning i would stay away from it.
ebay has sellers of chert. your first challenge will be learning to spall . this is the removal of flakes from a large nodule.
you will make 100 flakes to 1 finished flint. that is just the way it is.
though if you can get hornstone there in PA you are miles ahead of the curve. hornstone spalls in nice long thin flakes.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Gun flints are made from blades which have been struck from cores.

This one shows striking blades from a core.

And snapping gun flints from blades.

 

[deerstalkert]

every knapper aspires to be Will Lord.
man he makes it look easy!

 

[Rod Man]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_Dj6JqOd5Naz6Nguw3c0aQ is good.
most arrow points for crafts are glass or obsidian, both are useless for gun flints.
chert is what we have here in the US that most knap. some knap agate but for beginning i would stay away from it.
ebay has sellers of chert. your first challenge will be learning to spall . this is the removal of flakes from a large nodule.
you will make 100 flakes to 1 finished flint. that is just the way it is.
though if you can get hornstone there in PA you are miles ahead of the curve. hornstone spalls in nice long thin flakes.

Cool! Thanks! for the Vid! Good idea for a thread Mr. Crawford!

I was working a job just northwest of Cookeville, TN on the Roaring River and found this stuff. Was planning on giving it a shot as well. I was able to get a couple of nice pieces flaked off for use with my strikers.

RM

 

[Erwan]

The guy who makes all my flints French blonds from Limousin or blacks from Normandy :

 

[ohio ramrod]

I for one am knapping impaired. I have had two different flint knappers try to teach me but it just isn't in my blood line.While some make it look easy, it is not!

 

[Peregrine]

My short attention span and lack of patience taught me long ago to leave this to others... I am amazed by those who make it look effortless and like every strike was perfectly planned. Wait, what were we talking about???

 

[Erwan]

Did try to learn flint knapping something around forty years ago with a knapper and the better result I got is that now Jean-Jacques and Kevin are doing it for me for only minder than one Euro the piece, and the job is really fine and far better than mine : they do that job for a very long time...
I don't think that Youtube could be a real help to learn : there the good job appear like easy and simple but.......

 

[Daryl Crawford]

I hear your @Erwan but I don't know anyone near me that does it so in person instruction is not an option at present. Maybe I'll find a course at the gun makers fair next year. Maybe I'll just be stuck buying them.

 

[smo]

Daryl,

It doesn’t take much too make a usable gun flint.
Provided there’s suitable material in your area.
I look for thin flakes or spalls that are approximately 3/4” wide.
Then a couple strikes with the brass rod I keep in my haversack to get it close too the correct length and your good too go.

I’m not saying this would work as a replacement for properly knapped flints, but it’ll work in a pinch.

I have a Friend who is a knapper…
Most of the points here were made by him..

He does gun flints as well, but says they are a PITA.

 

[bud in pa]

Daryl supposedly there is chert around Marshalls Creek and Buttermilk Falls. They are off RT 209 in Monroe County. I read about it on some web site. With arthritis bothering my hands, I have enough trouble getting my credit card out of my wallet to order flints from Track, let alone trying to knap flints.

 

[Daryl Crawford]

I belong to a hunting club not far from Marshalls Creek. I'll look into that. Thanks for the tip.

 

[bldtrailer]

you can knap your own I do but finding stone is hard in Pa. I use Texas chert (son sends from out west) expect 80%waist more when you first start>I'm Near Dixons still learning

 

[Daryl Crawford]

@bldtrailer I'm 15 minutes from Dixons, near Ontelaunee Gun Club. If your willing at some point, I'd love to see a bit of how you do it.

 

[gerryherd]

The tools in bldtrlr’s pics look pretty much everything you’d need. I recall the Foxfire series of books, volume 5, had a few pages devoted to knapping gunflints. They used a railroad spike driven into a stump for an anvil, maybe a ball peen hammer to strike, and a pair of pliers similar to stain glass grozing pliers to shape the edge. Cherokee likely got by with a couple of round rock and an antler tip,

A safety note: eye protection is pretty obvious. Keep bandaids handy for fingers. The dust generated by flintnapping is very fine and can lead to silicosis, so do your knapping outside with the wind to your back.

 

[Gordoncourtney]

Did try to learn flint knapping something around forty years ago with a knapper and the better result I got is that now Jean-Jacques and Kevin are doing it for me for only minder than one Euro the piece, and the job is really fine and far better than mine : they do that job for a very long time...
I don't think that Youtube could be a real help to learn : there the good job appear like easy and simple but.......
[/QUOTE

Ah our man from France. It's the most fantastic country I have been to , clocked up 6k miles in last two years , cannot wait to get back in my Rapido motorhome. We have flint In the chalk everywhere , I practice and practice even making arrow heads, once a piece has cracked off I cheat and use pliers to nibble away ,making Arrow heads, so far I haven't made a core, but my flints end up sharp and spark well. I thought France was over run with hogs but never seen one except on road signs....I want to take my .36 percussion double time to France to go for hogs, I understand having a reason to carry, and a permit to carry, but now I stumble and are legally lost with French law, i dare not hide it in the van as its not right, but very tempted.....need to find a hunting club I guess....keep looking for a place in France , but this Brexit has ruined everything ....last July I took my son to see the sand dune nr Arcachon amazing. And very safe we felt regarding Colvid...I wish you well lovely to find you on a forum again.

 

[JBrandon]

Don't be put off by the videos of experts like Lord - making gunflints 'correctly' takes a long time to learn. It was a cottage industry, and the segmented blade technique the 19th century knappers used was necessary for efficiency.
BUT anyone can learn to take off flakes that can be shaped by easy techniques, including nipping with pliers, to make a useable gunflint.
If you want to learn better knapping, there are lots of knappers around. For instance, there is a large knap-in at Letchworth State Park in NY in August where you could find people to teach you.

Friday, August 27, 2021 to Sunday, August 29, 2021

2021 STONE TOOL CRAFTSMAN SHOW - NY
Website: Genesee Valley Flint Knappers Association Home Page


The Genesee Valley Flint Knappers Association has been granted approval to hold our 31st Annual Stone Tool Craftsman Show at Letchworth State Park, Mount Morris, New York. IT’S A GO!!! The event will be held August 27, 28 and 29, 2021 at the Highbanks Recreation Area. Additional details will be made available here and on our FaceBook page as they develop. Event Flyer: Flyer
Schedule of Events: Schedule of Events
https://flintknappers.com/events.php

 

[Hatman/2nd line]

View attachment 86346View attachment 86347you can knap your own I do but finding stone is hard in Pa. I use Texas chert (son sends from out west) expect 80%waist more when you first start>I'm Near Dixons still learningView attachment 86348

I read once that the Indians use to get their stone/chert/obsidian from a quarry south of Allentown.

 

[Erwan]

I want to take my .36 percussion double time to France to go for hogs, I understand having a reason to carry, and a permit to carry, but now I stumble and are legally lost with French law, i dare not hide it in the van as its not right, but very tempted.....need to find a hunting club I guess....keep looking for a place in France , but this Brexit has ruined everything

Concerning the Brexit we know part of the problems posed by this case: my son-in-law is a pure Englishman and lives in France while all his family has left to go return except him, my daughter and my grandson...
Carry any kind of rifle or pistol is much more difficulter than before, be careful with that if carrying in the Rapido.
About the hogs it is also very different that it was before : the hunter's societies and so in that way the French hunters organize the hunts in France with their hunting federation, and for the pigs the hunts are regulated, and it is necessary to buy rings and numbered collars: there is not much freedom for the hunters and not much for the boars either...
Long time ago, when my grandfather was a federal game warden, it was a hunter's paradise, but that was before, a long time ago ....
If you have a French hunting license, and you manage to get invited, you may have the chance to participate in a hunt...