Made some videos of me knapping gun flints, for those interested.

[IanH]

 

[tnlonghunter]

Excellent. Thanks!

 

[Eric Krewson]

Very good, I have the same set-up but so far, I haven't found any chert that wasn't too crumbly, impossible to strike a blade off of. My neighbor just got a load of chert for his driveway with what looks like a lot of knapable chert in the mix, lots of the stuff he graded off to the side is bigger than a softball and very hard. I took a piece home and tried to break it with a sledge hammer to give me a starting point, it didn't want to break.

 

[earlwb]

Nice going. Thanks for posting. Yeah another hobby to add to my long list of hobbies that I don’t have enough time for already.

 

[IanH]

I get some of that "crackely" chert sometimes, it's usually translucent amber with no cortex and it is absolutely unknappable. The piece I busted up in the first video was very low quality overall with two or three usable sections of decent material. I got four blanks out of the whole rock and ruined two of them on the stake, so pretty low yield.

Softball sized is good. If they're round nodules without a platform to start from, place them on an anvil stone and crack them in half with a sledgehammer. This should give you a nice platform all the way around the edge of the hemisphere from which to work blades.

I didn't describe the striking angles nor the edge preparation as it's all variable and part of the learning curve. Also, if the face of the billet is rough from using it to chip and grind platform edges like I was doing in the video as an expedient to a grinding stone, it can skip and drive off a stack of very thin flakes like the pair I got a time or two. If spalling high quality rock, it will be much worse. File the face smooth for smooth rock to prevent that.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Those are great videos. Nice job makin those flints

 

[Codger Craig Wilcox]

Enjoyed the videos - educational to be sure! But, like others, I am going to leave the knapping to more knowledgeable folks.

I do like the use of the protective gloves - that stuff is SHARP!

 

[R Ellis]

THX for posting very informative

 

[Kansas Jake]

I find a rounded or oblong hard river rock works better at chipping a flake than a hammer. I think the rock give the chert a harder shock. Be sure to wear a good glove when doing it.

 

[Rich44]

Thanks for the video, good job, enjoyed.

 

[Eric Krewson]

What is your bopper made of?

 

[bldtrailer]

try to find copper and brass hammers they bite into the chert/flint rather than shattering the rock .also different hardness of river rocks limestone sandstone soft basalt/quartz hard. I use a large brass sledge to open the rock 5 pounder. the harder the hammer/stone the more likely you will get unwanted fractures like a BB shot into a school window

bopper

and try punches and ishie sticks

boppers can be made by drilling out wood or antler fill with round balls/lead then cap with copper plumbing caps from hard ware dept I use hot melt glue to change out copper as it wares out

 

[bldtrailer]

I'm tech challenged so no videos

 

[eyk]

Very well done presentation. Thank you.

 

[Horse Creek]

I am a Flintknapper as well. Been making points for 20 years or so. Might try my hand at this. At this time I only shoot percussion thou.

 

[Shiloh]

I’d like to find a source of wild chert. There are mines not far from me but just to find some……. I have no idea where to look.

 

[IanH]

I’d like to find a source of wild chert. There are mines not far from me but just to find some……. I have no idea where to look.

Creek bottoms, gravel bars, and landscape supply companies.

I see you live in Arkansas, the best gunflint material I've ever used was white Novaculite, the north end of your state is famous for it.

 

[deerstalkert]

IanH, have you ever tried heat treating? only improvement i found was some Burlington. that batch of chert was weird. had pockets in it. one preform i did, i popped a pocket and water came out. wife accused me of wetting myself. guess maybe i did.

 

[IanH]

IanH, have you ever tried heat treating? only improvement i found was some Burlington. that batch of chert was weird. had pockets in it. one preform i did, i popped a pocket and water came out. wife accused me of wetting myself. guess maybe i did.

No, I haven't, but am very familiar with what it can do. If all I had was very grainy, tough chert that took steel hammers to knap, I would do it, maybe, or more likely I would buy better rocks than I could find. I think that very low-grade chert heated treated would make excellent flints if one wanted to go to the trouble and time it takes to heat treat entire nodules. Normally, nodules are spalled out and the spalls and flakes are heat treated for final reduction and knapping into points. This, being a different process from gunflint making, may or may not have any advantage to shaping a flint from a blade or driving blades in the first place. Heat treating is tricky from what I understand and easily overdone, so it's a heat and test, heat higher and test, rinse and repeat process and not all the stone in a batch will turn out the same or require the same treatment....even pieces from the same rock.

 

[deerstalkert]

usually takes me 10 hours to heat treat a batch.
2 hours at 200*
2 hours at 400*
6 +/_ at 450*
Burlington that shatters like glass treated this way will be silky after.