Making gun flints

[Rob M.]

I just started my journey with flintlocks this year but it didn't take me long to become frustrated with excessively thick Fuller flints and the relatively thin supply in general of this subset of an already niche market, not to mention expense and shipping costs. I'm fortunate to live where there is an abundance of chert, albeit pretty poor quality for the most part. The local chert does, however, make excellent gun flints after a fashion. There isn't much information on the internet about how flints are made but a couple of short youtube videos and a small book surfaced after a long search and I sort of figured out the process. My local rock is of a large variety of types, mostly comes from the river and, is in small pieces about potato sized on average. The blade spalling techniques used on good, commercial flint don't work very well on this stuff so I've been working out different methods of spalling flakes and blades from my local material. I've made around a thousand so far and am finally getting the hang of it, sort of. At least I can make exactly what I need to fit the different locks I have and optimize the shape to best interact with the frizzens. This chert is tougher on average than either English or French flint and lasts a lot longer on the softer L&R frizzens that tend to bite and shred the edges of the commercial flints to the point of having to be resharpened in only 8-12 shots.

View attachment 230965

View attachment 230966Does anyone here knap their own flints? If so? Would you mind sharing any tips you may have?

That is so frikken cool ! Ive always wanted to be able to make my own flints ever since a kid reading about that fella in Foxfire #5 talkin about making his own gun , powder and flints . Thats so bad @$% . Ive made a few here and there but never very much and sure wouldnt know how to do it from a large node . Its funny when you pull out an arrow heard , knap itva bit then put it in yer trade gun and go back to shootin ! Folks just look at ya bug eyed ! LOL ! All the flints ive found and worked into workable flints were just small pieces found in the crick . I dont think I could even identity a large nodule of flint ... That'd be great ! I need to look into that ....bet ill forget ...dang it... Thanks for posting ! So cool !!

 

[Rob M.]

I have made them before and the best stone I found was novaculite, or white chert. They were not shaped very well but they worked.

I know nothing about chert or flint unfortunately but , those white ones ! I had this great one and MAN ! The sparks were not only plentiful every time in pulled the trigger but those sparks were amazing , they sizzled all the way to the ground . Love when I find the white ones ...but sometimes they are brittle and crumble . Interesting stuff ....

 

[IanH]

I know nothing about chert or flint unfortunately but , those white ones ! I had this great one and MAN ! The sparks were not only plentiful every time in pulled the trigger but those sparks were amazing , they sizzled all the way to the ground . Love when I find the white ones ...but sometimes they are brittle and crumble . Interesting stuff ....

We have some light grey stuff just like that here in Central Texas. Wish I could get a truckload of the Edwards flint, too, but so do a lot of people who make what we call 'arraheads'.

 

[deerstalkert]

still going through these. they are mostly Georgetown, with a few Burlington.

 

[IanH]

Those look great! Do you pressure flake the business edge or use a natural "blade" edge? Kind of looks like flaking but I can't tell for sure.

 

[bldtrailer]

what you are using is called river chert it's brittle and I found not good for gun flints get some Goergetown chert (Grey

also from texas) or burlington (white) . your blades look good make them from Georgetown

 

[deerstalkert]

Those look great! Do you pressure flake the business edge or use a natural "blade" edge? Kind of looks like flaking but I can't tell for sure.

most are percussion knapped, after a couple uses i pressure flake them. if they have a bad turtle back i will pressure flake them to keep the width and length.

 

[IanH]

what you are using is called river chert it's brittle and I found not good for gun flints get some Goergetown chert (Grey View attachment 232081View attachment 232082View attachment 232083also from texas) or burlington (white) . your blades look good make them from Georgetown View attachment 232084

I will certainly get my hands on some. The quarries are only three hours from here, I just have to find someone knapper-friendly to buy from.

 

[Jay Templin]

I am up to my ankles in cherts here in this part of Texas, but hadn't thought of trying to knap a gun flint. The material here is pretty tough, and would likely benefit greatly from heat-treating, but I would not know where to start on that, either.

Texas chert and novaculite do improve with heat treatment. DC Waldorf’s books on flintknapping and heat treatment are the best references around. Books : D. C. Waldorf Flintknapping Web Site, Home of Mound Builder Books and Flint Jack’s Gallery
Jay

 

[Twisted_1in66]

it is impossible for me to hide from the warden when i am knapping flints.
she just follows the blood trail! seems i am to dumb to search out my gloves.

Some decent Nitrile gloves will help a LOT. I used to attempt to flintknap arrowheads without them and I too would leave a bloody trail. Then went to a knap-in and saw what the "pros" were using. These are thicker than "examination gloves" and among other places you can get a pack of them from Harbor Freight for not a lot of money. 9-mil and 14-mil are the heavier duty ones and a pack of 50 is $14.49 and $14.99 at Harbor Freight. The 9-mil and above are used for automotive repair and much more durable than the 3 to 5 mil gloves You can also find gloves like this at some auto parts stores.

 

[buckleymarka56]

Opinions and thoughts?
Cut on a saw,, from bull gravel

 

[Kansas Jake]

Buckleymark, if they work, why not? That’s what counts.

 

[IanH]

I wondered how sawing them with a lapidary saw would work, but wasn't sure how sharp I could make them. It would certainly save material.

I got a few pieces of bull gravel from a landscaping company free for the asking because the stones had been busted open from handling/dumping. The material actually knapped okay raw and made functional flints.

 

[nhmoose]

I have a nephew who uses rocks from the driveways of the clubs we were competing at for his .54 Heavy Bench Bresien rifle. Used the same rock all 3 days of the shoot. Just because he could.

Me I have a hard time installing a new French flint without cutting myself every time, needing half a roll of electrical tape over the bandaid.

 

[IanH]

Started with a chunk about the size of two fists. Shudda took a pic. Here is my feeble attempt. Tested a few with the little lock you see. They will spark. Flint came from one of my sons property.
View attachment 231235

Got your box, had a few minutes before dark to knock out a few. Interesting material, nothing like what we have here. It knaps well and is more like sandstone than quartz. Almost like flinty slate.

 

[TDM]

Got your box, had a few minutes before dark to knock out a few. Interesting material, nothing like what we have here. It knaps well and is more like sandstone than quartz. Almost like flinty slate.

View attachment 239059

Did you knap those?

 

[IanH]

Did you knap those?

Yes. By braille. It was darn near dark when I started trimming the flakes.

I just put one in my big trade gun with the ornery lock and it sparks quite well. The edge self-knaps extremely well, keeping itself very sharp instead of blunting down like some rocks do. Some rock lets go of long flakes when hit at almost 90⁰ and some crushes, some scoops out, and some hinges. This rock likes very steep strike angles which works well for gun flints.

 

[TDM]

Yes. By braille. It was darn near dark when I started trimming the flakes.

I just put one in my big trade gun with the ornery lock and it sparks quite well. The edge self-knaps extremely well, keeping itself very sharp instead of blunting down like some rocks do. Some rock lets go of long flakes when hit at almost 90⁰ and some crushes, some scoops out, and some hinges. This rock likes very steep strike angles which works well for gun flints.

They look good.

 

[IanH]

Thanks, I'm still learning the rock. If I have a bad flake that either is too thick or the sharp edge flaked off curved instead of straight, I still try to make something out of it even if it's down to 5/8" square just for practice. Not all of those will go in the keeper box but all will work in a pinch, I was just showing my first effort.

I have enough confidence now that I might spend some money on Georgetown chert, but this is such a low-yield operation that I may only get 30-50 flints out of a $50 box of rocks. Still looking for a public place to scrounge better Texas rock like Pedernales or Georgetown.

 

[bldtrailer]

If you are able to come to Kemptons gun makers fair, I'm showing/teaching how I make my gun flints from USA Chert friday sat and sunday this week