Making gun flints

[torpedo]

Any one ever try using obsidian? Got tons of it here in Nevada.

 

[deerstalkert]

obsidian is glass and shatters easily. have tried it for s&g's .no spark.

 

[IanH]

The guys from the 11bangbang channel on the utoob have made and used obsidian and say it worked well enough for them. I had some mahogany obsidian and after chatting with them made one and it totally sucked. I'll stick to the various cherts and novaculite.

 

[deerstalkert]

I have knocked out a couple flints from petrified wood and it sucked too. was a special type of petrified wood that i can't remember the name of.
but then i have trouble remembering my own name. its petrified something

 

[Gun Tramp]

Petrified palmwood.

 

[deerstalkert]

Petrified palmwood.

that's my name?

Oh! you know i think thats it! the stone that is, not my name. i think!

 

[BillinOregon]

I used to practically swim in obsidian when I lived in Oregon; attended the knap-in at Glass Buttes and gathered mahogany at Davis Creek, just south of Lakeview in Nor Cal. Wonderful stuff to play with, but no bueno for flintlocks. Now the harder, opaque dacite might be another matter. Now I am wondering how jasper might work ...

 

[deerstalkert]

jasper works a little but is hard to knap. at least for me.

 

[BillinOregon]

The guys that worked it back home in Oregon heat-treated it first. I have wanged on it with little to no effect. It is tough stuff!