Making my own flints

[Kansas Jake]

bldtrailer those are nice. The color is similar to much of the flint here in Kansas. You are right. The chips are like piles a of little razor blades.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Note to RD Powell: Not that I've ever heard of. We have a-plenty of chert in the Hill Country, but if there's flint in the Piney Woods I'd be surprised. Hereabouts, I-35 roughly parallels the edge of the Edwards Plateau between San Antonio and Austin (and points north), and that has been a source of flint since recorded time. Early tribes of locals made a good thing out of trading flint and flint tools to other tribes north and east. I've got flint (chert). What I seem to lack is knapping skills. I've found through (literally) painful experience that I can turn several pounds of likely flint nodes into useless scrap quickly and reliably, with a few nicks and scars on my paws to help me remember the experience. It's a natural talent, much like my inletting which usually looks like I did it with a tomahawk.

 

[beardedhorse]

Some good books out on how the pros in Brandon, England did it and some old black and white film. A large spall is percussed to have a flat top and rough cylinder. A soft iron or steel hammer that tapers to a point is used to knock off burins. They come off in long strips that are razor sharp and have the bevel edge that scrapes your frizzen. An anvil from part of a file is set into a stump. Below it may be a pad for the hammer - also made from a file (annealed) is used to trim the gun flint to its intended length. It is fascinating to see the process. Georgetown "flint", Edwards Plateau cherts from Texas are the equal to Brandon flint or Grimes Graves (flint mines were called graves) in my opinion. diamond cut agates from Germany and Arkansas are sold uniform two cutting edge flints. If you can get a hold of Danish flint from Denmark it will make an excellent gun flint. The French ambers have been used for centuries and marketed in the U.S. If find them a little more expensive and not as uniform as the English flints. Historically some gun flints were knapped so all four sizes of the square or rectangle gave you a useable edge. When one edge is dulled beyond knapping you rotate it to one of the other three sides.