Spark making other then flint/chert?

[John Spartan]

With all the flint/chert talk around here I decided to consult the mighty internet for minerals found in SE Michigan. Suppose it would be nice to have a source other then mail order in this day and age.
However in my geographic area a look at the “Top 10” local rocks reveals flint or chert (apparently) not being around.
Not a rockhound (as they call themselves) but is there a #3, 4, and 5 in rock types that can be used in emergency to be shaped and make sparks for a flintlock?

 

[Phil Coffins]

Jasper

 

[Wildrangeringreen]

Quartz, and/or groove your steel face and you can be a little more free with your stone choices (doesn't have to be all that sharp either, some stones are hard enough to get sparks off a grooved steel-face, but won't hold up if sharpened to much more than a round point). clicking on the pic will take you to the auction site this was on for a better look. This is one of my favorite pieces to look at, and inspired some of my personal aesthetic ideas.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Quartz, and/or groove your steel face and you can be a little more free with your stone choices (doesn't have to be all that sharp either, some stones are hard enough to get sparks off a grooved steel-face, but won't hold up if sharpened to much more than a round point). clicking on the pic will take you to the auction site this was on for a better look. This is one of my favorite pieces to look at, and inspired some of my personal aesthetic ideas.
View attachment 134391

Arkansas is known as the quartz state. I once made and sold quartz jewelry. Once tried it in my flintlocks. Results were zip, zero, nada. No sparks. Odd because it rates on the hardness scale with flint. My experience, your mileage may vary.

 

[hanshi]

I made a "flint" from obsidian a few years ago. I just wanted to test whether or not it worked at all. Well, I got two instant shots and a third that didn't fire the rifle but did produce sparks. Conclusion: A flint, obsidian does not make.

 

[david w]

Arkansas is known as the quartz state. I once made and sold quartz jewelry. Once tried it in my flintlocks. Results were zip, zero, nada. No sparks. Odd because it rates on the hardness scale with flint. My experience, your mileage may vary.

It is odd to me, too. I would have thought the black Arkansas stone would work well. I have local chert I have used for flint and steel fire making. Now, if I could just learn knapping.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

This summer I’m going to try and find local sources if Jasper, Agate, and Flint/Chert…I’m thinking that both Jasper and Agate would be good at making sparks…maybe in a month or two I’ll have something more definitive than my thoughts.

 

[inyodog]

I wonder if these would work. Has anyone tried using them.
https://www.amazon.com/KVK-Crystals...1650300155&sprefix=arrow+heads,aps,200&sr=8-2

 

[John Spartan]

Too bad. Guess I’ll keep picking up flint (vis mailorder) as a add-on to any part/supply shopping.
Or put a carton of cigarettes in storage and practice one-handed shooting!
Thanks gents.

 

[paulab]

With all the flint/chert talk around here I decided to consult the mighty internet for minerals found in SE Michigan. Suppose it would be nice to have a source other then mail order in this day and age.
However in my geographic area a look at the “Top 10” local rocks reveals flint or chert (apparently) not being around.
Not a rockhound (as they call themselves) but is there a #3, 4, and 5 in rock types that can be used in emergency to be shaped and make sparks for a flintlock?

John..........google up "Bayport chert". Michigan does have chert but it is pretty inferior stuff. I got chert nodules from Charity Island which is in the middle of Saginaw bay. The flints I made last from one shot to 40ish.

 

[Robby]

Thunderchert?

It does make a pretty decent arrowhead.
Robby

 

[Rifleman1776]

It is odd to me, too. I would have thought the black Arkansas stone would work well. I have local chert I have used for flint and steel fire making. Now, if I could just learn knapping.

I also once thought about selling Arkansas black novaculite cut as gun flints. A little pre-sales marketing research skotched that idea quick. Those I spoke with who have tried it say it doesn't make sparks. (I know it's the steel, not the flint) Tried some myself with pitiful results. Plus the cost from the miners/vendors is outa sight. David, if yer local chert sparks for firemaking it might be good for gun flints. Remember, chert is flint.

 

[Greenjoytj]

Can inferior grades of chert be harden with high heat in a oven or kiln?

A nicely machined (or filed) piece of modern super steel shaped to the correct profile required for a flintlock then harden up to flint hardness or more. This might work.

Clamp a rope slow match in in the flintlock cock and work the frizen like a manual pan cover. Pulling the trigger will drop the match into the opened pan. Boom..

 

[david w]

I also once thought about selling Arkansas black novaculite cut as gun flints. A little pre-sales marketing research skotched that idea quick. Those I spoke with who have tried it say it doesn't make sparks. (I know it's the steel, not the flint) Tried some myself with pitiful results. Plus the cost from the miners/vendors is outa sight. David, if yer local chert sparks for firemaking it might be good for gun flints. Remember, chert is flint.

Chert is the best flint material in the USA, but not as good as English flint. French amber comes in a close second to English. I don't know how to splain it in geologist terms, but there you have it. I use Arkansas black to hone my knife edges.

 

[rich pierce]

American chert, jasper, and agate all knap well and make plenty of sparks.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I use Arkansas black to hone my knife edges.

 

[TarponStalker]

American chert, jasper, and agate all knap well and make plenty of sparks.

Rich,
Whatever the white rocks you used to make your gun flints were great. I hoard the few I have left. They make great sparks

 

[toot]

it seams rely odd that with all of the sparking rocks here in the US, that was here back in the day, that all of the flints were imported, from ENGLAND & FRANCE? why was that?

 

[rich pierce]

it seams rely odd that with all of the sparking rocks here in the US, that was here back in the day, that all of the flints were imported, from ENGLAND & FRANCE? why was that?

Flint knapping is a skill. Plus there are quarries with hundreds or thousands of tons of high quality flint in England and France. Economy of scale.

 

[Nor'Easter]

it seams rely odd that with all of the sparking rocks here in the US, that was here back in the day, that all of the flints were imported, from ENGLAND & FRANCE? why was that?

I think there were three reasons. 1) The European military units would be supplied from the home country as a normal operational supply chain. 2) Convienience and trade item - the natives 'could have kept wearing animal hides and cooking with hot rocks' but choose trade cloth and copper pots instead. There are two sources of chert in Maine and they have found Maine chert at native sights all the way to the south of Cape Cod. So it was a trade item even before European contact. But it was alot easier to trade a couple of pelts for European flints than to make the trek to the source of Maine chert. 3) Early on they figured out that using 'flint nodules' for ballast in the ships made more sense economicaly than using useless stone that was thrown overboard when not needed anymore.