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speaking of flints...

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there used to be a place in OK. that used to send you a chunk of English chert. seems to me that has faded away. Any sources for chunks of black English chert?
I haven’t found any stores but I’m apart of a flint knapping Facebook group and there’s a bunch of people who sell quality chert
 
the English quarry's are being used as sites for housing at a rate that will destroy them completely. or so i have been told.
thinking of all the flint used in traditional house and fence building, makes my fingers twitch!
trying to talk the wife into a trip to Jolly old England. think customs would balk at a couple suitcases full of flint?:D
 
There is an English archaeology show called Time Team, that makes short digs looking for something unusual. Fun show
They often get local kids involved in some sort of experimental archaeology.
On one episode they had kids build a fence out of flint. Very quickly the kids learned how to turn flint rocks in to pretty uniform bricks, and assembled a small wall pretty quickly
How I wanted their scrap
 
There is an English archaeology show called Time Team, that makes short digs looking for something unusual. Fun show
They often get local kids involved in some sort of experimental archaeology.
On one episode they had kids build a fence out of flint. Very quickly the kids learned how to turn flint rocks in to pretty uniform bricks, and assembled a small wall pretty quickly
How I wanted their scrap
Debitage Tenngun, Debitage! my wife gets whiff of "scrap" and it will ruin all the lying, Er, explaining to her that it is valuable and should never be tossed!
Debitage sounds so much better than scrap!😂😂😂
 
Not to hi-jack this thread but I came across a curiosity involving the making of arrowheads by the indigenous people in Virginia. On a visit to Williamsburg I stopped at a knapper's tent to watch the making of arrowheads. I was told that since flint was absent from the area the Indians used other types of stone. And indeed he was knapping arrowheads from, well, other stuff. Anyone want to enlighten me further on the subject?
 
many Knapper's will use off the wall material such as glass bottle bottoms, toilet tank lids, etc. just for giggles. historically the people used chert, obsidian, quartz, agate, and any other material that will allow a flake to be driven. i have a few Jasper points, and also a few petrified wood points.
monocrystalline, such as chert and flint ( a rose by another name) flake in a more consistent and predictable pattern.
Obsidian is was the choice of many for points, knife blades and spears, if it was available because of the unapparelled sharpness of the edge.
Obsidian can be flaked to one molecule thick on the edge. sometimes it is still used by surgeons for the finest cuts of nerves, or vascular work.
so far successful knapping of Obsidian escapes me. i can make a decent point, but always break a knife blade when it is just about done. So....... i stick with chert for knife blades.
 

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Somewhere on this forum and on the net is an Indian company that is selling buckets of flints and shards by the pound. If I didnt have so many I would have got some of those.
They from the 1700s, which is cool too.

How prices go up :-(

https://www.ima-usa.com/products/or...lintlock-musket-flints-sold-by-the-pound-html
Don't buy the imi JUNK. I ordered 5 pounds of supposed hand select.
1.5# was useless the other 3.5# I had to reshape with a diamond wheel.
Junk pure junk
 
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if you can't get english or french flint try goergetown or burlington from here in USA
goergetown from texas
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burlington white with an english black
you can buy online for the first timer try "flakes" can be bought very reasonably but beware it is addicting
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expect lots of waist at first and you need a safe knapping area. glasses & gloves a leather apron helps to+
 

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There is an English archaeology show called Time Team, that makes short digs looking for something unusual. Fun show
They often get local kids involved in some sort of experimental archaeology.
On one episode they had kids build a fence out of flint. Very quickly the kids learned how to turn flint rocks in to pretty uniform bricks, and assembled a small wall pretty quickly
How I wanted their scrap
Love that show. Watching it now, actually. I remember that episode. I was over there several years ago helping a church do some maintenance and found some big chunks of black flint in their garden. Wish I'd have kept it.
 
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