speaking of flints...

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
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.
 

Attachments

  • Russ's chert knife.JPG
    Russ's chert knife.JPG
    2.1 MB
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
 
DSC03728.JPG

if you can't get english or french flint try goergetown or burlington from here in USA
goergetown from texas
DSC03192.JPG

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
DSC03738.JPG
DSC03220.JPG

expect lots of waist at first and you need a safe knapping area. glasses & gloves a leather apron helps to+
 

Attachments

  • DSC03731.JPG
    DSC03731.JPG
    317.5 KB
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.
 
Back
Top