What kind of rocks do you use in your flinters?

[davidthered]

Not sure about this, got it off an old muzzleloaders on-line...
Terry Strange of 386 Glenwood Drive, Glendale, KY 42740; Phone (502) 369-9187 :results:

 

[oldarmy]

free black arkansas novaculite works great. I find only the hard black sparks the white doesn't work as well. I have never tried to knap it, althoough the natives made arrow and knifes out of it
I also use BEf's.

 

[VAshooter]

When I was a boy growing up in Ohio there was a milk white flint type material that came from somewhere in mid Ohio. I don't know exactly where. That stuff was the best sparking rock I ever used. I still have a couple small pieces that have laid around for fifty years. They are too small to use anymore but I just can't bring myself to throw them out.

 

[weirdjack]

When I was a boy growing up in Ohio there was a milk white flint type material that came from somewhere in mid Ohio.

I've made gunflints out of the very nice flint from the "Flint Ridge" area. That's in central Ohio....around the Newark area...just east of Columbus along I-70.
But I have to confess to being lazy and usually buying English gunflints from Log Cabin Shop. They seem to work well.
Jack

 

[bpollock_sr]

I also use black english flints by T. Fuller.I have a few amber flints I bought from Horst & McCann ,but you can't beat the sparks from a sharp English flint.


"And those were great times " L B

 

[slow]

About twenty years ago I bought a life time supply of Tom Fuller flints.They have worked just fine and I get about fifty shots per flint.

 

[gordy]

It seems most folks prefer the black English flints.I've knapped a few from some old broken arrow /spear points,They worked but didn't last long.I ordered some English flints while in Tx.but had to wait for nearly 3 months for the dealer to get them[url] in.In[/url] the meantime one of My Daughters sent me some TC sawn flints,I was quite impressed at how well they sparked,the last time I used some they performed poorly.I have used the French flints and wasn't impressed with them.I finaly recieved the English flints,but the TC flints work so well I'll use them up before changing over.It would seem that the hardness of the frizzen may be part of the reason some flints work better in certain locks than others.

 

[Runner]

When the cut flints stop sparking well, re-sharpen them on a diamond sharpening lap. 10$ out of Harbor Freight.

 

[gordy]

Runner!Thanks for the information on price and availability of the diamond sharpener.I thought the price to be much higher.I wonder if it would touch up a knapped flint? As soon as I get to making some money I'll send for one.

 

[Runner]

10$ for three different ones with different grits. Harbor Freight. They work well enough that you can take a pair of pliers, break a cut slab of stone, and cut the bevel for the striking edge with them if you don't mind a few minutes work. They are much better for just keeping the cut ones sharp. With the cost of flints, the laps are definately cheap. The biggest advantage is that suddenly you are no longer limited to materails that knap well for your flints. I am using pertrified wood right now.

 

[brubincam]

would iron stone work? there are a lot of iron stone flakes lying around from the indians making arrowheads, verry hard stone, dont know how the indians flaked this stuff... :thanks:

 

[Runner]

If it is the iron stone type material I am familiar with, I am sure you could cut a flint out of it, but I doubt it would last for more than a few strikes since the edge would powder most likely. Since I don't know for sure what you are calling ironstone, I don't know. The pertrified I am using is very hard, but it is also tuff. It works very well until the stone starts to go, and then it comes apart in chunks, not chips. By far the best sparking stone I have is black flint. It is soft, but it breaks to a very sharp edge. Since I have been playing at learning to knap, I have a piece of a gritty textured agate/jasper material I have knapped an edge on. I tend to grab it to open boxes or to cut small stuff here at the computer. It works pretty well and is pretty nice for that or arrowhead use. I am not sure how the material would hold up to the impact on the frizzen because it has that gritty texture to it. Now, a piece of good bloodstone is the best I have used so far. It isn't as sharp as some, but the edge lasts forever. Not gonna make a lot of flints out of gem grade bloodstone tho! Sorry I could not really help.

 

[DannyB]

I've had good luck with local flint. I'm getting pretty good at recycling artifacts into rifle-flints. Plus, there is a guy at a flea market that I saw knapping arrowheads one day that will knap some blades out and all he wants in return is flint. There's a ton of it in the fields around the house, and you can find some good sized nodules in the mountains.

 

[Maestro]

...Tom Fuller flints.They have worked just fine and I get about fifty shots per flint.

Me too.

 

[thomas]

Tom Fuller flints here as well.

Thomas

 

[750k2]

English right now - don't know if the are fullers but think so.
125+ to the flint with out knapping!!
I have some French ambers that I still have not tried.
Chambers late ketland lock.
:thumbsup:

 

[smokeblower]

Danny B,
The best I have used is the Buffalo River formation chert, a sub type of Ft. Payne chert. Heated for several hours in a insulated bed of light sand or ash from a prior fire. Beats all English/french "soft" flints I have tried. Un heated Buffalo and Ft. Payne works well but is heck on the frizzen. The heat treating hardens the chert and adds to the life of the steel. The draw back is a shorter life for the flint, but a longer life for the steel. The stuff sparks like a 4 th of July sparkler when struch against a firemaking steel. In north Alabama a rarer type of FT. Payne formation chert, called Bangor chert is super for flint making. With little knapping instruction they are cheap, almost free to make. I had a commerical knapper show me a few tricks to detach the long blades from the core.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

**SNIP** The heat treating hardens the chert and adds to the life of the steel. The draw back is a shorter life for the flint, but a longer life for the steel. **SNIP**

I'm guessing you meant that the heat treating softened the chert? :: Heat treating is done to lower the lithic hardness of various cherts so that it can be more easily knapped.

 

[Frank Flintstone]

Slowpoke,

Track of the Wolf sells Tom Fuller flints 7/8"X1" for $115. per 100 or $1.30 each. Looks like everone seems to lean toward T.Fuller in bulk.


Keep sparking

:front:

Stump,
How much are Tom's flints by the 100? Do you remember if they vary in cost by size? SP

 

[roundball]

Slowpoke,

Track of the Wolf sells Tom Fuller flints 7/8"X1" for $115. per 100 or $1.30 each. Looks like everone seems to lean toward T.Fuller in bulk.


Keep sparking

:front:

Stump,
How much are Tom's flints by the 100? Do you remember if they vary in cost by size? SP

A ML site I belong to arranged a special large volume membership purchase through one of it's advertisers...I bought 300 3/4" black english flints for .69ea.