brown chert - one spark blues

[mattybock]

I decided to try my hand at knapping chert so as to make sparks. Sparks without any purpose other than to prove I could make them. And I went out with and old file in hand, snooping the ground for chert. The only type we have here is lumpy with a smooth exterior and the color of milky coffee. This isn't black english flint, but it was as close as I could get.
With lump i hand I went back home and tried to knap, and failed. I mutilated the poor lump but did manage to make an edge. I smacked the edge against the file and got a spark! YAY!
But that was the only one. A single little spark out of five rocks and 50+ wacks.

The edges were sharp and the file has the scratch marks to prove it, but there were no other visible sparks to be seen. What might have gone wrong here?

 

[okawbow]

If it's hard enough, there's no reason the brown chert won't spark. I recently knocked a good flake off some white Burlington chert, and fitted it into my L&R Bedford Co. flintlock. It's sparked really well for almost 20 strikes so far. I've picked up other pieces of chert in fields or creeks, including brown, that also worked well.

 

[kaintuck]

drive out to where there are churt roads....look in the ditches~that's where the graders will flip the big hard pieces too.
I found black flint shards...one I had lasted close to 100 shots! hard black flint is in tenn....you just have to look for it~

 

[mattybock]

so do the larger pieces lend to spark better?

 

[Billnpatti]

The rock sounds fine. Just keep at it. Even each of the Indians had a learning curve when they started being taught how to knap flint. Don't forget all your safety equipment. NEVER knap flint without wearing safety glasses. Flint is literally sharper than glass. Any cuts to carelessly unprotected skin will heal but eye injuries are not all that forgiving and you have only two eyes to last your whole life.

 

[Billnpatti]

The way a spark is formed is by the flint, which is harder than the steel, cutting off a tiny fleck of steel. The friction of the cutting of this fleck of steel causes it to glow brightly. This glowing is what we see as a spark. So, knowing that, all your flint has to be is sharp on one edge and large enough to hold as you strike it against the steel. Remember, it is flint against steel not steel against flint. I have seen in movies and in a recent advertisement on TV where a guy strikes his flint with his knife blade or other piece of steel. In real life you will get nothing. You must strike the flint against the steel in order to cut off a tiny fleck of the steel which becomes your spark. So, choose your piece of flint accordingly.

 

[Sunkmanitu Tanka]

I tried to knap chert - did not do well... Then once on a vouz in Normandy hoaled a really large burlap sack full of beautifull black flint home... I ruined a whole lot of that stone and also gave a lot away... Some time back, I just simply bought me a few large musket flints ... you cannot have any better formed flints to spark a fire ... and since then I do not bother anymore to try my hand at knapping.

 

[LRB]

I always strike the flint with the steel. I hold the flint with a piece of char on top and strike the edge of it with my steel. I don't see how it could matter.

 

[nkbj]

The rocks up at Marble Falls, TX spark without steel.

 

[jethro224]

Remember, it is flint against steel not steel against flint. I have seen in movies and in a recent advertisement on TV where a guy strikes his flint with his knife blade or other piece of steel. In real life you will get nothing.

In real life it doesn't matter which strikes which as long as the angle of the strike is right to shave off sparks from the steel. It's all a matter of personal preference.
Like Wick, I always strike my flint with my steel. A piece of char held under my thumb on top of the flint will catch the sparks. Done it lots of times.
Striking the steel with the flint just feels awkward to me.

 

[Sunkmanitu Tanka]

It does not only feel awkward, but I think you can put more force into the stroke if you hit the flint with the striker and so become better sparks...
Concerning the knapping: I always found that chert seemed to be a harder rock, an quit a bit harder to knap than real black flint... With black flint I always had a bit better results then with chert. Also: knapping is a real art and difficult to learn well. I ruined quit some nice rocks :redface:

 

[paulab]

Go on youtube and check out "Brandon flintknappers". If they can do it, you can too. I make all my "flints" from Charity Island [Michigan] chert nodules. cheers Paul

 

[Eric Krewson]

I passed on my artifact collection to my son last weekend. We sorted through about 50 pounds of various flint points and tools, most still unwashed from when they were found in the 70s.

We found some great stuff and had about 30 pounds of broken and unfinished flint points and objects left after the sorting.

I have plans for some of these culls, I plan to rework them into gun flints. The ones I checked with my steel striker sparked like crazy.

 

[tom deinek]

Is it difficult to obtain the necessary permits from the Fish & Wildlife service to take minerals off the big island? Heard about a guy lately that got caught without permits & had to pay $1500.