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Does anyone harvest and knapp their own flint?

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Seems like a natural adjunct hobby for anyone with an interest in muzzleloaders. Is there anyone on this forum who has pointers to share? Thanks in advance.
 
I do. Used to sell gunflints. First, find a free source of flint, chert, or jasper. To find what rock the local First Americans used, visit local museums and memorize the type of rock they used.

You will need a lot of practice rock and time and band aids.
 
Rich:

Your "white" gun flints were a great treasure. I still have my last few. They were as "sparky" as any one else's. Your services are missed.

ADK Bigfoot
 
Gun flints are made from blades, which are struck from cores, which are in turn shaped from nodules. If you are able to find suitable nodules I can help from there.
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I make my own and prefer flakes to blades for my personal gun flints, which as stated, come from cores which always produce ridged flints. Technically cores produce blades and blades are sectioned into flints.
I'd sure hate to try and make a living at gun flint production.I've been a glazier ( commercial glass worker) for almost 50 years and that's tough enough!
I make all the gun flints I want using left over flakes from an arrow point hobby I have. Some folks will tell you heat treated flint/chert does not make good gun flints but they are wrong!
 
I do. Used to sell gunflints. First, find a free source of flint, chert, or jasper. To find what rock the local First Americans used, visit local museums and memorize the type of rock they used.

You will need a lot of practice rock and time and band aids.

especially bandaids!!!
 
I make my own and prefer flakes to blades for my personal gun flints, which as stated, come from cores which always produce ridged flints. Technically cores produce blades and blades are sectioned into flints.
I'd sure hate to try and make a living at gun flint production.I've been a glazier ( commercial glass worker) for almost 50 years and that's tough enough!
I make all the gun flints I want using left over flakes from an arrow point hobby I have. Some folks will tell you heat treated flint/chert does not make good gun flints but they are wrong!


Really good advice - thanks!
 
I just came back from Norfolk, England (before the Covid 19). There's flint all over the place! I brought back a few chunks. Split one up and it sparks great with my flint-and-steel striker.!

Tom
 
I use thin rubber kevlar glazing gloves when knapping and it keeps you from needing band aids. If you work indoors in cold weather you should have a suction fan going as the flint dust in very bad for your lungs. If doing it out doors it's not as bad particularly with a prevailing cross breeze. Always wear safety glasses!
Some chert is ornery as cat hair as it comes from the earth but usually 4-6 hours at about 400 degrees in an oven and left to cool by turning it off over night, will temper it and usually make it quite cooperative. Native American Indians did this by making a pit fire until coals,covering with a layer of sand, chert laid on the sand and covered up with dirt, for a day or two. When recovered it would usually knapp quite nicely.
Some say soaking chert in water for a while will help it knapp better but I haven't tried it.
 
I would do my own but have never figured out where it lives. Elusive stuff. ;-)

BTW:
Some say soaking chert in water for a while will help it knapp better but I haven't tried it.

From a now defunct ml forum I got into quite an argument about this issue. So, I wrote to the geology department of several universities and my state geological commission. Responses I got said if you soak flint in water for 500 years, it might penetrate to a depth of one micron. I haven't tried that. Let me know what you find out.;)
 
Well, the geology depts. don't know that for a fact either , none of them have been around that long to test the theory!
A simple test of knapping will tell the truth. Try the very same piece dry then wet it for 24 hours and try it again. That will tell you far more than a bunch of egg heads that think they know all about the ancient history of the earth. It may be that the wetting of the exterior alters the way the shock wave from the knapping strike or pressure flake travels through the stone and has nothing at all to do with how much the water penetrates.
 
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Some cherts are improved by heat treating, others such as Onondaga not at all. The water soak theory holds that if water wiped on the surface stays there, soaking will not help. If the water is absorbed into the stone, then it is supposed to improve about 1/2 to 1 point on the lithic scale.
 
This would be a great time to order some good chert,get some online instruction, make some knapping tools and have at it. It is not really that hard to learn well enough to make serviceable gun flints.
I would recommend going to your local glass shop and picking up a pair of thin Kevlar glass handling gloves as they will keep you from getting cuts and splinters from the fantastically sharp flint flakes.
I always emphasize pressure flaking for making good edges. The platform striking is primarily for the courser knapping work, which also needs to be mastered to make the necessary flakes or blades which gun flints are fashioned from. The little knapping hammers and notched tools are really not what is best for edge shaping and sharpening. They destroy far more good flint than is necessary and can be avoided with a little instruction, practice and making or buying a few tools.
 
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I have noticed recently where the edges of some of my purchased gun flints had been pressure flaked to true them up. I had not seen this in years past and it may be a recent development. Bear in mind, the edge of a flint blade is never sharper than when it comes off the core. Obsidian blades are still used in surgery. http://obsidian-scalpel.blogspot.com/
 
What I have found Tom is that a straight level edge is not a strong edge. The serrated edge is what works best and longest on a gun flint. Same is true on an arrow point or flint knife blade. The scarps between the serrated points are just as sharp as flint can be knapped.
The serration is what gives a flint edge it's strength and longevity.
 
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