Natural Flint In PA.?

[7shortmag]

As the title says, is there naturally occurring flint in Pa.?
Do any of you look for it?
Where is the best place to find some? (along creek beds?)

 

[coloradoclyde]

Yes!...there is flint/chert in PA....
Pa has a diverse rock population.....

Creek beds, road cutouts, farmers fields, construction sites, rock quarries, ...chert is a sedimentary silicate......usually residing in the bedrock just below the surface....Grab a hammer, chert is easily identifiable once you break a rock in half.

 

[B.Habermehl]

There's a place called flint ridge in Snyder county Pa. I'm told we don't have good chert for gun flints here, I have found good rocks for fire making kits though. BJH

 

[Don Steele]

If you're dealing with Chert you'll find it more suitable for gun flints if you heat treat it.
A lot of flintlock shooters really liked the White Burlington Chert gun flints Rich Pierce was supplying.
That's what's commonly found in the Midwest(e.g.: Missouri)
For help with Pennsylvania, you might try spending some time on the PaleoPlanet website.

 

[7shortmag]

Thanks for the replies.
I have lots of stream beds, strip mines, rock quarries in my area.
Can anyone tell me what the heck to look for? LOL!!
I really don't know what a big hunk of flint looks like!!

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Not sure what kind of rock, when I was a kid, there was an alleged Indian Quarry near Vera Cruz, PA. Story went that Indians dug their way down for rock suitable for making arrow heads. It was a trade commodity that was supposed to ave found it's way all over the eastern US. I was last there about 1959 or 1960, and Dad and an uncle hauled 50 lbs of rock out of there. 20 years ago, I heard that the place is now fenced off and secured against that type of spoilation. http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-204 There was another place on top the head of the mountain on the west side of Swatara Gap in Lebanon County PA. There is a circa 1900 Book about a geological survey of Pennsylvania caves and it was listed as an "Indian Mine" in the book. Apparently the book has taken a powder from the state Library and my photocopy of the book was destroyed. The author claimed the Indians found copper in that mine, but that seems unlikely given the sedimentary rock on top the mountain. I went looking for the "mine" back around 1975 and did not find what was listed in the book. I did find another strange depression on top the ridge, about 10 feet in diameter and about 7 ft deep. Probably coal mine subsidence. There was a horizontal shaft going into the mountain near the bottom.

 

[Larry Akers]

I really don't know what a big hunk of flint looks like!!

I grew up in southern Indiana where we have lots of black flint. Flint is found in limestone and the nodules will be covered with a limestone "shell". The nodules look like limestone rocks. The only way I know to tell if it's flint is to chip a chunk off and see if it's flint inside.

 

[tenngun]

Boys on the frontier did make thier own flits and I have hammered out more than o e myself, but.... imported flints were seen most everywhere.

 

[excess650]

I don't know that there is much, if any, suitable for gun flints in Pa.

 

[Brokennock]

Break some rocks. You're looking for fine grain and concoidial fracture. Like a chip in your windshield or the cone type fracture when a bb hits plate glass.

 

[7shortmag]

Is that the only way to identify it? By breaking rocks?

 

[Brokennock]

Until you get an eye for what you're looking for, it's the only way I know. Remembering that your looking for what looks to be limestone on the outside. Try typing flint or chert into Google and then clicking "images" at the top of the page.

 

[Dane]

Google chert. Wikipedia shows a photo of a deposit near Everett, PA.

 

[Brokennock]

Oh, and b.t.w. please wear safety glasses when busting rocks. When you do find good stuff, it's really sharp, including the fine slivers and bits of waste. Once you find raw material and start learning to knap, do so on some type of ground cloth. A painters tarp like the cheap canvas ones at Harbor Freight is good. Lay it on the ground under where you are sitting and working so your dust and waste falls onto it. When done pick it up and fold the edges toward center so all the waste goes to the crease in the middle and can be poured into a trash container or someplace folk won't walk through it.

Oh, did I mention to wear safety glasses?

 

[rich pierce]

Go to local museums and look at collections of arrowheads from Native American sites. That will tell you what local chert or jasper looks like. Jasper is rough but makes good gunflints. Pennsylvania has lots of high quality jasper. Some of it has great color, green or red.

All chert and flint occur in limestone or chalk deposits. Search gravel bars in limestone creeks and rivers for rocks that match the local arrowheads.

I'm in Missouri and I need to know the local Burlington chert is mostly white. It does pink or red up some with heat treatment, and most late period arrowheads were heat treated. Paleo points, usually larger, were made of untreated white rock. If I did not know the local chert was white, I'd never see it. Know your local rock.

Any good quality chert is going to fracture leaving a smooth almost glossy surface.

 

[7shortmag]

Hey guys..... thanks a bunch for the replies! I am "on the sniff" of some local flint/chert. It turns out that there are more than a couple of limestone quarries in my area and I happen to know a couple of people that work in them. I will keep you posted if I get any.

 

[stikshooter]

Don"t look for big chunks ,spring time after a good rain walk fresh plowed fields and look for shiny glassy rock .It"s how I find many many arrowheads like hunting mushrooms, once developed eyesight it is
easy to spot the big chunks!

 

[excess650]

There is lots of limestone in Pa, and lots of quarries.

A friend of mine was an avid arrowhead hunter, but mentioned that the local points were either carried in from elsewhere, or the rock sources were in very specific spots. One on South Mountain (Franklin or Adams Co)comes to mind.

 

[faste350]

i'm 59 years old and have been picking up flint since I was a kid. we have a lot of it here in the west part of the state and I have picked it up nearly every where I've been. seems like i'm always bringing a piece or two home in my pockets. it works great for flint and steel fire starting and it does work good for rifle flint if you can knapp or break it in the right shape/size. gravel driveways are a good spot to find pieces as are gravel pits.

 

[Auldgoat]

Look up "Geologic units in (your state)" w/ Google. .kml file will give you a Geologic map of the state to overlay in Google Earth.
Will