I am glad what you are using works well. But, I have to wonder, how do you know the material is novaculite? We have novaculite mines in Arkansas. Most of the material is used for sharpening stones. Some (very little) is sold for gun flints. I once thought a good sideline would be to sell novaculite flints. I market tested with other shooters. Not one showed interest. I couldn't even give samples away. I have tried it and found it to be a poor sparker. Dunno why, on the Rockwell scale it is right up there in hardness with real flint. All said, I have seen reports of flint shooters that like it. Such is the paradox in our game. Even then, novaculite cut into flint sizes is prohibitively expensive. IMHO, it might be a last resort material if real knapped flints cannot any longer be imported.