Flints from Scratch(small rock)

[sweed]

I know that most reasonable people just buy their flints. I   on the other hand am sometimes not always that Reasonable.  While I plan to follow the crowd to the flint store, I would like to have the ability to pick up a rock from the creek bed and make my rifle go bang with it.  Any   reasonable suggestions?

[Eric Krewson]

There are several gun flint knapping videos on Utube that describe the process.

Here are a few;







I have made several gun flints just to see if I could, weren't the prettiest flints but they made plenty of sparks if I picked the right material. Some chert from where I live won't spark at all, some throws a shower of sparks.

[SCLoyalist]

There's a description of how to make gunflints in Foxfire Vol. 5.   I recall a drawn illustration of using a railroad spike driven into a stump as an anvil, striking the rock against the anvil with a hammer, and then using what I believe are called grozing pliers in the stain glass trade for final shaping.    You still need the right kind of rock to work with, though, whether picked up from the stream bed or ordered off e-bay.   

[sweed]

Thanks for introducing me to y-tube. I didn't know real people lived there! Very good info. Thanks also for reminding me of my foxfire collection. Read all the writin'off them things as soon as I got my Christmas turkey&dressing choked down each year. My wife threatened to quit buyin' em if I didn't start talking to the family on Christmas day! That was years back so I'll have to start over on them! thanks for reminding me.
 

[Black Hand]

Firstly, you need to have suitable "rocks" to shape and not every one will work.  Flint is only found in some parts of the country, though jasper and chert will also work.  Don't bother with obsidian as it is too fragile.

Good luck and wear eye protection and leather gloves.  Been there, done that, still have the scars.....

[SCLoyalist]

and wear eye protection and leather gloves.  Been there, done that, still have the scars.....

And, worth mentioning is that the dust from flintknapping can mess your lungs up via silicosis, so you should do your knapping out of doors, and maybe wear a dust mask if you do much knapping.   

[LynnC]

Since there is no suitable native stone in my neck of the woods, I pick up flakes and spalls from old American Indian flint knapping sites and shape them into working flints.  I find a point now and then too and keep'em.  I've been doing this for years with good results..............Lynn

[Black Hand]

Since there is no suitable native stone in my neck of the woods, I pick up flakes and spalls from old American Indian flint knapping sites and shape them into working flints.  I find a point now and then too and keep'em.  I've been doing this for years with good results..............Lynn

Around here, that can get you arrested.....

[LynnC]

Digging will get you arrested.  Surface finds are perfectly legal.  If it were not legal, most every farmer in the country would be locked away

[Black Hand]

In our case, it might be considered looting of an archeaological site even when they are surface finds.  We have Tipi rings, buffalo-jumps and other native sites with surface artifacts all over MT.   

What gets plowed up in a field is no longer a valid specimen as it has lost it's context. 

[Old Ford2]

]
"Around here, that can get you arrested".....
[/quote]
You mean to tell me that carrying a shovel, is like carrying a mask and burglary equipment?
I don't like the way this world is becomming
If it's in the dirt....nobody wants it! Or they would have come and got it.
Old Ford

[Black Hand]

You misunderstand. 
These sites are known and are protected by law.  The entire state is an archaeological treasure-trove which in the past has been damaged and looted by un-informed persons just picking up something that is "in the dirt that nobody wants".

[Robby]

That and a Blue Jay feather in your hat will put you in Levenworth Old Ford2!
Robby

[LynnC]

I get what you are saying BH and I steer clear of archeological sites.  Flint shards litter farmers plowed fields in places around here.  With permission from the land owner, they make for good flint material.  No Digging.

[omark]

for what its worth, i have been told that around here, if its on private land, you can pick up whats on the surface, but no digging. on govt ground you cant even pick up if its on the surface. but i havent read the regs myself.    mark

[WadePatton]

plenty of plowed up points around here.  but i have all sorts of sparky rocks out on my ridge--just starting to learn to knap them.  that first big full-flake was a thrill.  Now to learn to whittle the flakes into lock-sized pieces.  If my ridge rocks won't work i'll go down to the flatlands where folks have been picking up plowed busted and otherwise out-of-context arrow points for years.  Used to pick up half-a-dozen a day working in Gpap's 'bacco patch. 

I suspect the streams (the ones full of beer cans tires batteries and some old appliances)  in that area will yield suitable rocks if no "pre-worked" stuff is in sight.

[WadePatton]

"my" rocks don't knap so well.  they're very sparky but too "pre-stressed" to pop off a decent flake. 

BUT, i found some rocks in my road that were apparently haul in from a river bar or creek bed, as my road was public about 100 years ago.  I've only made test flakes as i need to flesh out my tooling.

PaleomanJim is the dude i've found to watch on the 'tube. He has a flintlock rifle too.

[Shootrj2003]

My house is right on the route of Col.Joseph Brandt's raid in the revolution and the original owner of the land was Major J Swartwout ,head of the local commitee of safety ,him and his two sons were killed and scalped right around my front yard somewhere, (in that raid)there is lots of Native American remains around and a burial ground right out by my barn,all the land around here belonged (or was the homeland of) the Minisink Indians who originally got along with the Swartwouts ,they were tricked in a slimy land deal (surprise surprise) Not by the Swartwouts, this was part of the  motivation behind the raid And the battle of Minisink.This area was also the stomping grounds of Bill Quick.alot of bloody history here,there is some flint too I find it in the corn fields and I have a group of archeologists/geologists come through here occasionally.I have a small collection of arrowheads,spear points and other stuff.