flint

[medieval]

Where do you get pieces of flint, for fire making? :confused:

[piglet_74]

I went to these folks and bought a small box of black brandon flakes for a few bucks.
Neolithics.com
Flakes

Rob

Edited August 12, 2009 by piglet_74
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[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Called a friend in Texas who picked up about a 10# chunk of it for us outside of Fort Hood, and sent it out to us. Looks like a Leaverite until you cut it up, then it is really nice gray flint inside. Dad messed around some with knapping arrowheads.

[piglet_74]

So I had to google Leaverite to see if maybe there was any in my area and what it looks like. With the exception of delta slate and green granite, there's nothing but leaverite around here!

Rob.

[Charlotte]

Look in gravel, and stone beds down stream of clay deposits. Flint nodules erode out of clay banks in most places. I've picked up flint and chert in may places.

[pkrankow]

Build a campfire and throw a couple stones in. After cooking for an evening and cooling you can split or shape flint as it will fracture more predictably.
Phil

[Don A]

I get some of the best sparking rock I have ever seen. It is all over my dad's farm. I use it for strikers and gun flints.

PM me if you are interested. Maybe we can work something out.

Don

[jimbob]

walk down the railroad track often time the gravel bed has flint nodules

[Mike Ameling]

Most any rock that you can get a thin sharp edge on will work for striking sparks with a flint striker. Some types of rock/flint just work better than others.

Stay away from obsidian. It is volcanic glass, and is very brittle. The chards/flakes are also very very sharp. Your sharp edge will crumble very fast in use with obsidian.

Chert or chirt is a lower grade of flint - often with a rougher surface than flint which usually has a slick surface. It will work, but is not as strong as flint and your sharp edge will crumble fairly fast in use.

You can also use granite, agate, slate, quartz, and most any other rock that you can get a thin sharp edge on. The edges just crumble faster in use than with flint.

There are lots of people selling flint nodules on evil-bay. Use that "flint knapper" or "flint knapping" term in your search. Then it's just a matter of looking at what people are offering.

I often use Musket Flints with my flint strikers - the gun flints made for use with flintlock guns. The size is small, but you do have some good thin/sharp edges, and they generally hold up pretty well before the sharp edges wear/crumble back to dull. And a lot of gun flints were historically sold right along with flint strikers back in the fur trade days - especially around the Great Lakes area.

Locally here in NE Iowa I can find grayish and whitish chirt in all the limestone that runs through/under most of this area. Some of it works pretty well. And Rich Pierce down to St. Louis finds white flint around him the works GREAT! He knapps out gun flints from it - as something of a hobby. A friend makes a yearly trip out to Montana to pick up Knife River flint for the arrowheads and knife blades he knapps out. I occasionally get a bucket of his culls/chards. A really nice rootbeer colored flint that holds a sharp edge very well.

So check out any flint knappers in your area, or any muzzleloading stores nearby. And ebay (evil-bay) ALWAYS has flint listed - mostly for those flint knappers making arrowheads and spear points.

I often surprise people by walking over to the crushed limestone gravel road, search a bit, pick out a white chunk, and then use it to strike sparks with a striker. It amazes many people who think you have to have a specific piece of flint for it to work.

Hope this helps.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Leaverite is a joke term for any unknown rock. It's a shortened version of "leave her right there" and is usually followed by " it ain't worth nothing". I got tons of "leaverite" rock all around here! But if you want some, you can pick up all you want out of the cornfield!

Edited August 12, 2009 by Mike Ameling

[thecelticforge]

I get my flint from gravel parking lots. The only caveat is that it has to be limestone.

[Frosty]

Try getting in touch with the local rock club or gem and mineral society, they should be able to tell you about any local deposits.

Flint, chert and jasper are different grades of the same basic stone and if you want to get technical about it there is only one place on earth you can get "REAL" flint but that's the original deposit the stone was described and named from. Flint, chert, etc. are in the agate family so to speak and agate will work but is fragile enough you're lucky to get more than a couple sparks between sharpening, knapping a new edge.

Anything in the Flint-jasper group works just fine, the finer grained it is the stronger it is and the longer the edge will last.

Frosty

Edited August 12, 2009 by Frosty