could anyone give me some pointers to soursing some flint just cant seem to find any around here it all,i've looked at the base of several windblown trees on the local beaches etc all i find is slate.is there any flintnapping suppliers online,just got a steel striker from primalconnection amazing quality but i have used up the little piece of flint i got with it.any help wud be great cheers
flintnapping help
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Only place i can find it is at the bottom of ripped up trees,still that is rare to find there aswell,Also i can find many small piece on countryside paths
It all depends on the area you are in, chalk downs are best, don't think there is much if any in North Wales or Cheshire. I got some in Wiltshire and often find chips that are smoothed off a little on paths and driveways that works with a firesteel. If you are looking for it, it feels more like glass than rock is the best way of IDing it
I was looking for some hard rocks - the crystaline sort "cherts" that flint is in the family of - on a beach in an area with no flint. I found that as I looked further down towards the water line that the pebbles became more and more cherts and marble and other hard crystaline rocks - that one should in principle be able to use for knapping.
Hmm. My next beach project! - use stones from the top of the beach (more likely to be sedimentary) as the hammer stones to knap some of the cherts at the bottom of the beach.
Hmm. My next beach project! - use stones from the top of the beach (more likely to be sedimentary) as the hammer stones to knap some of the cherts at the bottom of the beach.
I live in limestone country - lots and lots of limestone deposited all around here in the Upper midwest US. So the "flint" I find is usually associated with the limestone. The local stuff is more grayish to white, and closer to the coarse Chert than the glassy Flint. But it does work with the traditional flint strikers I make.
Flint is just a Hard, Sharp stone edge used to chip out little bits of steel from your traditional flint striker. The energy put into chipping out those little bits of steel heats them up enough that the carbon in them burns. That's the sparks you see.
But other stones will also work. Flint just tends to get a better sharp edge, and hold it longer in use. Chert is softer, and that sharp edge will crumble back faster. Granite will work, but it is harder to get a thin/sharp enough edge, and it crumbles faster. Quartz will also work. Some fancy historical flint strikers had cut/shaped/polished agate and jasper with them to use. In the right conditions, some slate will even work.
That rock is just the hard/sharp edge to chip out the steel. So experiment around with some of the rocks you do have around. Some just might work well for you.
One other note about flint. When you look at the original "rock" as it is washed out of the chalk and/or limestone, it often doesn't look like flint. It quite often just looks like all the other rocks around it. The true tale is told when you break it open. The insides are often quite different looking than the outside. That outside is quite often covered with a whitish or tannish colored deposit that hides the inside. The flint from the chalk cliffs have that white layer on their outsides. The smaller flint nodules in the Southern "flint" areas of England often look like round balls with a rough yellowish outside. But when you break them open, they have that gray/black glassy insides. So don't judge a Rock by it's outside. They often hide other things inside.
In many areas of England, you can still find houses with the walls covered with rocks. Some of these look like round gray/black rocks with the outside mostly flat. These are often flint rock. The round "ball" type nodules were broken in half, and then applied to the wall with that flat inside showing out. That usually means that there is a lot of flint in the area. Just don't go chipping a rock off of the walls of somebody's house!
Good luck on your quest. And do try some of the rocks available in your area.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mikey - watching some of the "mineral assets" around here get hydraulicly modified/moved/repositioned
(it's raining, and washing/flooding in the valleys)
Flint is just a Hard, Sharp stone edge used to chip out little bits of steel from your traditional flint striker. The energy put into chipping out those little bits of steel heats them up enough that the carbon in them burns. That's the sparks you see.
But other stones will also work. Flint just tends to get a better sharp edge, and hold it longer in use. Chert is softer, and that sharp edge will crumble back faster. Granite will work, but it is harder to get a thin/sharp enough edge, and it crumbles faster. Quartz will also work. Some fancy historical flint strikers had cut/shaped/polished agate and jasper with them to use. In the right conditions, some slate will even work.
That rock is just the hard/sharp edge to chip out the steel. So experiment around with some of the rocks you do have around. Some just might work well for you.
One other note about flint. When you look at the original "rock" as it is washed out of the chalk and/or limestone, it often doesn't look like flint. It quite often just looks like all the other rocks around it. The true tale is told when you break it open. The insides are often quite different looking than the outside. That outside is quite often covered with a whitish or tannish colored deposit that hides the inside. The flint from the chalk cliffs have that white layer on their outsides. The smaller flint nodules in the Southern "flint" areas of England often look like round balls with a rough yellowish outside. But when you break them open, they have that gray/black glassy insides. So don't judge a Rock by it's outside. They often hide other things inside.
In many areas of England, you can still find houses with the walls covered with rocks. Some of these look like round gray/black rocks with the outside mostly flat. These are often flint rock. The round "ball" type nodules were broken in half, and then applied to the wall with that flat inside showing out. That usually means that there is a lot of flint in the area. Just don't go chipping a rock off of the walls of somebody's house!
Good luck on your quest. And do try some of the rocks available in your area.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mikey - watching some of the "mineral assets" around here get hydraulicly modified/moved/repositioned
(it's raining, and washing/flooding in the valleys)
cheers for that groovski i work all over north wales and halkin not to far,i will have to take a ramble over that way.
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