Hammer stones

[Palaeolite]

Hi,

I'm having problems finding and determining a good hammer stone for flint knapping. So far they've been shattering upon use on flint, only occasionally creating a flake, so I'm clearly not using a decent material. Where can I look to find a good stone, what mineral should I look for and what does a good hammer stone look like? Flint is as common as muck here, but a decent hammer stone? Not so much.

 

[Toddy]

For a hard hammer stone you need a cobble/pebble stone of something like granite, or other quartzite stuff.
Soft hammer, folks generally use antler.

Technique matters more than the material at times.

Bound to be someone more familiar with your area who knows what's normally available there. Hopefully they'll see this thread

M

 

[Palaeolite]

Thanks, I've got an antler for gentler work, but the first stages of taking a general shape from the core, or taking a core from a nodule, is really testing me. I am sure it is my technique but trying to take an initial piece from a nodule usually results in a core that is ready to crumble or a shattered hammer!

 

[Dark Horse Dave]

Not many beaches to collect cobbles from in West Berks, so you could try nipping down to your nearest garden centre (cobbles can often be found in the ornamental garden section, surrounding fountains and such) or ask around your neighbours.

 

[Toddy]

That's a good idea
I hadn't thought of the garden centres, but they carry a huge range of stones sometimes.

M

 

[boatman]

If in West Berkshire nip onto the Ridgeway and thereabouts and find some sarsen or Grey Wether. Ruined barn, roadside etc etc. Used as hammer stones at Stonehenge. Please don't break any off from boulders on the Downs. Not sure of the legality or ethics but the previously mentioned Snap?

Alternatively a handy sized flint nodule especially if has nice thick white/yellowish layer rounder it.

 

[Palaeolite]

That's a good idea
I hadn't thought of the garden centres, but they carry a huge range of stones sometimes.

M

Unfortunately a huge range of price tags too! I would like to hope I can get this from nature, for free, with all due respect to the landscape, my taking of a hammer stone or two pales in significance against the quarrying that garden centre are involved in.

 

[Palaeolite]

If in West Berkshire nip onto the Ridgeway and thereabouts and find some sarsen or Grey Wether. Ruined barn, roadside etc etc. Used as hammer stones at Stonehenge. Please don't break any off from boulders on the Downs. Not sure of the legality or ethics but the previously mentioned Snap?

Alternatively a handy sized flint nodule especially if has nice thick white/yellowish layer rounder it.

I wouldn't dream of breaking apart the larger ones already there, though using a smaller one laying around sounds like a good idea. I am a lover of our dear sarsens, such as the polishers, I wouldn't dream of abusing them. Personal 'religious' reasons, as well as them being an enduring part of our cultural landscape!

I don't exactly have 'neighbours', more like 'near-byers' lol

 

[Toddy]

Unfortunately a huge range of price tags too! I would like to hope I can get this from nature, for free, with all due respect to the landscape, my taking of a hammer stone or two pales in significance against the quarrying that garden centre are involved in.

There is that
Quarrying has a huge long provenance though….Grimes Grave for instance

M

 

[Palaeolite]

There is that
Quarrying has a huge long provenance though….Grimes Grave for instance

M

But Grimes Graves isn't a quarry, is it, it's a mine surely?

 

[Toddy]

It is a mine, but in doing so, they made a huge great hole and a debris pile……just like a quarry.

Where I live we have beautiful sandstone. It's the chose stone for everything from the castles to the cottages. I recognise that stone anywhere. We also have three old quarries within two miles of the house…..there's nowt wrong with a decent local quarry. Enormous acerage extractions for minerals are a different thing, but again, modern life requires resources, and folks find them.

The county I live in is slap bang in the middle of the Scottish coalfields. Folks have this idea that Lanarkshire is a blasted industrial zone. It's not, it's vibrantly green and alive, we just have evidences, if you look for them, of past industrial use.
That's commonplace throughout humanity's history. We change the environment to suit ourselves, but it's funny how things always grow green again….even on the 2,000 year old toxic waste tips from copper mining.

Local quarrying I have no issues with. Importing stone from abroad adds to the pollution by sheer transport fuel needs. On t'other hand often it does give work to poor folks in third world countries. Brutal labour at times, but less than a hundred years ago that was true here too.

First world sensibilities don't often really stand up to third world realities, especially when within living memory we weren't any better.

M

 

[rorymax]

Not wanting to hi-jack this thread but Palaeolite says flint is in abundance in his area, any good sources for flint in west central Scotland, perhaps one for Toddy

 

[Toddy]

No not a one.

We get really good chert though, and good chert is as good as middling flint.

You might get lucky and find a few seawashed flint pebbles down the Ayrshire coast, washed across from Antrim, but other than that, and Boddam in Aberdeenshire, pretty much if you find flint in Scotland, someone took it there.

How much do you need though ? I have some grapefruit sized lumps kicking about in my rock pile

Tell you what we do get though, and it's brilliant too; Arran pitchstone. It erupts right on the beach at Broddick and it's almost like obsidian. Rhum bloodstone too is as good.

Josh (Grooveski) is more the man to talk to about our local stones though.

atb,
M

 

[Palaeolite]

I believe the great vein of flint/chalk of Britain starts somewhere near Birmingham and sweeps down to Sussex. Aside from this and Norfolk (part of the same deposit, glacial?) I don't know of any meaningful deposits in Britain.

My wife is from just north of Glasgow, so I'm very aware of the beauty that Lanarkshire really offers even on the bus from her town into the city you see a lot of green and you can see the Campsie Fells from her old bedroom window, and one of the isles... Skye maybe.

Obviously, I'm not a mod so it's not my job, but I don't mind my threads being hijacked after an answer or two has been given. Hijack away

 

[Toddy]

Okay.

Threads here ramble. It's called conversation It's normal on BcUK. It's usually informative if not a straight line answer to the OP.
Often the ramble ends up right back at the start. The on-going discussion helps keep a thread active, and seen, and thus the answer is more likely than it would be if the thread is relegated through disuse to the bottom of the lists.

However, if it bothers you I will strip the thread bare and put the rest of the stripping out into a seperate "Out takes from…" thread.

On that note; flint is found widely along the North East coast of England, the Yorkshire area in particular, the Wolds, from Flamborough to Holderness. Huge great nodules just wash out of the eroding till. Been there, collected it, couldn't believe nature's bounty of such brilliant stuff

M

 

[rorymax]

Thanks for your understanding Paleolite, appreciated.

Toddy, I would love some flint, if we can arrange me paying postage or somehow collecting it then I would be grateful for that.

I haven't a clue what Arran pitchstone is but it sounds really interesting to try out.

Can you PM me if either is a possibility please.

rorymax

 

[Toddy]

I have a funeral to go to early tomorrow, but if it stays dry I'll have a burrow in the rock pile and get back to you.

Palaeolite, that's just brought something to mind that might do you very well indeed. In my rock pile are sea washed stones, the ones I have are certainly hard enough to work flint. Can you get to a stoney beach ?

M

 

[Palaeolite]

I have a funeral to go to early tomorrow, but if it stays dry I'll have a burrow in the rock pile and get back to you.

Palaeolite, that's just brought something to mind that might do you very well indeed. In my rock pile are sea washed stones, the ones I have are certainly hard enough to work flint. Can you get to a stoney beach ?

M

"Unfortunately", all the Southern beaches, as far as I'm aware, are all sandy, like Bournemouth and Poole. There are plenty of good sized rivers though, like the Kennet and the Avon, the Test, Lambourn and another I used to live by. Failing that, my grandad lives by a big river in central Wales. That's bound to have good round stones, some of which are sarsen-like.

 

[Toddy]

It strikes me it's a good excuse for a few decent walks

M

 

[Palaeocory]

The granite garden centre ones work fine, but the best quality hammerstones I've found are the 'bunter' quartzite pebbles you get from quarries' reject piles (there are some good ones in the midlands). They are really consolidated and smooth, and hard as... a rock? You can get some huge ones for quartering large nodules of flint as well (which we tastelessly refer to as 'babies heads') - unfortunately the garden centres I've been to don't have very big ones.

Flint will work, but is a bit of a time bomb and can 'explode' in the hand!