Flint (or Chert) Shards in Canada

maple leaf

maple leaf

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Hi everyone, I am looking for a Canadian source of flint (or chert) shards that I can use with a fire steel to make primitive fires. All the sources I have are in the States. Any help finding a domestic selling in Canada would be appreciated.
 
I was up in Bancroft and picked up a fist sized flint node off the ground. Nice place for a camping trip. Head up this summer, and come home with a lifetime supply. Or if you want just one, send me a PM. If you are anywhere near, I could give you a piece.
 
tumbleweeds13 said:
I was up in Bancroft and picked up a fist sized flint node off the ground. Nice place for a camping trip. Head up this summer, and come home with a lifetime supply. Or if you want just one, send me a PM. If you are anywhere near, I could give you a piece.
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Really, what area were you in that had flint? I didn't know it was available in the Mineral Capital of Canada!
 
I might be wrong but don't think there's much for real flint in north America. I dragged a little back from Denmark in the 90's.

There is some decent chert in the Rockies that should work well but I don't know about in the east.

Obsidian is prized for cutting tools in the west but completely unsuited for fire making.
 
dimeN said:
by the way .. you can often find good stone just by trying out a bunch off the ground.. doesn't have to be flint
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The stone has to be hard and have a fine uniform grain with no stress lines or fractures. I was surprised to find, a number of years ago, that flint is a sedimentary stone as is chert. There was quite a long dissertation on another muzzle loading board, by a fellow who had apparently written a paper or report on chert and flint, while at university. According to him, there is flint in North America but not any great amount. Chert is far more common and I gather occurs in much large pieces called lenses. I presume the small chunks found on the surface are broken away from the lenses. I also recall reading in a arrow head knapping book, that it was important to anneal chert before use and that was done by heating it in a fire and leaving it buried in the ashes until cool. The only time I ever tried that, the stone was cracked in an abundance of pieces. It probably would have been useless even if not annealed.
While watching the show about mining jade in northern BC, I found myself thinking that a lot of their scraps and non commercial quality stone might be able to be knapped into useful gun flints. The stone being mined is called nephradite unless I am mistaken, as opposed to the Chinese jade found I presume in Asia

cheers mooncoon
 
I see the OP is is SW Ontario. There are outcrops of Onondaga chert along the north shore of Lake Erie, particularly along the eastern end by Ft. Erie and Port Colborne. Head to the beach in the early spring and you'll find nodules that can be a foot in diameter. Don't wait too long though, amateur flint knappers comb the beaches for this stuff and the higher quality material goes fast.

Onondaga is not considered to be the highest-grade chert around; it often has a fair amount of inclusions and inconsistencies. If you grab a big nodule of high-quality material you can pick through it and find pockets or lenses that might be suitable.

Otherwise, Flint Ridge chert from Ohio is very high quality, but of course it's expensive to ship. Collingwood/Fossil Hill chert is found in the Blue Mountain/Owen Sound areas and is fairly high quality and fine-grained, but you'll need to find an outcrop to mine.

Whatever you do, avoid the Lockport chert found along the southern end of the Niagara Escarpment. This material has so many imperfections that its usually unusable for anything.
 
mooncoon said:
I also recall reading in a arrow head knapping book, that it was important to anneal chert before use and that was done by heating it in a fire and leaving it buried in the ashes until cool. The only time I ever tried that, the stone was cracked in an abundance of pieces. It probably would have been useless even if not annealed.

cheers mooncoon
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A good way to anneal or heat-treat chert is by preparing roughed-out blanks and burying them in an inch of sand, then building a fire on top. Keep in mind you want the temperature to be between 650-750 degrees C for a couple of hours; the coal bed of a small hardwood fire can easily reach 900 degrees. The heat needs to be reduced slowly, so keep them buried until the next day. Heat-treat several pieces at once, by distributing them evenly in the sand; this will increase the likelihood that some will be located away from any "hot spots" and have a better chance of survival.

When chert is heat-treated, its colour usually changes; Onondaga turns from greyish brown to a blueish grey, and Flint Ridge turns from a creamy white to pink. You'll know you've heat-treated successfully when the material develops these darker colours; often, chert that's been heat-treated at the upper acceptable will have "potlid" scars: tiny hemispherical chunks that pop out of the material's surface, leaving a circular depression.
 
Its a shame you folks aren't a bit closer-where I live black flint is the natural stone. A lot of the old houses and churches are made of it and its just kicking around everywhere.
I can ship any amount over to you for free but the postage is going to be a bit steep!
 
braun said:
I see the OP is is SW Ontario. There are outcrops of Onondaga chert along the north shore of Lake Erie, particularly along the eastern end by Ft. Erie and Port Colborne. Head to the beach in the early spring and you'll find nodules that can be a foot in diameter. Don't wait too long though, amateur flint knappers comb the beaches for this stuff and the higher quality material goes fast.

Onondaga is not considered to be the highest-grade chert around; it often has a fair amount of inclusions and inconsistencies. If you grab a big nodule of high-quality material you can pick through it and find pockets or lenses that might be suitable.

Otherwise, Flint Ridge chert from Ohio is very high quality, but of course it's expensive to ship. Collingwood/Fossil Hill chert is found in the Blue Mountain/Owen Sound areas and is fairly high quality and fine-grained, but you'll need to find an outcrop to mine.

Whatever you do, avoid the Lockport chert found along the southern end of the Niagara Escarpment. This material has so many imperfections that its usually unusable for anything.
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Alot of great Info, thanks!
 
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