Knapping gun flints

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Hamlet69

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Just read the thread about where to source gun flints and it got me to thinking about making them from scratch. I am presuming most are coming from folks in the UK or stateside. I have been trying to connect with a local university that has a strong archeology lithics department but haven't cracked that inner sanctum yet. Anyone decoded this black art and are willing to mentor or share the secrets of the trade? Books or videos that are specific to gun flints?
Cheers
JT on the West Coast
 
I haven't...but it can't be difficult.

Try contacting Will Lord in England? https://www.will-lord.co.uk/

I believe he's in the east of England and the flint is nothing short of incredible. I saw a video of him in a prehistoric flint quarry near where he's from and nodes of football and better sized jet black, solid flint was everywhere! And that's what's left from being picked through for millennia. It was wild.
I'd bet he'd even do an instructional vid on the topic and would bang them out like a machine.
 
Heres one ive looked at, and also I recently bought the book from amazon...Not his, but what he describes in his vid.
Its an old reprint, but it fairly good read. it does look into the tools and how to use them, like how he describes in this vid.
The book is called...

On the manufacture of gun-flints, the methods of excavating for fling, the age of palæolithic man, and the connexion between neolithic art and the gun-flint trade​

about $20 paperback.

 
mckutzy said:
Heres one ive looked at, and also I recently bought the book from amazon...Not his, but what he describes in his vid.
Its an old reprint, but it fairly good read. it does look into the tools and how to use them, like how he describes in this vid.
The book is called...

On the manufacture of gun-flints, the methods of excavating for fling, the age of palæolithic man, and the connexion between neolithic art and the gun-flint trade​

about $20 paperback.

Click to expand...
The mystery revealed. The use of a purpose built anvil allows one to shape the flake very quickly/easily. I'm convinced this would have been work for kids rather than men.
 
There probably was a few experts in the buisnesses, but ya, seeing how children were used to sweep chimneys, coal breakers, and a myriad of other industries in regular workplaces till 1830's when laws changed......I wouldnt be surprised...
 
Not too difficult as long as you can find flint as I do not think chert or quarts would work even if they are knappable. Obsidian is Volcanic glass so that’s not even a question. I have heard John stone might work.

The core method works further you get down the core small the flints are you could also just use flakes big enough and thick enough to stand up to the abuse it’s not rocket science you are just trying to get enough sparks to set of powder.

A lot of what is called flint in North America is chert.
 
antiqueguy said:
Not too difficult as long as you can find flint as I do not think chert or quarts would work even if they are knappable. Obsidian is Volcanic glass so that’s not even a question. I have heard John stone might work.

The core method works further you get down the core small the flints are you could also just use flakes big enough and thick enough to stand up to the abuse it’s not rocket science you are just trying to get enough sparks to set of powder.

A lot of what is called flint in North America is chert.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that flint is chert. There are all kinds of chert, flint possesses the best attributes of the cherts as it's workable, usually has few inclusions and interruptions of other material in it, and where it is available, it is readily available.

Flint is found in chalk deposits, and is essentially the prehistoric marine material that would have produced oil under different circumstances. Flint, calcified or solidified, mineralized if you will, when trapped in chalk. Other cherts, like Onondaga is found in limestone skrees, chert nodes will be mixed in with shale. With that chert, you have to know what you're looking for, more so than with flint, which stands out against the chalk.

I'm told that when working chert, be it flint or otherwise, one can smell petroleum when the stone is opened. John stone (the interior, not the glazed outer surface) would be a very good simulant to chert, but I believe it would be soft and brittle compared to chert. Glass isn't stone. I doubt it would spark steel.
 
Flint nodules and spalls can be purchased if you want to experiment.
Watched a video of a knapper knocking off flakes a few inches long. Trapezoidal cross section. Broken into pieces 5/8 - 3/4 inches wide the pieces could be trimmed into gunflints.
Compared with projectile points or other edged tools, gunflints are pretty basic pieces.
 
I have a bunch of Rich Pierce flints, he's from Arkansas. He used a local Chert, its white, and off hand it almost seems to be a bit harder than flint....but a test i saw says its almost the same.
It breaks almost the same, but has a pretty good life to the flint edge.
I bought a bunch for my smaller rifle but also had gotten some musket flints...

As ive seen in a number of tests on materials for flints... obsidian doesnt perform at all, actual glass is more stable, but likewise doesnt strike a light.

A number of other rocks can be almost as good, anything really with the same hardness of 7 will do.
In the new year Im going to be looking into making flints from various materials of what I can find or make out of, Of which just about any random stone, but quartz jasper and agate are a common find.
Ive also heard some doing experiments with porcelain tiles, cutting them to shape that fits. they seem to be about a 7 aswell.
 
mckutzy said:
I have a bunch of Rich Pierce flints, he's from Arkansas. He used a local Chert, its white, and off hand it almost seems to be a bit harder than flint....but a test i saw says its almost the same.
It breaks almost the same, but has a pretty good life to the flint edge.
I bought a bunch for my smaller rifle but also had gotten some musket flints...

As ive seen in a number of tests on materials for flints... obsidian doesnt perform at all, actual glass is more stable, but likewise doesnt strike a light.

A number of other rocks can be almost as good, anything really with the same hardness of 7 will do.
In the new year Im going to be looking into making flints from various materials of what I can find or make out of, Of which just about any random stone, but quartz jasper and agate are a common find.
Ive also heard some doing experiments with porcelain tiles, cutting them to shape that fits. they seem to be about a 7 aswell.
Click to expand...
Yep. The term "John Stone" references porcelain from toilets. It's workable (knapping), but how practical or good it is, idk.
 
hehehe.... Okay... good to know.... I didnt actually hear that one before...
Even though I have actually tried before to do some Knapping on the toilette porcelain, back in the day...
 
There are numerous types of rocks that can be knapped to a sharp edge for arrow heads, spear points or a knife but relatively few that can be used as a gun flint. Obsidian is a classic example of what can be knapped to a sharp edge: at a Lethbridge rendezvous I salvaged a shard off the mat of a knapper and used it to cut up my steak, without cutting myself, at the BBQ later that day. One of their crowd actually knapped a couple of my worn out rifle flints back to as-new condition so it can be done. There is a knapping club in southern Alberta that might have a website...
 
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