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Flint Identification
- Thread starter peripatew
- Start date
It's usually pretty common wherever there is limestone, and you can sometimes find it under the base of fallen trees where it had been compressed. Comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors according to location, etc.
Ranges from black, to grey, to brownish, reddish, and probably a few more that I haven't seen.
Growing up in Tennessee and Mississippi I was able to find the stuff all over the place. Don't imagine it would be much harder in Arkansas. Just gotta get out there and look for it I suspect. Maybe someone else will come along that has a more methodical or scientific approach to finding it.
Gautier
Ranges from black, to grey, to brownish, reddish, and probably a few more that I haven't seen.
Growing up in Tennessee and Mississippi I was able to find the stuff all over the place. Don't imagine it would be much harder in Arkansas. Just gotta get out there and look for it I suspect. Maybe someone else will come along that has a more methodical or scientific approach to finding it.
Gautier
I personal don't know of another surefire way to test it other than to strike it against a piece of carbon steel. Then again, that's not necessarily a guarantee as it could be chert or quartz. Both chert and quartz can be used to start a fire though, but flint is generally preferred. Only other thing I could suggest to look for is that it's a relatively smooth but dull stone with a "long grain" and somewhat translucent around the edges when thin or chipped.
Gautier
Gautier
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- Apr 14, 2006
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The way I understand it is that flint occurs in chalk and chert does not, otherwise they are basically the same. If I'm wrong, please correct. I know there is at least one geologist on this forum.
Doc
Doc
I wish I knew more about this also. Sometime ago, I found a web-page,
now dead link, that showed some of this. One thing I remember is that
it is not always obvious. A round dirty-looking rock may contain chert.
It reminded me of finding a geode.
I believe flint or chert contains Silicon-Oxygen and Limestone is
Calcium-Carbon-Oxygen. I am not saying you wont find them together;
because I do not really know.
edit: I googled
finding flint OR chert
One link said they are commonly found together and "jasper" is a redish
form of flint/chert.
As a kid, I used to find distinctive pieces in a spring, especially after a rain.
We supposed that indians had worked the material.
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- Aug 24, 2003
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I am for the most part self-taught flint knapper so I don't have the knowledge to identify different types of rock by name, all I know is what works in my geography from experience.
That being said, if you can't find someone in your area to help, start banging rocks rocks together and listen. The higher the pitch, the more glass content. The more glass content, the better. From there you can spall your high pitched rock and experiment. Do a search on flint knapping so you get a visual idea of what raw material looks after it has been spalled. Hope this helps.
That being said, if you can't find someone in your area to help, start banging rocks rocks together and listen. The higher the pitch, the more glass content. The more glass content, the better. From there you can spall your high pitched rock and experiment. Do a search on flint knapping so you get a visual idea of what raw material looks after it has been spalled. Hope this helps.
Codger_64
Moderator
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- Oct 8, 2004
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There are rock shops all around you. Check with them first. Or... just buy a true flint node from England or France. These are known for purity and hot sparking.
Codger
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=3673
Codger
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=3673
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Flint knapping and rock identification is something I have been looking into lately. Here are some good web sites I have found that offer some great info (as well as pictures... I need them
) on identifying flint rock.
http://spamandchips.net/archaeology/flakesin.htm
http://jersey.uoregon.edu/~mstrick/MinRockID/RockID/Sedimentary.html
http://www.angelstarcreations.com/rocks_minerals/rocks.htm
) on identifying flint rock. http://spamandchips.net/archaeology/flakesin.htm
http://jersey.uoregon.edu/~mstrick/MinRockID/RockID/Sedimentary.html
http://www.angelstarcreations.com/rocks_minerals/rocks.htm
This has mostly been answered, but I'm a geology student and this is what I know-
Flint is the darker sort of Chert, usually a shade of gray or brown. Jasper is the red colored form, and agate is the banded form. They are all very compact sedimentary rocks composed of microcrystalline silica. The darker color of flint is caused by organic matter included in the sediment.
Chert is usually found as irregularly shaped nodules in limestone beds, but can also compose complete beds of its own.
It really depends on the bedrock geology of where you are - check your state maps. If you're in an area with surrounded by alluminious schist or something, you won't have much luck looking for flint unless it's was dropped there by glaciers or something.
Flint is the darker sort of Chert, usually a shade of gray or brown. Jasper is the red colored form, and agate is the banded form. They are all very compact sedimentary rocks composed of microcrystalline silica. The darker color of flint is caused by organic matter included in the sediment.
Chert is usually found as irregularly shaped nodules in limestone beds, but can also compose complete beds of its own.
It really depends on the bedrock geology of where you are - check your state maps. If you're in an area with surrounded by alluminious schist or something, you won't have much luck looking for flint unless it's was dropped there by glaciers or something.
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A good way of finding a flint type rock is to look for opaquness and sharp edges when broken. I recently made a flint striker and carry it around on hikes, if I see a rock that looks like it may be a good one I test it out. I have bought some english flint and it works ok, but it doesnt hold a candle to a piece of greenish-gray jasper that I recently found. Chert or jasper has been know to be harder than flint and is more common in most places. Quartz is easily found in a lot of places and will work for fire starting, but it does not last as long and chips away a lot easier than harder rocks.
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Here is couple of arrowheads I made and my favorite knife, moose antler, hand drill, etc. The arrowheads are chert. The darker gray one on the right I believe some would call gun flint. Hard to see the pink in the lighter colored chert, but all pieces were cooked.
How do you know when to cook? My guess: when it is too granular or sandy.
it's really hard to ID those from a picture, but the gray ones look like flint alright. If they sparked, than they probably are.
Also, you theoretically should be able to use quartz to make sparks, as it's hard enough. I don't know, never tried it. Quartz is present in the majority of rocks in found in continental crust, and really not hard to find. Basically, if a rock can scratch your bit of steel, it should work - i would guess. never tried it though
Also, you theoretically should be able to use quartz to make sparks, as it's hard enough. I don't know, never tried it. Quartz is present in the majority of rocks in found in continental crust, and really not hard to find. Basically, if a rock can scratch your bit of steel, it should work - i would guess. never tried it though
Today my dad come home from a fishing trip and shows me some rocks that are shiny black like glass. when i asked him where he got it he said there are all over the place the size of basketballs.. So next time he goes there i would ask him to get me some of the large rocks... Never played with them before but with enough rocks i should get something half way decent..
sasha
sasha
can you see light through them or are they opaque?
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Can anyone Id these?
I found these on a road in a national forest. I struck them with a file they sparked. The sparks were itty-bitty though,
Can anyone use these with natural tinder to start a fire?
If so,I tried with a cotton ball it had no luck.
Don't know what it is called, but it looks promising.
Have only gotten char cloth (from cotton) to light, but then again that is all I have tried because the sparks are not that hot. I would imagine charred cattail down would work.