Just one simple question about flint knapping.

[lenador]

I've been rock hunting for a about a week now and I've found a couple of rocks that could be knappable candidates. I've got one simple question......how in the world do you split these rocks open to get a better look at the core? I can barely get chips off these things. Lots of sparks damaged metal so I j ow the rocks are pretty hard.

[Zuma]

Can you post some pics of the rocks?
Zuma

[lenador]

Bear with me, I can only post one picture per post.

These are all from creek/river beds.

[lenador]

[lenador]

This one was very hard to chip and made sparks fairly easy on steel but it looks pretty "flaky" in the picture it seems.

[nclonghunter]

I am going to step out on a limb on this one...may help to know what area (state) you are finding the rock. The top photo looks like a hard rhyolite (maybe). The middle one is hard to say since I can only see the outer cortex or skin. It does not look like a knappable rock. The third looks like a quartz of some type and may be workable to some degree.

All three do not appear to have great "conical fractures" from what I can see. There are flints or charts that break clean and smooth and some are harder to work. What I am trying to say is those rocks may be workable but they appear they would be a real challenge compared to better quality rock.

Just what I am seeing....hopefully someone with more knowledge will help out.

[lenador]

That's kind of what I was leaning towards. I'm curious as to how or where to start as far as trying to break a way or crack the rocks to see the inside.

[TRACY]

Looks like some kind of milky quartz or man rock, not knappable. If you mention location the  guys can give you a heads up or prospect of rock in your area to save time and your arm

Sounds like your looking in good areas.


Tracy

[lenador]

Sorry my bad. I live close to starved rock in IL. My specific location is mendota IL. Lots if rivers in our area, lots of chunks of land opened by glaciers, we even have a piece of Canada that was pushed here by a glacier. Its not very uncommon to find arrow heads around here.

[nclonghunter]

I live in NC and man rock Rhyolite is the common rock here and it is hard. I use a hammer sometimes to knock corner edges to get large flakes and reduce the core. A large granite rock has also been used and works. Some folks like to use dogwood billets to reduce hard rock.
Pete Davis in Virginia and some others break and make points out of rock with iron in it. He would be a great source to ask on reducing hard rock.
Another method is to dig a partial hole and put a round hard rock in the center. Lay the rock you want to break in half on top and then hit it with another dead center on top and it will sometimes break in to two pieces of equal size.
Good Luck

[Stringman]

I live a couple hours south of ya and I've walked thru the starved rock area a few times. I have only found a few small pieces there but, I'm confident there's some good stuff. If you can take a trip to the western side of the state you will have better luck looking in the creeks. Since the Mississippi River valley tends to have a plethora of knapable rocks.

Good luck with the rock hunting, and let us know how it goes.

[lenador]

Yeah I'm only a hour or so from the Mississippi.

[JackCrafty]

Looks like you have a lot of quartzite there.  Good for hammerstones but bad for arrowheads.  You can break the quartzite with a sledge hammer and protective eyewear. 

[lenador]

Couldn't find much info about what type of rick was used but it does seem that they didn't prefer the rock around here. Looks like they did use knapped rock but mostly used bone or antler and after the French trade they used flint from the guns and glass. This makes me think they had the same rock as I have now.

[lenador]

Here is a pic of arrowheads from the natives in this area.