pedernales chert

[carpenter374]

hey all. i've got some pedernales rock comin my way via a relative that lives down that way. what do y'all know about that stuff? does it work raw'? what are the best tools to work it with? ive also found a workable variety of rock in the limestone around here. its a midnight blue slightly grainy stone. a lil waxy too. it flakes wonderfully though. it wont spark agianst flint steel or quartzite so im not sure what it is. otoe, the dam at gore on the arkansas river has limestone riprap that is from the same quarry.

[david w.]

cowboy works ALOT of of this stuff.  he is one superb knapper

he sent me a box of it and its hard but you can work it raw and it is some durable stuff i have shot things with the points i make out of ped chert that would easily have broken obsidian.

so it a little tough to work but i have never used anyhting else except i made 1 glass point so i dont know anything else beside peds.  i dont know if thats a good or bad thing

[cowboy]

Thanks David, sounds like your having some success with that stuff .
  carpenter: I have broke a lot of that stuff, if you happen to get some of the really dark root beer variety, or the pinkish stuff - it works pretty good raw. But if you want to slick it up some - cook it. It'll all work nice enough cooked. Good luck..

[Otoe Bow]

I'm up around Gore quite a bit.  I'll have to check out the rock on the Arkansas.  Strange that they would haul that stuff all the way across the state when there's rock everywhere in them parts. 

Ain't it funny how once you never saw the trees for the forest, or the rocks for the ground?  See, even that's backwards from how most people say it.  Now I find myself looking at individual trees and every rock on the ground. 

Mike