English Flint

[gstoneberg]

I work with a guy who lives in the UK and comes over to the US about once a quarter.  When I found he had flint in his back yard I asked if he'd bring me some.  He dropped it off today.





I hope to send him home with a point or 2.  Life is good. Sadly, he just told me that he cut a big yew tree down in his yard a week or 2 ago.

George

[Knapper]

How do you explain that one to customs.
Knapper

[Stringman]

That's cool and Not cool all at the same blow! Don't forget to post pics!

[gstoneberg]

He didn't have any customs issues.  Here's how it looks spalled out a little.



George

[iowabow]

Looks like nice stuff. Hey G can you pm me your cell I wanted to send you some rc pictures.

[gstoneberg]

Sent you a PM.  Speaking of that, a redtail hawk went after my little helicopter when I was hovering in front of myself in the front yard last week.  Scared me witless as it came straight at me.  I lawn darted the model and the hawk went over my head about 4' up.  Impressive wingspan and quite loud that close.

George

[Outbackbob48]

Lawn darted your model Last time I heard that rodeo announcer Donnie Gay was talking about a bull riders early dismount . Said that he looked like a yard dart Bob

[gstoneberg]

Yea, I've actually stuck it in the ground twice.  My tail motor is set so it will slide up the boom if/when I crash it tail first.  Looks like this when it happens:



When the hawk attacked I crashed it nose first.  I just didn't want him carrying the thing off a couple blocks and then dropping it where I wouldn't find it.  It takes a crash really well so I was pretty sure it'd be OK and it was.  Haven't had the hawk attack since.

Now, I'm off to go out and hit on that English flint again.  So far it work s just about like good Georgetown.  Looks a lot like it too.

George

[soy]

I couldn't tell you how many models that I have lawn darted   

[gstoneberg]

If you count my airplane flying days I have no idea as well.  I can say I buried planes so deep in the ground you could not see the prop tips.

Back to the flint.  I knocked the chalk off the outside of another nodule.  Things were going well until I started thinning the the base and snapped off the tip.



Now, after fighting my way almost to a point, I can say that English concrete is the equal of the concrete in our flint.  I could not thin through the concrete spots on this chunk.  I did OK with regular percussion, but when I went to indirect I could not hit it hard enough.  It's sort of a point, but too thick to haft at the base. 



Not my best effort.



I'll clean it up a little more and let Neil take it back with him. 

I learned something important tonight.  If it's over 100 degrees in your shop and you knapp in just a swim suit so you can jump in the pool when you're done, you get to pull flint shards out of your chest for quite awhile.   Won't do that again.

George

[cowboy]

Makes ya wanna take a barge over there, ha.  Good looking flint there George!

[YosemiteBen]

Yup! The European flints are purty! I have a tiny bit from England and some blue from the Baltic Sea! I got the blue from a german knapper a few years ago.

[leapingbare]

 Dont forget to save a few pieces of that back for a rainy day.  Stuff hard to come by.
Nice point.  Thats actually the 2nd point of the month.. Should post a pic in that thread of you triangle point.
Aloha a hui hou.

[gstoneberg]

Good point, I will save some, though he promises he'll bring more next time. We're having Neil over for breakfast on Saturday. Really want to cultivate that friendship while he's here. He's also interested in the process, since he lives in flint heaven. Hope to get more pictures then, but I'll make him work on Texas flint.

George

[TRACY]

Nice looking flint. I bought some from Eric Morris a few years back and he told me to soak it in water before knapping it. Seemed to improve after that. He paid to have a cargo semi trailer of it shipped over here and still was able to sell it fairly cheap.

Tracy