Rocks in NY

[Blaflair2]

I've never knapped anything in my life, wanted to look into it. I live in ithaca basically, on the edge of Cayuga lake and surrounded by streams and what not. What should I look for while trying to find rocks. Just find a big rocks and start smashing other rocks? Lol

Also. I have a stone firepit I made and one of the rocks, about a 1.5' round reddish white rock that blew up. It blew into flakes. I thought it was shale. Does shale get round from being in the lake or could it be something else. Ill post a pic when I get home

[TacticalFate]

I'm not sure if there's any knappable rock in your area, but you should get in touch with Ithaca Primitive Pursuits, they're an organization out of Ithaca College that does primitive skills camps and workshops, my friend worked there this summer. She said they had some stone, but it was imported. You should definitely contact them and ask about local rock or if they know where to find  Onondaga chert up north on the Onondaga escarpment. I currently live in Syracuse right now, attending SUNY ESF. I'd suggest starting with glass, to get your skills up.

[JacksonCash]

North lies your future. When I get home today I'll link you to some geological maps. Actually, just look for the post "Stone Identification" and there is a link in there. I gather that there is quite a bit of chert in a nice line from Buffalo, through Syracuse, and on to Albany. Don't know too much about it yet firsthand, but hopefully I will be making a trip that way this weekend.

[NeolithicMan]

We might not have much in the way of knappables but we have lots of broken glass! practice on thick glass, beer bottle bottoms, old windows, ashtray bases...etc. we do have some rocks around though, flint in roadside ditches where they dump limestone to slow errosion, there is some chert... i have yet to find big enough chuncks to do anythin with but its here!

[jeffhalfrack]

Hey  B2  small world I' m in Geneva the other end of Seneca lake I think Jason is talking about the Waterloo meridian? there is some stuff   no telling what these drumlins kick up  my buddy Don goes to Ithica alot to nap good luck JeffW

[Blaflair2]

Cool. My fiances friends brother started primitive pursuits. Maybe I'll have to contact him