Are there any knappers here on TN?

[BurntBear]

I wanted to see if anyone here is doing any knapping. I'm curious to see some work that you may have done and I also have a lot of knapping material that someone might be interested in. I have many large specimens of Chalcedony (blue/grey/white), Agates, some Obsidians, etc.
I have a crap load of the blue/grey/white Chalcedony.

This is a piece I found today: About 40-50 lbs. I cleaned it up some and I didn't use bleach, lol. That's there for a size comparison.

 

[Tnmountains]

Monsterrack is a knapper you might ask him. Feel free to show some of your work.

 

[BurntBear]

I wish I could. I'm not a knapper myself, but I'm very interested in learning. I thought I would probably get some good advice here on TN. These guys are awesome.

 

[rock]

That's a big rock. As far as I know it has to be solid with no cracks or holes in it. I don't knapp but have gave some rocks away I thought to be good ones but found out later they weren't usable.

 

[monsterrack]

That is a big chunk of stone, it's hard to tell if it is good for knapping from a photo. Stone has to be solid like Rock said, a hole here are there does not hurt it but freeze cracks and shock cracks can do a lot of damage. Some stone has to be heat treated , some do not like Obsidian. PM me and we can talk more on this. Cool rockI bet it was tough to get it out of the woods.

 

[painterx7]

I'm no knapper but it looks no good imo

 

[BurntBear]

Thanks for the responses. I honestly wouldn't know good material from the bad. I just know what it is, lol. There is such a variety of minerals here, it's pretty unreal.

Here are some more shots of various Agates and such:

 

[BurntBear]

I bet it was tough to get it out of the woods.

Yes. I threw it on my shoulder and carried it 1/4 of a mile down the mountain. I would do that with any cool specimen though, lol.

 

[rock]

No offense but I don't believe any of what you posted is good for knapping. Monster does work wonders with all types of stone. He is the best I have ever seen for making his own. He might be able to use it. The hairlines in the rock are so small it is hard to see with the naked eye when the rock is no good. Creek rock flint is one of the best useable stone but it has to be a certain depth under water all times of the year to be any good. I did check into it at one time due to I was going to try and sell it. I decided not to sell seeing most of the rock here isn't that great in size.

 

[BurntBear]

Thank you very much. Like I said, I really don't know much about it yet. I have a feeling some of it is usable. Some of it came from under ground or buried in a stream. Thanks for your help. -Luke

 

[JimK]

If you are seriously want to learn knapping try a site called PaleoPlanet Forums Some fantastic folks there. I learned from scratch and loved every minute of it.

JimK