Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: juniper junkie on October 01, 2010, 11:00:14 pm
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I am visiting my daughter this week in North Dakota, found some knife river flint. seems to work well, kinda hard though. I dont have my knapping tools with me, but I found some antler and have been working on some points. having trouble spalling out nice flakes, keep making bulbous flakes. I dont have a copper bopper, just a small hammer, not the best tool. maybe I can find a hammer stone to finish flaking. any suggestions on other tools that work well with this material?
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Where at in ND? I have a friend in college up there. I would like to get him to grab some. I don't know what it looks like, and he wouldn't have a clue.
Wayne
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I am in Dunn Center, 120 miles west of Bismarck. it is rootbeer color with white on the outside. there is a little house here called second hand corner that has some for sale. I have been picking it up along the roads.
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Thanks, I will get in touch with my buddy, and see if he can find some.
Wayne
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Wayne, it is root beer colored, transluscent with small fossils inside.
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It is hard, but it makes a pretty durable and sharp point. I wish I had more of it.
Jim
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I used to live along the Knife River in NoDak (Beulah), never had any luck finding much of it in that area, but there were some old mining pits near Golden Valley where the pre-columbian people collected. A geologist told me it was agatized cattail beds that made up the stone.
Since you are in the area, try to get over to the Rainy Buttes area (halfway between Amidon and New England). The Rainy Buttes stone is technically petrified wood, but it is easier to work. And watch out for feral packs of ravenous pheasants in that area!
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where is that in relation to dunn center? there are a lot of pheasants there, just seemed like most of the land was posted.
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Speaking of posted, how about posting some pictures of Knife River Flint....... ;D
Wayne
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Hey, JW: Funny you should mention Rainy Buttes and New England area. Did you happen to see that tall skinny water tower out there? I picked up a bunch of that petrified wood while building that thing long before I even knew you could make an arrowhead :).
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If the material is too hard to work you can always heat treat to make it more flake able. Some where with in a 100 miles of me we have Monterrey Chert, which the natives mostly heat treated, the points they did not were much more crude.
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Something about the Knife River flint I just really like.
Good luck to any of you up there trying to stumble across some of it. ;)
I don't know exactly where to go to find it but there's a lot of info if you Google it.
I wish I had more of it, too, but here's a few pics of some.
Sorry about the indoor lighting.
(http://www.varockhounder.com/uploads/2010101318064299.jpg)
Here's the same two pieces with a spall of root beer obsidian for comparison.
(http://www.varockhounder.com/uploads/201010131808230.jpg)
Here's a point Hardawaypoints Jim made several years ago.
(http://www.varockhounder.com/uploads/2010101318105158.jpg)
(http://www.varockhounder.com/uploads/2010101318115443.jpg)
And here's a pic of a point my wife bought for me a few years ago. Ofcourse she
was told it was authentic old, but to tell you the truth, wondering has made the
thing a 'Big' thorn in my side ever since. After thanking her I told her not to ever do
that again. ;) I've always thought it was some fossil-filled chert from Kentucky or
Tenn. but now that I look at it again, it might be Knife River.
(http://www.varockhounder.com/uploads/2010101318181608.jpg)
All I can say is, Get as much of it as you can!
Joe
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Thanks Joe, I appreciate the pictures. Well at least she got you something that you are interested in.......could've been a tie with smiley faces...... ;D :) :) :) yeah, I definitely want to get some of that knife river flint.
Wayne
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I would offer a kidney to someone for a Knife River gunflint for my .50. Had one once and it lasted for the longest time and made the hottest dang sparks you ever saw! Good stuff, Maynard.
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Wow Joe, I almost forgot about that point. That was some killer Knife River though. Wish I had a truckload or two of it.
I'm down to a couple of primo pieces of it that I just can't make myself break into until I get some more.
I have a friend who goes duck hunting in N.D. each Fall who I am trying to talk into finding some to bring back for me...no luch so far. I like the Rainy Buttes too. It does work easier than Knife River and makes an ancient looking point the way the texture of it is.
Jim
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so, what is a good temp to heat treat this at? how long?
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Well Jim, I guess we're just going to have to go and get some ourselves.
I love North Dakota. Wonder if it's changed much in the last 30 years. ;)
JJ, Good quality Knife River doesn't necessarily have to be heat treated, but here's
one link to a site with cooking recipes. I'm sure there are others.
http://orerockon.com/Heat_treating.htm
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I finally got around to making some points. takes some getting used to but flakes nicely. I make this 6" bi-face last night. you can see the fossils in the material, these sometimes inhibit the flake. it makes a tough sharp blade. the blade is 1/2" thick.
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Knife River works great using a hammerstone or antler. Heat treatment is very tricky with this material and I think makes the rock work worse. I used to knapp with copper tools and found KR difficult to work but since switching to abo, I've realized that abo tools just eat raw rock for dinner!. In my opinion, abo tools are superior to copper for that reason and many others.
Recomendations:
Work Knife River raw
Try using an antler billet or punch but make sure your platforms are smaller and sharper than for copper
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JW, let me dig through my pile of Debitage. It wouldn't hurt to have an extra Kidney laying around, just in case.