Flint in Cornwall?

Hello Chaps

New to actually knapping anything, but I've been interested for ages now and would finally like to have a go, but the problem is finding flint. Is there any in Cornwall, and what do you think of thick glass as a suitable stand in?

'Fraid I can't help about whether there's flint in Cornwall, but I do a fair bit of knapping using glass.

Coming from Scotland (the land of great hammer and grinding stones, but no flint) I am happy to improvise using the bases from bottles, lumps of old bathroom sinks, or any material which reacts in a similar way to flint.

Lumps of old bathroom sinks, sounds interesting, and possibly easier to find then thick glass. Do you have any further information?

I don't know about flint in Cornwall, it's full of volcanic fissures and has perhaps the only supply of obsidian in the England, pretty decent stuff, I've got some at home.

However Beer in Devon has some of the finest quality flint on planet Earth. Check out the quarry there.

Thanks Grendal I'll do that

Found this on the web, pretty much a picture guide on how to find flint in Beer, seems the beach is a good place to look.

http://www.devon.gov.uk/geo-chalk.pdf

http://www.beer-devon.co.uk/flint.htm

Thanks for that Grendel, I have the odd trip up the A35 to do from time to time, so I'll factor in a wee stop along the way and see what I can find.

As for flaking yer chanty (or bathroom utilities as they are also known) as long as when you strike the porcelene, you get a bulb of percussion, then it can be knapped.

If you don't have a great supply of flint, it can be a fun way of practising. In my humble opinion, it is also more inclined to suffer breakages through shock than most flint.

Puritants may frown at you for using such materials, but I've seen some beautiful arrowheads made from the bottoms of old beer bottles.

Beer bottle or whisky bottle bottom arrowheads are perfectly authentic. The Americans Indians quickly discovered the virtues of glass over local rock, especially in areas with little knappable rocks. Another one they went for were the solid glass insulators at the top of telegraph poles. They used to climb the poles and nick the insulator to smash and knap. It was one of the main reasons the telegraph broke down. It was such a problem for the telegraph company they started to leave small piles of broken glass at the bottom of each telegraph pole so the Indians took that instead.

glass insulators

Great info guys thanks, Wonder if I should start drinking beer based on bottle bottom thickness rather than taste

Shepherd Neame bottles are a unique shape, they have extra large bottoms and much flatter than other bottles.

I usually drink Fullers London Por't knap well, so sometimes have to make the sacrifice and drink some of these.





if you check part four of this vid, you'll see just about the most ingenious way of getting the bottom off a bottle ever.


https://uk-knapping.forumotion.co.uk/t52-knapping-for-beginners-a-complete-course

Superb, thanks Grendel. I've just tried that technique on a Crabbie's Ginger Beer bottle and it works very well, and is strangely addictive.

This is a post I copied from the UKKnapping Yahoo Group (lets hope they don't sue me)

Beer Flint collecting
1) Nodules exposed by fresh cliff-falls can be of good quality - a
rich black colour. Whilst not full of inclusions, it is often full of
cracks - perhaps due to the shock of the cliff fall? However, some
extremely workable rock can be found from below the cliff-face - it's
just a case of knocking off a few spalls to test it.

2) Flint cobbles from the beach itself are an excellent source of
knappable material. The colour varies from grey to black and has very
few internal flaws.

3) Some of beach cobbles are almost white in colour which are
difficult to work without heat treating. Once treated, the flakes are
of a nice glossy appearance and is relatively easy to pressure flake.

All the best

Tony
Beer -South Devon

Drive almost down to the seafront and turn left just before the pub and
telephone box to park in the closest car park to the sea front. The car
park does get full quickly during the tourist season, so it is best to
get their early in the morning, or late in the afternoon. Also, make
sure you plan your trip to coincide with low tide.

Walk down to the beach (50 yds) and then towards the breakwater (east).
The chalk cliffs here have numerous flint veins. There are regular cliff
falls the bring down fresh quantities of flint to the beach below. The
area immediately below the face of the cliff is fenced-off (it was the
last time I visited) to prevent people getting too close to the
potentially dangerous cliff base.

Flint nodules can be found in the cliff falls and on the beach itself.
The beach nodules are very numerous, with the largest ones found around
the low-tide mark. The best area is immediately to the west of the
breakwater.

The quality of the flint is variable. The best flint is jet black and is
very easy to work (needs good platform preparation though). The grey
flint is still easy to work but can contain a number of impurities that
can make knapping more difficult. Be wary that some of the nodules have
a lot of internal fractures – so these need to be avoided. Some pure
white chert is also available and I have found one nodule that had
beautiful light brown and bright red veins – quite spectacular. It was
too tough to pressure flake and didn't work well with a hard hammer.
Just got to find another one to see if it responds to heat treatment.

very interesting - I had thought the uk only had 2 knappers and 1 trying to be a knapper (@;

I'm still a wannabee too, so that makes 4 of us

I really don't like the setup of the yahoo groups, they don't feel like 'proper' forums. I am a member of a couple of them and find that even checking out new posts is way too much pilaver to keep me interested.

Lumpendoodle wrote:I'm still a wannabee too, so that makes 4 of us

I really don't like the setup of the yahoo groups, they don't feel like 'proper' forums. I am a member of a couple of them and find that even checking out new posts is way too much pilaver to keep me interested.

good to see you posting Lumpy I thought you had emigrated.

Been busy making detector covers and holsters, so not much spare time for knapping (or even detecting) at the moment.

Aahh..... The price of fame.

So business is booming.

Wouldn't say booming (don't think it will replace the day job), but it's certainly going to pay the costs of going to a couple detecting rallies and the odd other weekend this year.

I'm actually really enjoying making the stuff, and I've ended up meeting some really nice folk while arranging their orders.

I'm in the business of recording detector finds, wanna see some cool stuff? I'll post some pics if the finders don't mind. I'll ask.
I like Beer Tony's comment about flint being variable in quality from the beach, and I agree, selection is so damned tricky when you have a whole beach of the battered stuff but you know the primo when you see it

I'm in the business of recording detector finds, wanna see some cool stuff? I'll
post some pics if the finders don't mind. I'll ask.

very interesting - you must explain a bit more of what you do - detecting has been my life for 30 yrs.

Grendel wrote:I don't know about flint in Cornwall, it's full of volcanic fissures and has perhaps the only supply of obsidian in the England, pretty decent stuff, I've got some at home.

However Beer in Devon has some of the finest quality flint on planet Earth. Check out the quarry there.

Ooooohhhh I would love to get my hands on some Obsidian, which part of Cornwall is best for that Grendel?

I got mine from a rock shop in Cornwall and they weren't giving away the location. It was also pitchstone not obsidian.

a bit of information is in this thread - https://uk-knapping.forumotion.co.uk/t31p20-copper-boppers