Flint questions. North Alabama

[Marks]

I'm new to the primative bow scene and clueless when it comes to flint. My only experience with it is from the boy scout days when some jerk threw some in the fire and I got my finger burned when it blew up and a piece landed in my camp chair. I'm in NW Alabama. Near Florence.

Yesterday I was hog hunting with my compound bow (don't shun me. I havent successfully made a shootable self bow yet ) and found what looks like a flint type rock. If fact, I found a bunch of it. I busted it open and it broke off a few pretty sharp pieces so I think its flint but its mostly white with a little grey. The flint from boy scout camp was always grey to dark grey. I assume there are different kinds. Is there a flint ID website or something like that? I should have taken pics but I didn't. I will likely be back there tomorrow morning. I may take some then. I'm not really interested in flintknapping at this stage of the game but I would be willing to trade some of it. I may take a stab at it once I can get a decent shootable bow and shoot reasonably accurately. I'll probly start out with steel points. Baby steps.

[Tower]

You are correct. Flints, cherts, agates,  & other knappable stone can be black, white, & any color in between. In some areas quality stone can be hard to find. I'm not familiar with your area. Give it a try & see what happenes.

[Will H]

You are in a VERY flint rich area. Most of the flint your gonna find there is what's called FtPayne or Tn River chert. The problem with collecting rock to trade is that if your not a knapper you can't know how to grade your rock i.e. check for freeze lines and grade workability of rock. I do alot of collecting and it takes alot of trial and error to get to where you can "high grade" when on a rock run. That said, you could definatley learn to knap without buying rock but I wouldn't try to collect and trade until you learn what u got

[Marks]

You are in a VERY flint rich area. Most of the flint your gonna find there is what's called FtPayne or Tn River chert.

The stuff I found it is about 100yds from the TN River and is in the floodplain of river it self. I found it in a wash that goes to the river. I'll make a few pics a put em up here this weekend.