Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: Ahnlaashock on January 03, 2014, 05:28:00 am
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I am a beginner, even tho I am an experienced lapidary. I started trying to learn how to make simple tools, the way they did, from available local resources. I knew there was a local chert in sizable pieces, and that has since been identified as Burlington.
Everyone says Burlington, like it means one thing. Well, that isn't how it is here. I have brown grainy material, all the way to agate like translucent material. Heck, I even have a piece with a barber pole swirl. I have several grades of Burlington, that do not require any kind of treatment to knap well and easily. The best is almost as easy to work as good true flint, and only obsidian has been easier to work for me.
I can post photos of the various grades I have so far encountered, if needed.
The very best working material so far, is a glassy banded/swirly pure white to gray material. It compares very well with many lapidary materials. It even fractures to a smooth shiny surface, time after time. You can push flakes on it raw with a pressure tool. Unfortunately, the piece I found was float, and badly fractured. The material appears in the creek over a wide area, but it is all in small pieces, about golf ball size. It patinas white or banded. The piece I worked was from near the top of a ridge, in a very steep valley. The top layer was this pure material, but the other parts of the same core were much courser grained and hard to work even with hammer stones. The finer material compares favorably with many agates or fine lapidary materials, and would make a fine polished piece also. So far, it is not translucent, but instead is of a solid color, although it may be swirled or banded. Many of the fine grained smaller pieces appear to be a solid gray inside if struck, even if they were banded in the patina. Some of this material is translucent. If you are used to working with tough stone, you will hit this one too hard in the beginning. Brushing up the edges makes flakes rain like crazy, it can be worked all the way to pressure stage, using antler billets, and one of my billets is a whitetail tine. Both ends can be swung to work the better material. Oddly enough, the tine billet tends to knock almost hollow ground edges when used.
I also found limited quantities of a darker gray material that does things like produce three inch flat flakes, but so far, that supply is very limited.
I even found a version that has sparkles all throughout the material, making it look like it has glitter inside the stone. It works okay, but the edges are not as sharp as the more solid material. It appears to be small crystals locked together in a matrix when you start to work it. For jewelry use, it might make perfect points, but for actual use, it isn't sharp enough or tough enough.
So far, here in northern Jefferson County, the material is mostly the gray stuff that leaves a grainy pebbled surface on flake scars. I found one deposit of a much finer grained material in large pieces. I posted a picture of it in the Jefferson County Chert thread. It is also not translucent. There is a much finer grained gray material that is hidden under a variety of patinas that is common here also. It is very hard to work without treatment of some kind. Some of this material is translucent. It is just hard and tough.
The much better material I was talking about, is from Washington County for the most part. I have found a white material that may or may not be banded, and may or may not be workable there. The very best being this incredible material I have been bragging about, and the worst is thin layers with layers of concrete in between each.
There is a gray material found in larger pieces, with the patina we recognize as Meramec cobble here in this area. It is often in layers also, and is often badly twisted and uneven. Good layers can be worked pretty easy, but I don't know about flaking with pressure or not. Why one forms the brown patina, and the other forms a white or banded patina, is not evident from the material itself. Inside, a flake from each can be confused with each other.
So, when you say Burlington, as so many do, are you describing one certain type of Burlington, or are you discussing it in general? I am not sure the spread of material I have found, even in this short time period of searching, fits under one name or variety.
Describe what you call Burlington, please!
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There could be other rock present besides Burlington Chert. What you have to realize is that you are talking about rock formations within a geological area that could be mixed with other eroded strata from earlier periods unless you find the rock in a formation that can be identified. Being familiar with lapidary, you should know that Jade for example can be quite varied. Well, so can chert. Perhaps you are finding different rocks and some Burlington as well.
Novaculite can be anything from a sandstone like texture (which the whetstone industry loves) to something that looks much like a chalcedony and is translucent. It's all about geology.
This shows some variety in Burlington: http://www.uiowa.edu/~osa/lithics/drawers/OutOfState/DrawerLGImages/Drawer8Images.html (http://www.uiowa.edu/~osa/lithics/drawers/OutOfState/DrawerLGImages/Drawer8Images.html)
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While there may be the odd rock that is not Burlington, most of it is. I have seen examples of the various types or grades being part of the same piece, as with the best I have found. It was the top layer, and what was under it would have been like working quartzite. I spent the last two days spalling and removing flaw from the pieces I collected here close to home.
It runs from very course, almost quartzite textured, or even larger crystals that sparkle in some samples, to glassy and translucent. From solid color to banded to layered. From pure white, to dark gray.
I was watching a video, and the person said that the stone they were working, was a lot like working Burlington. That kind of threw me, since what that means, is you pick up each piece and see how hard you have to hit this specimen. The strikes used to spall the last piece, might completely shatter this chunk, or may not even bother it at all.
Making blade or flake functional tools is no problem, but i still can not push a flake at all. That is why I am going to heat treat a batch. I am keeping plenty as is. I still plan to learn how to work it fully raw also. I took a picture of the stuff I am cleaning up right now, with flakes of the other grades mixed in. Heck, there is even one of my pitiful blade points, or a partial anyway. It sits on similar material. It is all the same material, and seems to basically be different grades. The glassy chunks might have been heated in nature, but they are a class way above any of the others. I just have not yet found large chunks of that material that is not already fractured badly. In the creek, it averages about golf ball size chunks. I did not have any of the brown handy. The big spall is right at 6 inches.
(http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq16/ahnlaashock/021-1.jpg) (http://s429.photobucket.com/user/ahnlaashock/media/021-1.jpg.html)
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Go to the university of Iowa and down load the geological survey. I live just outside of Burlington Iowa and the formation is named after this area. That survey will explain in detail what Burlington is.
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Another link https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002NC/finalprogram/abstract_32594.htm (https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002NC/finalprogram/abstract_32594.htm)
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http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CEQQFjAJ&url=ftp%3A%2F%2Fftp.igsb.uiowa.edu%2Figspubs%2Fpdf%2FGB-23.pdf&ei=nPLHUvX5H-H4yAGQ1oGIAQ&usg=AFQjCNEIqNBTaIF6QEyBuYzn1OYA1innHA&sig2=Wd8SmCxEnoCIt3tGkey4GQ (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CEQQFjAJ&url=ftp%3A%2F%2Fftp.igsb.uiowa.edu%2Figspubs%2Fpdf%2FGB-23.pdf&ei=nPLHUvX5H-H4yAGQ1oGIAQ&usg=AFQjCNEIqNBTaIF6QEyBuYzn1OYA1innHA&sig2=Wd8SmCxEnoCIt3tGkey4GQ)
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You may have some harvester chert also. It tends to be dryer, not as silicified and will often have concentric rings like your picture, and is more nodular.. Again tho check your geological reports for formations locations.
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That looks more like harvester than Burlington, but I'm sure the 2 are closely associated.
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Use this with the pdf and you should find the answer you are looking for.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~osa/lithics/drawers/OutOfState/DrawerLGImages/Drawer8Images.html (http://www.uiowa.edu/~osa/lithics/drawers/OutOfState/DrawerLGImages/Drawer8Images.html)
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Here is another good source of information.
http://archive.org/stream/43rdannualtrista14tris/43rdannualtrista14tris_djvu.txt (http://archive.org/stream/43rdannualtrista14tris/43rdannualtrista14tris_djvu.txt)
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Thank You!
I will comment when I have read the information you provided for me!
One of the more interesting chunks is still not broken down. It was the only solid piece of the four. I only knocked off enough to make sure of the material.
In the case of those four chunks, root heave and the expanding trunk had pushed them out of the ground around the base of a Black Oak.
Anyway, I will say more when I have examined the information you provided! Thank You very much!
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There is not a lot there that I have not already looked at. The sample pictures are more confusing than helpful.
The large plate I posted a picture of in the Jefferson County Chert thread, could easily be used as an example of either Harvester or Burlington, and the fine stuff could easily be called Jefferson City, but I took it off the top of a chunk of Burlington with my own hands, while I was studying the distribution of the various grades by elevation.
In that location, the very best material is found very near the top of the ridge. The hollow is deep and narrow, leaving a termination that is pretty much a cliff you can just walk up, on both sides and the end. There is a layer found almost at creek level, but it is the layered material with the concrete between the layers. There is usable material there, but you are going to work your tail off finding thick layers and then trying to remove the surrounding rock successfully. The material just off the ridge line, is much more solid, and tends to be in larger chunks also.
You have to remember, that in either location I am discussing, a large percentage of the soil is chert chips and shards. Like the Mo. Department of Conservation says, it is literally as common as dirt here. I am still not sure how they used moccasins at all in either area, since the ground itself destroys leather soles very quickly during normal use, and along a creek, a pair might not last minutes before the first time they are sliced through cleanly.
One of the things that is becoming more and more apparent, is that the color of the material is influenced by the moisture in the stone itself. In the picture I posted, on the top left, is a large thin chip. When it was detached, it was a solid gray color. As you can see from the picture, even in a short time, it is now turning white at the thin areas, brown in some thicker areas, is translucent, and appears to actually be an off white silica with lots of fine particles suspended in the matrix. In that example, the description of silica invading voids partially filled with other debris seems to hold.
In other examples, it does not. I have a piece near my foot, that has a top and a bottom cortex, with the sides being faces of the vein material. There is a central healed fracture plane that runs from one cortex to the other, at an angle through the piece. That is not uncommon at all with this material, and neither is the difference in the material on either side of that fracture plane, in the same vein. One side of the crack, which ran north and south in the vein, is a nice darker gray mottled material that is middle of the road quality knappable material. Not shiny, but good and solid. On the other side of that fracture line, it looks like granite tried to form, and an incredibly course conglomerate is found. It isn't usable in any way, but it is even tougher than the solid material.
The dark bulls-eye pattern was badly fractured along the length, running from the hollow it terminated in, outward for about three to four inches. I bladed and spalled all that was possible out of it, but most of the pieces are pretty small because of the cracks. Of the outer portions tho, I got some very good material.
The pure translucent material flakes almost like obsidian.
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Other than naming the flint what are your goals here?
1 . learning about rock formations
2. Heat treating
3. Flint knapping
4. Resale of material
5. Making small arrowheads
6. Making large points
7. Rock collecting
8. Trying to locate the most pure
9 trying to locate the most color
10. Trying to recover rock in the easiest way
give us an idea of were you want to go with all your questions so we can best answer them.
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In a creek where you find flint in layers you will also find creek sort for quite some distance on the down steam side. This flint has been tested by the elements and you should find quality material to knap in the debris. You will be working with a range of different burlington type stone and galacial till.
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My goals? Good question, but I don't think I have a good answer.
I found a blade, dug out the old collection, and started to study. I decided to learn to make tools with available resources, as someone living by that tech would have to do in the past.
I learned how to make blades, survival type tools, and I am working on learning to work the stone better. I don't know where or when I will be satisfied. I have two five gallon buckets of bifaces, preforms, plates, and chunks that are about 95 percent clean sitting next to me as I type this. I have worked two pieces of stone this morning learning, and started an axe head that will require things I can't do inside easily, the tools being under 12 inches of snow right now outside.
I am learning.
I don't know where that will lead, or really care. At this time, I have no plans to sell stone, and my skill level certainly isn't going to support anyone buying my work.
Learning about new types of stone is something I do constantly, but this is not the kind of stone I usually work with. The really high grade stuff would support lapidary use, and I am going to cut a stone out of it, but my focus is on learning to make tools with available resources. I am learning another art/craft form.
I am not looking to really replicate anything at this point, and all I have been doing is learning the techniques. Today I worked learning how to create undercut curved scraper faces that are very strong, and have major support behind the scraper edge, making it almost impossible to damage the edge using for what it was intended. That is easy using this material by the way.
I tested a chunk to see that it has in it, that I knew was pretty rough material, resembling quartzite. I think I will see what happens when I hit it with wood billets. I compared the advice to make isolated low platforms, to another idea, using high platforms deliberately.
I do plan to heat treat some material, and with the temps supposed to hit minus eight, I may stick a sample of each grade in the oven this evening, and run a cleaning cycle, helping the furnace along. I would already have the other material drying in a turkey roaster, but I forgot to pick up the sand, and the car has around 13 inches of snow on it right now. The dry inside air is already causing changes in the appearance of much of the material anyway.
I have been a rock hound for many years, and have about 10 tons of material in buckets already. When I cut today, I usually do picture cabochons or faceted clear gemstones. Much of that material would likely also be appropriate if slabbed and heat treated, but I am using stone I can find in this area alone so far. I have been hitting this stuff long enough now, that letting me anywhere near obsidian would not be good! I have a few slabs of Rainbow sitting, that are cut about an inch thick for knapping use, but I got them for other reasons, years ago.
I am just looking for a discussion about working this material, the various grades, and how others are making elaborate tools out of the raw material. I go around 6 foot, 240, and I already know strength is not the answer. If it was, I would be pushing flakes by now. I begin to understand the angles with this stuff. I understand that techniques like Jackcrafty uses allow you to overpower the materials in a very precise controlled way, but I have not figured out how to do that using straight ABO techniques. The swung whitetail tine uses speed to power on through, and produces pretty good flakes, with either end. This is useful up to the preform stage, but when you start needing to hit small platforms precisely, swinging really fast, naturally you are going to start having control problems.
I am looking to learn. Beyond that, only time will tell.
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Sounds like you have your bases covered for your goals; access to large amounts of material, a desire to learn, and this website. Learning to knap is about how much material you hit and figuring out what works for you. There is little substitute for experience and watching others work stone. If you can find people in your area and watch them knap ask them questions and knap with them you will learn much faster. This will be the fastest track to learning second watch paleojim's videos jackcrafty's videos and I have made a few but they are mainly for those looking for abo help. There are more people on this site using copper so you may learn faster going that route antler is very hard to explain and requires a new knapper to work very slowly to set up platforms. This extra time may be frustrating for someone wanting to jump right in and start hitting stone.
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While I agree about copper, I don't believe that fits with my goals. I use a solid soft brass bopper during reduction a lot, if for no other reason, than to conserve hammerstones. Available tools is the thing, and while there are small copper deposits in this area, and one about ten miles from my land and cabin, I don't think that meets the available standard very well. I think that fits more with a large permanent camp, and trade, than it does the available tools idea.
I have been having good luck with antler, but working raw Burlington, the antlers are very much consumables. Swinging an antler tine about 8 inches long, backwards, heavy end out, knocks very good flakes off the raw, and in the beginning, are rounded so that you can hit specific things. As they wear, the contact area gets wider, and hitting specifics gets harder to do, like with worn hammerstones. Swung the other way, small tip out, you can do some very nice shaping work, while getting pretty much the same flakes you would get with pressure. You can shape a spall or cut that stalled edge on down quickly, but that end wears also. The wear actually keeps it in good shape for pressure work, but how many 8 inch tines do you have laying around? We are back to the available tools thing again.
I have not investigated bone yet.
I watched some of the wood indirect with interest. I watched him just raining flakes off the side of a big plate of Burlington in the video, and my first thought was that he had a different Burlington than any I had seen. I have now handled such material, and very much intend to experiment with wood indirect. That doesn't answer for small careful detail work, but it might make for a more controlled reduction/biface stage. Or so I hope.
I have a wooden dowel with a long piece of brass pin stock glued in. As it wears, I use a razor knife to whittle the wood back to expose more tip. I do not yet have a long pressure flaking tool, but I have a one inch dowel leaned against the wall to make a couple of them. They won't fit the available tools either, but should make working this stuff raw easier.
I had a flat blade of opaque, but very good quality material, that was about 1/4 inch on one edge, broken square, and about half that on the other, with a nice edge bevel on the skinny edge, making it look very much like a piece of a broken sword that was sharpened on one side only, about two inches wide, and six long. Material flakes like a dream. I studied and I finally drew what I wanted to do on the piece. I was going to use it as a uniface knife blade, with a uniface flake pattern edge, but with the actual edge ground sharp, by hand. The idea was to make a knife that could actually be used for a long period of time.
I carefully took the few flakes needed to straighten it. I rounded the end into the shape of a rounded Tanto, reproducing the angle of the rest of the edge. I was already thinking about how to best remove the red staining from the flat perfect sides, and had already decided to clamp it and drill the handle, making a modern style stone bladed knife. I needed one more flake to make the tip correct.
I don't have a blade to show you today. I now have an odd shaped triangular piece that may make a point. I am learning.
When the snow melts, I am going to try again, but the newspaper website says it is minus 5, and the ruler says there is 15 inches of the white stuff on top of where those pieces are. I believe there is at least one other piece that is already close out there, because one of the chunks was pretty much tabbed inside before I touched it. It came apart into tabs much like slabs.
Anyway, it is nice talking to you. I have enjoyed it, but few have discussed the actual working of Burlington in the thread.
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Anyway, it is nice talking to you. I have enjoyed it, but few have discussed the actual working of Burlington in the thread.
You did not ask to discuss the workability of the material you asked to describe what we call Burlington. I think that was accomplished.
Most people work it heated. Some few work it raw. Platform prep and is going to be determined by tool. Copper, antler or hammerstone.
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To the best of my knowledge, the easiest way to work raw Burlington is the method this fellow is using:
(http://www.susquehanna-wd.com/IMG_2307.JPG)
(Picture from: http://www.susquehanna-wd.com/susquehanna_wd_home_page.html (http://www.susquehanna-wd.com/susquehanna_wd_home_page.html) - Thank you MIchael if you happen to see this.)
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New users to this site sometimes fell like the response is slow to post but not a lot of people knap and ever fewer use burlington. There has been a decrease in the use of burlington for a number reasons. Mostly the economy. With a decrease in construction there becomes fewer sources for material to be gathered in large quantities . At the skunk river knapin here in Ia there was more Tx flint for sell then burlington. It is a midwest material and if you have a source you should consider yourself very fortunate. You should make a few points and post them and you will get more response to your material and projects. I kinda felt the same way with my first couple of post but that changed as I posted more and more.
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I apologize. I titled it the way I did, because all discussion of knapping Burlington is of interest.
I also consider myself fortunate to have nearby life supplies of the material to use, at the cost of going and getting it.
My attempts at points have been few, and invariably, far too thick. I would be embarassed to post them. I have done quite a bit of hammer stone work now, making bifaces out of the rough material, or cleaning flaw. I have very little experience flaking at all. Most of what I have done, is drive flakes, and experiment with methods of flaking. I did get two flakes to run almost to the other edge yesterday, but typically, 1/4 inch is a lot closer to average. I flake and shape, but going one way, eats up the scars of the flakes going the other way, until a stall angle is reached. I fail to be able to thin unless I use percussion so far.
I created a long flaking tool, and have been playing with it, so what I can do with this material has grown. I am currently running experiments and learning capabilities with it.
The question I am working on right now, is the difference between laying the long flaking tool across my lap to drive flakes off, and tucking it under my arm, to push flakes off, using the whole body.
I have considered taking some of my lapidary tools and pulling a Darth Vader on a couple of pieces! The better pieces that have been inside in the dry, would be heating now, but there is still 15 inches of snow on and around my car, and I really don't want the sand I need, enough to go outside and work for over and hour to get the car out of the driveway! Much of that material is too good for learning practice anyway.
Oops! My wife just changed my mind about digging the car out!
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What kind of tools are you interested in Abo tools I presume? Do you have a moose billet? A tine billet will not have the density or mass need to drive flakes off raw Burlington.
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Marty had me using a donut (small donut) sized soft hammerstone the time I almost got a lesson from him and we were working raw Burlington. It was then that my wife wanted to leave the knap in......sigh..........
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No larger antler billet of any kind so far. A piece of whitetail main beam that is curved can be used as a swung billet, but I usually use it for indirect.
I am using hammerstones for reduction, and pretty much everything. I have a 6 inch soft brass billet that I use for some things. Mostly to save on hammerstone wear. I have concentrated on finding, collecting, and reducing the material into usable pieces, spalls, blades, and bifaces. I have not really tried to do much past that stage, and the snow stopped me from even completing that task all the way. I am kind of shocked at the amount of time I have spent just reducing it. I am getting better, and the last few hours, I was using a hammerstone a little bigger than a golf ball.
The long flake tool with the copper tip is very nice. I can do a lot more using it, but I am just learning it. I have been doing enough flaking that my left arm and hands are sore. I worked a small piece of obsidian today, and I had little problem doing what I wanted to with it. After working with the raw, it seemed like nothing to push off even long flakes in the obsidian.
I have the turkey roaster full, and I am 24 hours into a drying cycle. I mentioned my reluctance to heat treat to a friend who is Native American, and she pretty much laughed at the idea. She said that rocks had been being heated for the sweat lodge for thousands of years, and for cooking or heating even longer than that. That many, if not most of the tools were made from such material, and had been for time out of knowing. I will try seriously flaking it again when that batch is done. I put in a bunch of practice grade material in to learn on.
I would prefer to be using all ABO tools, preferably all tools readily available in the area, but for right now, I will be happy with just getting the job done.
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I was discussing heat treating stone in the turkey roaster, and my wife popped off with, there is a kiln on Craigslist for 120 bucks. Well, I now own a paragon kiln and 18 ceramics molds. You guys are a bad influence, and my wife even helped!
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42 hours drying, and 42 hours at full heat. There are some light pink color changes, but I think the heat is just too low. The piece I tested flakes a little better, and works a lot better with hammerstone, but I think it needs either more heat, or more time. This batch is going to get 42 hours of heat, a cool down, and then another shorter heat cycle to see if that changes anything.
After I get the kiln set up and running, I suspect I will abandon the turkey roaster, at least for Burlington.