Ceramic/porcelain electric insulator

[Hilongbow]

Aloha,

In the 1980s, a lava flow covered a remote mountain road that provided service access for power lines that ran to the island's correctional facility. As the utility poles burned and fell, their ceramic insulators fell to the ground and broke. You can still find a bunch of them around. The first time I spotted a pile of shards while hiking, I thought someone had brought a crockpot 4 miles from the nearest road and dropped it! After I found a few more piles I realized what they were.

Here's a couple pictures of a big piece I picked up. Anybody know if they would make good knapping material? I don't really know what I'm doing, I've tried to get a few flakes but it is really hard stuff. If it is good I thought I might find this chunk a new home with someone who knows what they are doing.

[Pat B]

Ceramic toilet bowl and tanks work so I imagine those insulators do. These are some of the points made at the Thunder Chert Competition (toilet tank ceramic)at the Classic last year.

[JEB]

Working that stuff will make you cuss, lol. I beat on Johnstone aka Thunder chert for practicing up on my percussion work. The points Pat posted was knapped by some pretty good knappers.

Abrade, abrade and then abrade some more. Give it a go and let us know how it works.

[WhistlingBadger]

Johnstone.  Thunder chert.   

[YosemiteBen]

Porcelain does work, it is hard and I have even heard of folks using the reflective bumps in the roads to make stuff from.

[JEB]

Here is  some Johnstone I practiced my percussion on.  It is around 6" long and pretty thin. Still have to work on the edges when the weather warms up a bit. Stuff is unpredictable  to work. Lots of hinges.

[Strelets]

I have read that when they first started putting up powerlines in outback Australia they had a lot of trouble with  insulators disappearing. It turned out that the aborigines were knapping spearheads out of them.

[Deerhunter21]

awwww, strelets took my comment before i even got to it   

[Hilongbow]

Haha thunder chert and Johnstone... Great names.

Really interesting about the Aborigines in Australia. Seems pretty common for indigenous people to find creative uses for modern (at least at the time) items.

I tried whacking on it a few times with some of my tools but the stuff is hard. I only got tiny flakes to break off. These pieces are thick and a lot of the edges are at right angles, not much in the way of platforms. I'm still new at the whole knapping thing. Might have to get some more experience first.

[Outbackbob48]

I have been knapping for over 10 yrs and I absolutely hate porcelain. I do believe that the newer stuff is much poorer than older porcelain, This the very best that I could get and to me it is just barely OK. It is a little over 4 to 1 but just seems thicker. I do believe this pc was some older toilet tank maybe 50 to 60 stuff. Bob