Stone identification

[JacksonCash]

Hey guys-
  I've gotten the stuff I ordered to start knapping, and managed to make a piece that didn't look like rubble. Wife says it would make a good scraper- I think it would make a good piece for a macuahuitl. Anyway....

Now that I have this stuff going on I need some more rocks. The two pounds of misc. stuff i got with the kit aren't really going to do much for me. I'd like to get a few larger pieces to practice more percussion flaking with. I need to be able to identify some stones. I've got a creek and a river near my house, and lots of shale nearby(I don't think that stuff is any good, but don't know). So, what techniques or resources do you folks use?

Thanks in advance!

[Dalton Knapper]

If you are looking for suggestions on where to find stone, I would need to know where you live or the nearest city. That aside, take a hammerstone or a sturdy billet and start breaking rocks to see of they are knappable. Once you have seen enough knappable rock, you know what to test and what to pass by and even areas to not even consider looking.

[leapingbare]

What state are you in?
Pick up rocks, it there heavy then hit them with another rock and see if the flake. judge the material.
 Or order offline or trade. Can usually get a large flat rate box of decent rock for about $60-70. but it takes tons of rock to become very proficient so with out a local source it will get pricy.
 Good luck.

[JacksonCash]

Oh shoot, I was going to mention I live in central New York state, south of Syracuse a bit. Sorry about that. My wife is checking with one of her professors, who taught her how to knap, if he's got some nodules we can buy, but I'd certainly like to spend some time outside looking for some. Sounds like a lot of it is breaking things open to see what's inside. Finding stone is like a box of chocolates?

[Dalton Knapper]

This might help you Jackson - http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/search/text/forum/17?q=new+york+&submit=Search+Forum

[JacksonCash]

Thanks, I'll have a look.

[Outbackbob48]

Sounds like your not to far from some local resources. Onondaga out crops on an escarpment that roughly runs from Buffalo to Albany then cuts south in to Pa. Also the Hudson Valley has some tuff rock Esospus, and I believe Normanskill is in that area also. Check out a guy on PP by the name of Rhymes With What, he has a goggle earth thing to find rock on the Escarpment. If ya find any decent Onondaga don't forget me Good Luck in your search. Bob

[Knapper]

Another good way to feed the habit is to break glass. Finding bottles with good flat bottoms works great. Just drop in a nail or punch and shake a few times. Out comes the bottom.
Knapper

[JacksonCash]

Thanks for the advice Knapper- I definitely think I will try some bottle glass points, but I really want to get some nice sized nodules to break down, and learn the process from step 1. Once I have that to a decent point I'll start looking into making points.

[JacksonCash]

This might help you Jackson - http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/search/text/forum/17?q=new+york+&submit=Search+Forum

This is pretty cool. Looks like I've got:

West River Shale; Genundewa Limestone; Penn Yan and Geneseo Shales; North Evans Limestone.

I'll have to research these types a bit more.

[JacksonCash]

So, took a walk with the wife down to the creek and then to the river. Didn't see too much to get excited about. Small sample size though, most of the bank is pretty heavily vegetated. I think I need to go back with some boots and see what I can find. I explored it pretty well a few months ago, but that was before I had the idea of breaking rocks in my head.

Looks like I'm just south of a strip of really good stone, based on the stuff rhymeswithwhat has posted over on paleoplanet. Drive through it every day on my way to work. Maybe I'll take an exploratory trip around that area this weekend, looks like we'll have plenty of good weather for it.

[JackCrafty]

You New York guys really need to communicate better.  There's a bunch here on Primitive Archer all looking for good rock.

In Texas, we formed a "chert militia" and got the landowners on the defensive...  heheh    

[JacksonCash]

Yeah, it looks like all the good stuff is stuck in the middle of the state, I'm thinking that if I go up there I'll have to scramble for elbow room looking for Onondaga chert...

[TacticalFate]

I'm in Syracuse, there's plenty of chert here, but all I've found so far is blast fractured chert from the quarries in landscaping stones, useless for knapping (throws great sparks with a striker though). I'm probably gonna check out a few sites to the east of Syracuse soon, I'll let you know if I find anything

[JacksonCash]

I think I'm going to take a tour around Jamesville this weekend, maybe out to Monrovia and see what I can find.