looking for materials

[boneaddict]

I wish I could tell you the difference between chert, flint, agatized petrified wood etc.  I can tell you what family fun is, and how cool it is to find materials to knap with to make your own heads....

[Snapshot]

Bone, I commend you for getting the youngsters into looking for rock. Are you coming to the Moses Lake Rock Shoot next weekend? I think you would find some folks there who you would relate to pretty well.

[boneaddict]

We'll either be on a soccer field or in a gym......  Sounds fun though!   If you get any details post it up in the events, I haven't seen anything about it on here.     I'll try to get some pics up tonight on what we were looking at

[carpsniperg2]

Love the pic bone! I am always looking for stuff to Knapp! Most the stuff around here is flawed and does not Knapp well.

I will put a post up on the rock shoot in a minute. Wish I could go but it is on the turkey opener

[carpsniperg2]

Here is the link to the info on the rock shoot.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=95832.0

If you post pictures I can help tell you some of whats what on the stone types. I am no master of the stones but know a fair bit.

[boneaddict]

COOL carp!   Thanks for the link

[Gobble Doc]

Bone Addict

My kids and I were in the Everett Rock and Gem Club for several years.  We had a good time.  Lots of places in WA to find neat stuff.  I remember one outing where I was in a hole looking for thunder eggs.  My son, about 9 at the time, chucked one and it bounced off the edge of the bucket and hit me in the noggin.  Most of the time it was pretty safe.  I got a used rock saw and polisher and kids were really into "cabbing".  It's a good hobby.

[carpsniperg2]

Bone since you are always hooking up up with the pictures, the least I can do is share some as well.

The first picture is a group of stones that I just pulled out of my buckets to show everyone what some of the types of stone are and maybe they can help you ID some of yours.

Starting at the top working from left to right.

The top left stones are 2 pieces of chert from 2 different regions. One has orange bands threw it and the other is more of a off white color. This type of stone in found in many places but the majority of it is down in the southwest from what I have seen. This stuff is a pain to knapp and very hard to finish on. I have only had small spalls of it and one day will play more with this stone.

Stone to the right of the 2 chunks of chert is Dacite a volcanic stone a lot like obsidian. It looks a lot like obsidian and knapps like obsidian but it has almost a milky white outer shine to it. Fairly easy to knapp.

Next stone to the right is your typical flint. It can come in a lot of shades but most are grey in color. It can knapp well but if very hard to finish a great edge on as well.

Starting the next row these are 3 of my 4 favorite stones to work with. All are obsidian and the best stone to work with and knapp with. I love obsidian and it always finishes great!!! A little more brittle then say the flint and chert but makes some of the best points and is razor sharp as most know. The first stone is mahogany obsidian, the next is a brown banded, the last is one of the coolest which is snowflake obsidian. The mahogany and brown banded knapp well and turn out very cool. The snowflake is one that is a amazing stone when finished. The problem is that when the flakes get more fourmed it causes voids in the stone that makes it hard as hell to drive flakes across and they will hinge and break. The stone in the picture is about as perfect as you can get with color but yet smooth enough to knapp well.

The bottom left is your typical black obsidian easy to knapp and razor sharp. The one on the right of it is what I was talking about. It is what I find a lot of around here. It is what I called flawed black obsidian. When it cools it gets these little mineral and air pockets threw out the stone. It makes it very very brittle and hard as hell to knapp. When I first started I found a massive amount of this stone and ended up with about 10 pounds that we packed out from a few miles from the rigs. When I got it home and spalled the first flake off boy was I pissed! All of it is trash! Cool to play with but junk!

The next pic is a stone called rainbow obsidian. The is a zoomed in pic of a blade that I am working right now. It is bad luck for me to post a picture of a knife or point not finished. Everytime I do it I break it so I zoomed in to take a small pic of the color. IF this blade turn out it will be one of the coolest I have done! Beautiful blues in this stone and a lot of it! This is probably the best and coolest obsidian that one can knapp. Easy to work with and makes some great points. It and the mahogany are my faves.

Last is a pic of the work bench. I have been removing flakes from the big spalls to get them into knife and arrow head sized flakes that I can work into points.

[boneaddict]

Very nice Carp!   I still haven't gotten to those pics.   Thanks for being patient.


Gobbledoc.   We love rocks and live kind of in rock central.   Many of our family trips this summer will revolve around rock hounding.     I am looking into a saw, cabbing outfit or something.   We shall see what we end up with.   In the meantime its family fun.

[carpsniperg2]

If you guys ever want to head into Oregon you guys for sure should check out the glass buttes. You might have already been there but it is a killer place to rock hound!

[carpsniperg2]

Oh and I bet with all those cool rocks, it makes for some heavy packs

[boneaddict]

Its on our list for this year.  We'll see if it happens.


I spotted some chips and we went to work.  I uncovered this.   I thought I had hit the motherlode as my goal in life is to find a petrified log.   With this shape you can imagine what I was thinking.   It was soon evident it wasn't what I thought it was....

[boneaddict]

Sorry I had the macro with me......   anyways, that ended up being the bottom end of a nodule, this nodule actually

[boneaddict]

Fresh out of the ground or wet, it looks like flint.    It dries and is more fragile and reminds me of chert.   The outer edges take on a mud look while the inside looks flint like......   There was a vein of it with several nodules.   

[boneaddict]

The Vein......





I knapped a tiny bit real quick and it was sharp enough to have blood dripping off my hand in short notice.  It was very fragile.    I wouldn't say its petrified wood