Flint was used in the manufacture of tools during the Stone Age as it splits into thin, sharp splinters called flakes or blades (depending on the shape) when struck by another hard object (such as a hammerstone made of another material). This process is referred to as knapping.
Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing walls, and flushwork decoration.
Flint is a form of microcrystalline quartz, used by Stone Age people around the world to made durable tools that could hold a sharp edge. Flint was workable and reliable enough to shape, but still strong and hard enough to use.
What is flint used for today?
Native Americans used Ohio flint to make projectile points, such as arrow and spear heads, as well as drills and other tools. Early European settlers used the flint as buhrstones (hard millstones) to grind grain. Today, uses of flint are primarily ornamental, such as in jewelry.
How do you break flint?
Use a pressure flaking tool to press small flakes away from the very edges of your work, placing the tip on the flint, then pushing down hard to break off a small flake.
What rock is harder than flint?
Chert (/tʃɜːrt/) is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2).