Ohio Flint - want to buy

Hey Roy Miller is the Flint Ridge man!!! He is worth waiting on. Look up Brad his buddy on flintridgerockbreaker.com. Brads stuff comes from Nethers Farm. Roy has his own quarry down the ridge a piece. Either one has knapping flint and cabbing flint. I guess you want cabbing Capt. They also have heat treated, it's really colorful!

Thanks guys!

I bought my first piece of this at a rock show a month or so ago. Nice muted blues & pinks in it. Nothing flashy, but something I figured I want a milk crate or two of.

Looks like I'll be putting this off until spring or whenever the snow thaws as far as the online guys. I'll keep trying to get ahold of Gary, but I'm in no rush and no one needs to dig about in snow for this!
The knapping sites don't seem to have large chunks. I do not want heat treated material.

Still interested if anyone has a stockpile.

Roy Miller or Gary Hardy are the ones to buy from. But also keep in mind that the really colorful pieces you are seeing have been heat treated. The dull stuff you see on ebay and other sites are the same thing only raw flint. Heat treating is what pops those fabulous colors out. Also it might be hard to find the 10lb + sizes that are heat treated because of all the crystals and fractures in the stone. These, when hidden inside a large piece, can cause the rock to literally explode and blow apart during the heating process. Most quality pieces will be in the 3-5lb range. It is a really tricky heating process for flint ridge because differnt temperatures bring out the differant colors in the stone. That is one of the reasons it is so high priced, as they only heat treat the highest quality stone to get those great colors. That and the fact that you literally have to sort through about 1000lbs of material to get about 25-50lbs of really good stuff for knapping, which is mainly what Roy Miller sells his pieces for. It just depends on what you want the stone for.

Mel - I hadn't read all of your reply when I posted so I hope I didn't step on your explanations. My son and I go to the Nether's farm a couple times a year to dig. It is possible to get really big pieces in the raw form, but as a knapper I have learned to go through every piece and only bring home the good stuff with no junk in it, which is alot smaller after I work it down in the pit. It is a bit different than Roy Millers flint that he mines closer to the park and on private properties. We still find some good colors here and there, but the Nether's is more of a grey/black/red scalloped pattern. There are a lot of reds, pinks oranges and blues, but not like Roy gets. Of course he heats his stone in a huge kiln and can control the temps to get everything just perfect. I do mine in a turkey roaster and can only get the lesser colors to come out, but it does improve it for knapping purposes. Roy has some great mining and heat treating videos on YouTube (RoyMillerFlintRidge) that go into great detail how he gets the right stone and what it looks like after its heated.
Like you said, it is a seasonal thing as they cover the pits back up in winter to keep as much of the freeze/thaw process from ruining the deposites. I am hoping to make a trip at end of april, first week of may if the weather is good by then.

This is the piece I bought at the show, my first Ohio flint, and what got me interested in getting more of this material.



And this is a pic I found on the internet with examples of what I'd like to end up with.



It was the muted colors that attracted me. So the heated stuff really isn't what I'm after.
Although they are quite different, it reminds me of Chapenite for some reason. It has a subtle beauty.
I'll find it, just may have to back burner it awhile 'til it's warmer up north I reckon.

Come on up May 22-24 for the Spring knap-in...I'll be there.

Lee #1