Tough, Durable, and ColorfulДЄs a high-silica, chemical-sedimentary rock, flint is dense, tough, durable, fine-grained, and quite hard (Mohs 7). Knappers take advantage of this property to shape tools from the flint. It also exhibits a better-defined conchoidal fracture that lends itself to flaking. Flint is generally considered a finer-grained, more homogenous, and somewhat harder type of chert. Both occur as nodules or layers within formations of limestone, dolomite or chalk. The terms вЂњflintвЂќ and вЂњchertвЂќ overlap and are sometimes used interchangeably. Because of their variable chemical compositions, they are classified as rocks. While agate and jasper are almost pure chalcedony, chert and flint are impure forms. ChalcedonyвЂ™s other subvarieties are agate, jasper and chert. (Photo courtesy Wade Wilcox)ДЇlint is a type of chalcedony, the microcrystalline variety of quartz. At the Flint Ridge Knap-Ins, rough Flint Ridge flint is available in a broad range of sizes and colors. Attractions include a museum with informative flint-related exhibits, trails leading to hundreds of prehistoric flint quarries, two annual flint-knapping events, and a nearby fee-collecting site, where rockhounds can collect their own colorful specimens of Flint Ridge flint. As a source of high-quality flint, Flint Ridge began attracting Native Americans some 12,000 years ago and is still drawing people today.ДЇlint Ridge is the site of the Flint Ridge State Memorial and the Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries and Nature Preserve.

While the topography of Flint Ridge may be unremarkable, thatвЂ™s not the case with its cultural significance. Rolling Countryside With Unique GeologyДЇlint Ridge, located in southeast Ohio about 40 miles east of Columbus, the state capital, is an unimposing, low escarpment in the gently rolling farm country just north of Interstate 70. Add some fascinating history and geology, and itвЂ™s no wonder that Flint Ridge flint is also OhioвЂ™s official state gemstone. With its rainbow of colors and its ability to take a superb polish, Flint Ridge flint is prized by flintknappers, lapidaries, jewelry makers, and mineral collectors. Gemstones and flint are not usually discussed in the same breath-unless the flint is from OhioвЂ™s Flint Ridge. These flint preforms show the rough shape of the point that is being knapped.

Flint rock