The process of heat-treating Knife River Flint requires a lot of time, preparation, and materials. The Knife River Flint that was used in this experiment came from Mercer County, North Dakota, which there are five different Knife River Flint Quarries in Mercer County. The three closest quarries to where the Knife River Flint in this experiment was collected are the Crowley Quarries, Medicine Butte, and Dodge Quarry.
With the help of Russell Redhorn, a Native American monitor I was working with at the time, we were able to collect a large quantity of Knife River Flint cobbles from an area about eight miles south of Zap, North Dakota. Which is in close vicinity to the Medicine Butte Quarry. (See Fig. 2) One could speculate that the Knife River Flint that was collected could be from the Medicine Butte Quarry. Knife River Flint is the most important component for this …show more content…
This was done to prevent any fracturing or pot lidding during the experiment. The temperature of the oven was raised 50 degrees Fahrenheit every hour or two depending on the batch. When the desired temperature of 350 degrees was reached, the temperature of the oven was then reduced every hour or two depending on the batch by 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Each batch was left out at room temperature to slowly cool. Once each batch was fully cooled they were assigned a sample number, to make the analyzing simpler. Each piece of Knife River Flint was analyzed for the color of its flaked surface, color of its cortex, and luster. Each piece of Knife River Flint was then subjected to knapping with a hard hammer, soft hammer, and pressure flaker to determine their knappability. All the relative information was then gathered and analyzed to see if there was a change in their physical or structural
With the help of Russell Redhorn, a Native American monitor I was working with at the time, we were able to collect a large quantity of Knife River Flint cobbles from an area about eight miles south of Zap, North Dakota. Which is in close vicinity to the Medicine Butte Quarry. (See Fig. 2) One could speculate that the Knife River Flint that was collected could be from the Medicine Butte Quarry. Knife River Flint is the most important component for this …show more content…
This was done to prevent any fracturing or pot lidding during the experiment. The temperature of the oven was raised 50 degrees Fahrenheit every hour or two depending on the batch. When the desired temperature of 350 degrees was reached, the temperature of the oven was then reduced every hour or two depending on the batch by 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Each batch was left out at room temperature to slowly cool. Once each batch was fully cooled they were assigned a sample number, to make the analyzing simpler. Each piece of Knife River Flint was analyzed for the color of its flaked surface, color of its cortex, and luster. Each piece of Knife River Flint was then subjected to knapping with a hard hammer, soft hammer, and pressure flaker to determine their knappability. All the relative information was then gathered and analyzed to see if there was a change in their physical or structural