Heated Novaculite Spalls - Large Flat Rate Box - Free Shipping
Large USPS Flat Rate box packed with 20 pounds of our #1 graded and cleaned 3-6 inch heat treated Arkansas Novaculite spalls. Box price includes shipping within the domestic United States.
These 3-6 inch Heated Novaculite spalls are ideal in size for producing medium to large points and blades. Priority Mail Postage within the United States is pre-paid and included in the price of this 20 lb box of 3-6 inch Heated Novaculite Spalls.
International Customers: The large flat rate box is not available for shipment due to an international weight cap on this size box. Please try one of our medium flat rate boxes or the 'rock by the pound' product category.
A great knapping stone for both beginners and advanced knappers, heat treated Novaculite is famous for its predictable flaking and easy work-ability. Our current stock is mostly porcelain white to off white with the occasional band of translucent quartz, grey or pink; some spalls may be the fully translucent variety.
Our Novaculite stone is mined and heated in-house to control quality and consistency from out of the quarry to your doorstep. Hundreds of tons of overburden and weathered 'rotten' novaculite must be removed before we see the first spall of nice clean stone. We only use digital temperature controlled kilns to ensure that the stone is heated properly to the optimal temperature for the right amount of time.
We strive to provide the cleanest, blemish free knapping material within our means. On some spalls however, blemishes do get past us because not all defects are evident at first or even second inspection. In efforts to avoid defects as much as possible, we perform a few thinning blows to ensure that you do not pay for large amounts of waste, over thick spalls, or fragile/thin sizes that will shatter with the first strike.
Large knapping material requires large billets. Attempting to knap large stone with too small of a billet will damage the billet and not produce sizable thinning flakes early on in the process as needed. If you are graduating to this size material from one of our kits, we recommend adding a large copper percussion billet to your order. If you are unsure about what you need, please visit our Flintknapping Buyer's Guide, or feel free to contact us and we will be glad to help.
General Information on Novaculite
Novaculite is a form of chert found in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma and in the Marathon Uplift of Texas. Novaculite is considered to be highly siliceous sediments and may be a product of the low-grade metamorphism of chert beds. The strata were deposited in the Devonian Period and subjected to uplift and folding during the Ouachita orogeny of the Pennsylvanian/Permian Periods. Novaculite is very resistant to erosion and the layers of novaculite stand out as ridges in the Ouachita Mountains.
Novaculite is a form of micro-crystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz. The color varies from white to grey-black and the specific gravity shows an increase from 2.2 to 2.5. The very hard dense rock is commonly used as a whetstone. It has been mined since prehistoric times both as material for use as arrow and spear points and as sharpening stones. Moreover, the upper strata of Arkansas Novaculite, known as tripoli, has found a niche within the coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomer industry as a performance additive or filler. Tripoli is mined in the Hot Springs area of Arkansas.
The word novaculite is derived from the Latin word novacula, for razor stone.