Along with chert, this mineral was one of the most commonly used materials for the manufacture of stone tools during the Stone Age, as it splits into into thin, sharp splinters called flakes when struck by another hard object (such as a hammerstone made of another material). It remained an essential mineral resource for making fire, including the flintlocks on early firearms, until the close of the 18th century. Since the dawn of European civilization, some of the best flint has come from Belgium (Obourg, flint mines of Spiennes), the coastal chalks of the English Channel, the Paris Basin, the Sennonian deposits of Rügen and the Jurassic deposits of the Kraków-area in Poland.

See also: chalcedony, chert, obsidian, List of minerals

External Links

• http://www.theaaca.com/flintvs.htm
• http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/earth/waton/f9811.html
• http://www.flintsource.net/

Flint is also the name of two places in the United States:

• Flint, Michigan [1]
• Flint, Texas