Flint knapping

[Tomas Lipps <tmlipps@zzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

F. Y. I.,
I lived for a time (mid 60's) in Canterbury in Kent, England where
there is a tradition of using flint as a building material due to its
prevalence there -and, presumably, the scarcity of other stone.  my
impression is that there are many more structures built of flint than
would be explained by its being a byproduct of the armament industry.
the flint stones (never very large, mostly fist-size) were broken in
half and placed in lime mortar with the split faces out (dark grey to
black, and often squared up).  the stones were usually laid in
courses; the faces were sometimes squared up -I guess this is where
the knapping comes in.  corners, doors and window openings were
usually done with other stone.  it is an interesting and attractive
building technique with a long history.  one building in particular I
remember (it was a favourite picnic spot) was Blackfriars, a 13th
century friary built on an island on the River Stour which flows
through the town.

my curiosity led me to look for examples.  I found a few images at
http://www.cs.rit.edu/~ncs/Canterbury/Canterbury.html

another thing I remember about Canterbury (and this was before I "got
into" stone) was the underground crypt of the cathedral  with a
forest of columns supporting the vaulting, no two of which were
carved in the same fashion!  it is a stone cutting "tour de force".
if I had more time just now I'd go looking for images of that.

Tomas