New York Lithic Raw Materials

New York State is not known for it's abundance of quality cherts, but we do have a few that knap very nicely.  New York knappers are very proud of their cherts and consider it a right of passage to be able to master them.  While there are several more lesser cherts that can be found in New York, below I've listed the main types that knapped most and are the most popular.  There are other cherts found naturally in New York that are not listed here.

Onondaga Chert

aka Onondoggie, Stinky Rock

Onondaga Chert runs in a bed that extends through part of Cananda, accross New York, and into Pennsylvania.  This chert comes from a layer known as the Early to Middle Devonian.  Onondaga outcrops in various places in Western New York and on the shores of Lake Erie.  It is also quite common for glacially deposited Onondaga to appear in small cobbles in Western Pennsylvania.  Onondaga chert is know as a petrolithic chert as it does have some petrolem in it's composition.  When you knap it, it gives off the odor of crude oil, or at least the smell of some knappers old 1973 van when it's loaded down with rock after a knap-in.  We who are proud to knap this chert refer to the crude oil odor as "the stink".

Esopus Chert

Esopus chert is mainly found in South Eastern New York State.  It outcrops in a few road cuts and in several streams that run through the chert bed.  The quality of Esopus chert varies widely from a grainy light grey that is poor quality to a greenish dark grey that is high quality.  Within some of the areas I quarry Esopus, there is a variety that has a light orangish brown cortex with a black high quality inner material.  The pieces of black lithic material are usually quite laced with seams, but small spalls of clean material can be harvested.

Normanskill Chert

Normanskill is another Eastern New York Chert.  It was the most cherished and sought after lithic material by the Paleo groups that hunted in New York State.  It outcrops in road cuts and streams through most of the far South Eastern New York area near the border with Massachusettes and Connecticuit. There are several Paleo and Archaic quarry pits in that area The quality of Normanskill chert also can vary from tougher types right up to beautiful qualities that compare to nice Jaspers. It's colors can be light mint green (rarer), dark green, to green with dark veins running through it.  In my opinion, it's the most beautiful native lithic material in all of New York State.

Snake Hill Chert

Snake Hill chert is a dark black chert that is also found in South Eastern New York State.  I haven't knapped much of it, but the quality appears to be on par with the better qualities of Esopus.  I found my Snake Hill chert right at the same source of the Esopus I quarry.  While this chert isn't really popular with New York flintknappers, I had a piece and thought I would add it here anyways.  All of the Snake Hill I've ever viewed comes in smooth rounded edge cobbles.  These cobbles are so round & smooth, that I'm guessing they were deposited by glacial activity and that the source must be quite a bit north.

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