Flint (tool)

Flint tools were made in stone age times by primitive peoples worldwide. Paleolithic tools were relatively simple, repeated small flakes being struck or pressed from a flint until the required shape was achieved. By Neolithic times in Europe the manufacture of flint and obsidian blades had become a highly skilled industry. The blades were polished to a fine level of finish.

Freshly made flint tools are very sharp, much sharper than the bronze or even iron blades that replaced them. However they were brittle and easily damaged and could not be sharpened. Stone tools were, perhaps, the first disposable mass-produced commodity.

For specialist purposes glass knives are still made and used today, particularly for cutting thin sections for electron microscopy. These knives are made from high-quality manufactured glass, however, not from natural raw materials such as flint.