Color:  Ancaster Chert is mottle light to medium gray or bluish gray with darker gray spots and inclusions of lighter quartz.  Commonly rusty stains.

Texture:  Course to medium grain

Luster: Dull porcellaneous to vitreous

Translucency:  Opaque

Silica Fabrics / Fossils: Macro fossils brachiopods, bryozoan fragments, echinoderms, graptolite, and sponge spicules.

Patina: White to light gray or reddish brown

Heat Treatment:  Heat treatment produces colors of pink, purple, and red, but no changes to luster or workability

Knapping
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distribution Comments:

Ancaster Chert is associated with the Goat Island Member of the Lockport Formation.  Primary sources for Ancaster Chert is on the Niagara escarpment.  Outcroppings are found along Stoney Creek, Ontario, Orchard Creek, Orleans County, New York, and into Michigan.