chances of getting silicosis

[trad kid]

i flintknapp a lot about 5 hours a day outdoors for a bout a year what are the chances of geting silcosis for me if i knapp for years

[Longbowz]

Knapping doesn't produce dust, it's just chips. I'd worry more about bleeding to death learning to do it.   :eek:

[Eric Krewson]

A local guy who knapps a lot does so with a fan positioned to blow the chips away from him and wears a dust mask all the time.

The microscopic dust is not something to be taken lightly.

[trad kid]

so do you think if i start wearing a mask would it help me

[Brian Krebs]

not if you knapp while waiting in line at the bank....  

[zilla]

You are not going to get silcosis from knapping flint.  Slicosis comes from silca in fine dust.  

  MSHA Silicosis info

[Bill Skinner]

What are you abrading with?  Most of your dust comes when you abrade.  If you keep your abrading stone in water it will not produce dust.  Some stones will wear quicker when you wet them though.  Simplest, knap sideways to the wind, or use a fan.  You usually do not have to worry if you knap outside, knapping inside is not a good idea, that is when the dust can and will build up.

[Don Stokes]

Pneumonultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. A disease suffered by miners caused by inhaling microscopic silica dust. The longest word in the dictionary. Nothing is said in the definition about knapping, but I wouldn't take any chances.

[Ken Taylor]

Just to contribute some additional information:

Both of my grandfathers died of silicosis after years of working in poorly ventilated gold mines in the "old days".

I don't know much about flint knapping but I doubt that you could replicate anywhere near the inhuman conditions and the intensity that they were subjected to.

 Even then, not all the miners got it.

[Jedimaster]

Don got me intrigued so I looked it up on Wikipedia and got some more information.  I won't bore anybody by trying to repeat what I read but you can go here  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis  and look at it if you like.  Seems as though it would take quite a bit of exposure over a somewhat lengthy period of time but as Mr. Stokes put it "I wouldn't take any chances".

[pintail_drake2004]

Well i dont knap indoors, so if i do it outside i cannot see wearing a mask when its 90* outside. Turn on a fan and/or sit where a breeze will blow past ya. Dont get your head down so low. That is what i have been told by local expert.

[Bakes168]

Originally posted by Brian Krebs:
not if you knapp while waiting in line at the bank....      

 
 

[trad kid]

hey thnks guys i just heard about it and it got me a little jumpy. i knapp quit a bit so i didnt want to take any chances

[TonyW]

In 1915, a British doctor suggested that the Neolithic miners may have suffered from silicosis and conjectured that this might be the oldest occupational disease.
He also reported on a study of the second period of East Anglian flint mining and showed that the exposure of the Brandon gunflintknappers to silica dust caused an excess mortality from pulmonary tuberculosis, known locally at the time as "knappers' rot."

Read "Knappers' rot. Silicosis in East Anglian flint-knappers" by going to following website
 http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1139012&pageindex=1

Probably a good reason to use a dust mask.

[trad kid]

man i read almost that whole thing. i am going to buy one of those big dust masks.