flint knapping

[treasureace14]

i wanted to learn about it.
anyone have anything on it?
i wanted to see if im any good at it.

 

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[*Molly*]

Again type in the search, you'll find videos on youtube too.

Molly.

 

[Cannonman17]

Find some leather gloves, safety glasses, and some old glass or an old toilet to start with. Practice just trying to knock pieces off the edge. Any hard stone will work for a hammerstone, after you mess with it for a bit, say a few days, and you're still interested try buying one or two of the how to DVD's that are out there. Of course there is also some information on knapping on the net as well but it's a bit hard to dig out and not all of it is accurate. Searches for the subject have a tendency to produce lots of site selling materials for flintknapping and peoples finished flintknapping pieces and not a whole lot of how to stuff. Don't get frustrated as it takes a good while to learn how and it's an ongoing process. Much of the "secret knowledge" has to do with angle of strike and platform preparation. If you have any specific questions fire away, if I can help I will as it's a great hobby!!!

 

[GL]

I have begun doing this as a hobby.
I started with softer rock and am now starting on slate.

 

[treasureace14]

like shale?
or what?

 

[warsawdaddy]

Here's one of the best.They have a world renowned knapper there every month.

http://www.missouritrading.com/

 

[unitas]

I've also seen great books on this topic. Check out an artifact show or do an Amazon search. I'd like to try knapping myself but I don't know if I've got the patience . Good Luck.

 

[Cannonman17]

I have begun doing this as a hobby.
I started with softer rock and am now starting on slate.

Soft rock? soft rock is harder and frequently impossible to knapp. Slate... not much better. I would highly suggest sticking with proven materials that are easy to learn on like glass, obsidian, high grade flint/chert, even old toilets!

 

[GL]

I use soft rock to practice grinding and shaping. Like I said, boredom drives my hands when I knap.

I have no access to flint, obsidian or chert. I do have access to plenty of landscaping rocks and glass.
Next time I got to Morrow mountain I will bring back a few dozen pounds of decent rocks to work with.

There is an old toilet in the woods here I'll go shoot it later and get some nice Johnstone chunks to work with.

 

[Cannonman17]

OOohh! The softer rocks for peck and grinding make good sense, I thought you were trying to flintknapp them! Sorry, my bad. I did make an small axe head once using traditional peck and grind methods out of a fairly hard rock and in spite of that it still didn't take as long to finish as what I thought. I had the groove pecked in nice and deep in just a few days, the bit was abraded down in a couple more, all and all it took about a week to make a small axe by hand with no power tools- my hands were sore and more than one blister was made in the process also though.

 

[GL]

I actually was going to use a nice landscaping rock (river rock/cobblestone type) and make an axe. It's very hard stone so it shouldn't be bad material to use.

I did use an angle grinder to carve a groove around another cobblestone a while back but I found that it makes a far better grinding/shaping stone than anything else. Besides, using powertools is cheating. Ishi would laugh at me.

 

[treasureace14]

Besides, using powertools is cheating. Ishi would laugh at me.

thats not a grinder! im brushing my teeth!

 

[DreamcatcherNC]

Any of you guys ever tried heat treating your rocks. There's an old guy up in Cherokee that keeps his knapping materials in a 55 gal drum full of sawdust and burns it down to preheat the stones. He says it makes them flake better. Never tried it myself.

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Go to http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/ . You have to join Yuku, but it's worth it. Also, a few guys I know show their stuff off over at http://www.flintknappers.com/. Look up Steve Holloway a.k.a. bohunter on Youtube. Just type in bohunter without the "w" after "bow", and you will find him. Also, Craig Ratzat, Mark Bracken at flintknappingtools.com, and Randy Beach all have good advice.

Be careful, when I started out awhile back, I spent a lot of money on new tools. It's really easy to get caught up in it. Mark Bracken has the best, in my opinion, DVD available by himself on his website. Another must is the book "The Art of Flintknapping" by DC Waldorf. It covers all of the basic fundamentals of flintknapping, and even how to find natural resources for flint/chert. All in all, the most expensive material in flintknapping is the flint/chert itself. I live in Kentucky where the most prominent types of chert are Sonora, Carter Cave, Kentucky Hornstone, and Ft Payne. Even in living in the native state of these natural raw materials you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find them in their natural state. I have around 4 tons of Ft Payne since I can get it at a local quarry for $8 a ton, but have to pay close to $5 / lb. for all of the others due to their scarcity. Then again, Sonora and Carter Cave are as scarce as hens teeth, and I would have to pay as much as $10 a pound for it in rough spalls. The best thing to learn at first is how to spall a rock, and knock off a workable piece of chert.

As for 'cooking' or heat treating chert .....

Heat treating makes a lot of materials more workable, and even more appealing to the eye. Although, there are a lot of risks in doing this, so anyone who does it should do it right, and not just in your oven at home. Some cherts need or are improved by heating while other don't need it at all and are not affected by it. Sonora, Ft Payne (black) and KY Hornstone do not need treating, but Ft. Payne (tan), Flint Ridge, Burlington Chert, Buffalo River and almost all Texas types are drastically improved by heat. The only chert or material that I am aware of that REQUIRES heat treating is Coral from around the Gulf / Florida Panhandle area, but I've never worked it so I don't know anything about it.