Author Topic: Knapping tip! (Read 11782 times)

Doug Campbell · « **Reply #20 on:** November 30, 2005, 02:15:00 PM »

Find good material, no need to handycap yourself with hard or impossible to work rock from the beginning. Then make a couple tons of dust.

I just started using the cut resistant gloves and love them, they'll save you alot on bandaids and superglue.

Oh yea slow down!! :D

Ralph, I stuck that great point of yours Tim sent up in the dirt the other evening, right tween his legs as he was quartering away

No damage, a little touchup and it'll go back in the quiver.

Brian Halbleib · « **Reply #21 on:** December 01, 2005, 03:32:00 AM »

Yessir Matt, glad to hear the osage worked out for you. I was a little nervous sending that not-so-perfect stave after seeing the beautiful knapped points you sent for it. Just like osage, darn things were poker straight when I split them then they moved a little in storage. I still have every point you sent. I mounted a few and practiced with them but never hunted with them yet. I planned to use them once I got a bow made worthy of flinging them since they are legal in PA. Dang, that had to be close to five years ago.

-Brian
www.bowyersjournal.com

ber643 · « **Reply #22 on:** December 01, 2005, 05:59:00 AM »

More info on the cut resistant gloves, please, Doug.
(Good example of how quickly time gets away from us, Brian and Matt. Better do "it" now, everyone!)

Matt E · « **Reply #23 on:** December 01, 2005, 09:07:00 AM »

Brian my friend, any Osage is good Osage in my part of the world. A little steam and a tweak or two and that stave was perfectly straight.When I received it I felt like a thief. I got so much for so little.The postage on a few heads was not even close to what you payed to ship the stave and getting the stone for the heads was easier than cutting down a tree and spliting it.Yeah, I got the best end of the deal for sure, no reason you should have been nervous...... Merry Christmas all!
P.S. one more tip. You can get a lot more than your head are worth in trade!

ber643 · « **Reply #24 on:** December 01, 2005, 12:10:00 PM »

I can vouche for the fact that Brian tends to give the best part of a trade.

Northwoods · « **Reply #25 on:** December 06, 2005, 03:37:00 PM »

This is maybe just a different way of saying what's already been said but this is what has helped me the most. After every flake (especially the ones that didn't work out the way you wanted) pick up the flake and put it back on the biface. Look at what's left of the platform and look for the spot that your billet struck. Then think about how and why the flake came off the way it did or why the biface broke or whatever else may have happened. Slowly you'll gain experience and then be able to anticipate what will happen when you strike the biface and where the flake will travel.

Doug Campbell · « **Reply #26 on:** December 07, 2005, 12:13:00 AM »

Bernie, I looked but there's not info on the tags. A buddy picked these up as Quartsite, (sp?) AZ last year. Sorry can't be more helpful.

Matt E · « **Reply #27 on:** December 07, 2005, 08:05:00 AM »

Doug, can you send a picture of the quartzite .We have quartzite here in N.C. but I can't seem to find a good grade of it.Most will have rust looking veins running through it.This make it easy for a flake to run off course spoiling the work. It is one of the hardest stones to knapp that I have run up againest. The native must have had a problem with it as well. When I find artifacts of quartzite they are,for the most part, crude.

Matt E · « **Reply #28 on:** December 07, 2005, 08:13:00 AM »

Doug, can you send a picture of the quartzite .We have quartzite here in N.C. but I can't seem to find a good grade of it.Most will have rust looking veins running through it.This make it easy for a flake to run off course spoiling the work. It is one of the hardest stones to knapp that I have run up againest. The native must have had a problem with it as well. When I find artifacts of quartzite they are,for the most part, crude.

Matt E · « **Reply #29 on:** December 07, 2005, 08:17:00 AM »

Doug, can you send a picture of the quartzite .We have quartzite here in N.C. but I can't seem to find a good grade of it.Most will have rust looking veins running through it.This make it easy for a flake to run off course spoiling the work. It is one of the hardest stones to knapp that I have run up againest. The native must have had a problem with it as well. When I find artifacts of quartzite they are,for the most part, crude.

Matt E · « **Reply #30 on:** December 07, 2005, 08:35:00 AM »

Doug, can you send a picture of the quartzite .We have quartzite here in N.C. but I can't seem to find a good grade of it.Most will have rust looking veins running through it.This make it easy for a flake to run off course spoiling the work. It is one of the hardest stones to knapp that I have run up againest. The native must have had a problem with it as well. When I find artifacts of quartzite they are,for the most part, crude.

Doug Campbell · « **Reply #31 on:** December 07, 2005, 09:01:00 PM »

Matt, I meant the gloves came from Quartzite AZ. There is a big knapp-in down there every year. But.... we have found some pretty good grade quartzite up here in MT, it will certainly make cruder looking points than most of your cherts or volcanic rocks. When you do get a point out of it it will be tough though, I killed a turkey with one last year after missing, turks with the same point two times. It's still intact.

shawnee · « **Reply #32 on:** March 29, 2006, 10:53:00 AM »

I just pulled this thread up to re-read it, now that I'm trying to learn how to flintknap. Lots of great tips here, and now that I've been breaking rock for a while, they actually make sense.

As a beginner, one of the best tips I can give is to SLOW DOWN, and don't just go to busting rock. Stop, look the rock over, and try to imagine what your next blow is going to do, and how it will affect the next 3 or 4. Like Ralph told me at OJAM, it's just like a chess game. If you can't look several moves ahead, you aren't going to be very successful.

You guys that have been knapping for several years amaze me at how fast you can go from a big rock to a small point. I just have to keep telling myself that I'm not experienced enough to see what needs to be done that fast. It sometimes takes me several hours to get a rock thinned out enough to be ready to pressure flake, because I have to study the rock before each series of blows, to try and decide how to attack it without messing it up.

I've still got a LOT to learn, but thanks to the tips I'm learning, and getting a chance to watch good knappers, I'm definitely making improvement.

Also, good rock is a definite plus if you want to make a good point, but if you don't have a steady supply, there's nothing wrong with practicing on not so good rock. It's fun to take a big ole' chunk that you know won't make a point, and just see how thin you can get it. Sometimes you will suprise yourself.

And probably the best tip I can give beginners...abrade the heck out of your platforms EVERY TIME.

Oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer · « **Reply #33 on:** March 29, 2006, 06:50:00 PM »

Shawnee is any of the Kay county working for you?? Mike Smyth

Tater John · « **Reply #34 on:** March 29, 2006, 08:01:00 PM »

What a timely thread. Advise me some of you pros, is a moose billet 8" long, 1 3/4" at the dia. and 14 oz a good size for a total beginner? I want to try abo-style knapping.

Rusty

justknappin · « **Reply #35 on:** March 29, 2006, 09:39:00 PM »

Tater,
I don't know about the billet I started with a whitetail antler so anything works it's just if you can either figure out if the billet is the wrong size or if you are doing something else wrong. However i do have a tip for keeping you antler billets in tip top shape, CORN HUSKERS HAND LOTION. yep that smelly nasty stuff works great for keeping your antler percussion tools in working order for a long time again PERCUSSION.. for pressure flakers soak the tips in i believe a 1part ca glue to 2 parts acetone?(if anyone remembers what that was for sure please let me know). I've only done it once it does help your antler tips last longer but i have found it more convient to keep several around along with nice supply of fresh bone. which makes a good pressure flaking tool. hope this helps someone.
good luck and happy knappin

Tater John · « **Reply #36 on:** March 29, 2006, 09:53:00 PM »

I do have antler tines for pressure flaking and small material to work with, but was wondering if aquiring a moose billet would be a tool to consider having for a beginner? Plus I know where one is to be had.

Rusty

ncboman · « **Reply #37 on:** March 29, 2006, 10:07:00 PM »

er, what is a platform?

:confused:

shawnee · « **Reply #38 on:** March 29, 2006, 10:31:00 PM »

Mike,

The rock is definitely working for me. Just need to get better at making it do what I want. I haven't used a lot of it yet...still beating on some of the rock left on the tarp at OJAM, but I've done some of it, and plan on working a lot more of it in the next few weeks. Just finished our last flintknapping class tonite. That was a blast, too.

ncboman, I'll try to explain a platform, but some of the more experienced knappers can do a lot better job of it. It's basically an edge of the rock that you strike to drive off a flake to thin the rock. Platforms need to be below the centerline of the rock, and abraded(ground with an abrading stone or soft rock) to strengthen it so that the flake will travel.

Steve Holloway posted this link on a different thread a month or so ago...check it out and I think it will explain it better than I can.

www.indiancreekbowhunters.com/lithic.html

ncboman · « **Reply #39 on:** March 30, 2006, 12:08:00 AM »

Quote

It's basically an edge of the rock that you strike to drive off a flake to thin the rock. Platforms need to be below the centerline of the rock,

Would platforms correspond to 'shelves', like I find on hillsides in parts of Ohio? ie, a spot to get a bite?

Also, what if the piece is too thick at the centerline? I would assume the desired thickness would be of first order?

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Author Topic: Knapping tip! (Read 11782 times)

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