Flintknapping

Message

Jay · #1 Post by **Jay** » Sat Jul 26, 2003 3:25 pm

Just wondering if anybody besides me makes or hunts with stone points? If anyone is interested I'd be happy to teach 'em the basics or make a couple of points for 'em to try. I use stone for most of my hunting now- really like 'em, and it's a link to the past- oldest continuously practiced craft on earth. Jay.

erron · #2 Post by **erron** » Sat Jul 26, 2003 4:48 pm

Hey Jay!

How much do you charge for them? I am keen to try a few, and happy to pay for some, depending on price

If you do come up with a trade deal or price to sell, don't forget to post in the Trading Post forum, too!

This is the sort of stuff I'm really keen to promote here. These old skills have to be fostered in this day and age.

Does anyone else have an interest in, or do, flintknapping? If there's a lot of interest, do you want a separate forum (do you think 'campfire' is too wanky?

)

Cheers,

Erron

#3 Post by **Stickbow Hunter** » Sat Jul 26, 2003 8:49 pm

G'day Jay,

I don't knapp myself but I have friends that do. It is something that I might try one day. For the moment making bows and arras is enough. Jeff

Jay · #4 Post by **Jay** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 12:21 am

Erron I doubt there'd ever be enough interest in Australia to warrant another forum. I've hafted my best points on my best arrows- have a lot made up and ready to go- and I've been putting my not so good points on not so good shafts for shooting carp, rocks etc. Be happy to send you a couple to try if you're not in a rush- spent all my time lately remodelling my workshop and churning out shafts.
Jeff what bows you make? Feller wanted me to help his grandson make an English longbow the other day- from a two hundred dollar stave! Flatbows I can do- English longbows are out of my league as yet.
And Erron I don't think Campfires is wanky- excellent technical term by the way- and anyhow- what else could you call it? Jay.

Guest · #5 Post by **Guest** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 7:36 am

Jay I have made som stone points, not very good at it though, bit on the rough side but they look like arrows heads i shape. I made a large broadhead out of the bottom of a wine bottle bottom, probably the best one I ever made, hit a very large sow with it but I lost her on the basalt wall, looked for her for three days, I really wanted to recover that one.
I really could use some instruction. ..Glenn...

erron · #6 Post by **erron** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 10:12 am

Jay,

absolutely mate! I'll email you,

thanks,

Erron

Jay · #7 Post by **Jay** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 12:15 pm

Good to see you here Glenn. Be glad to give you some pointers mate- making pointy projectiles is easy- getting them technically correct - profile, taper, notches, thinned bases, etc- is a whole nutha story. Fun but frustrating. Anyway you don't have time to learn knapping yet- with your family living under a sheet of bark in the rain, waiting for you to build that new house. Hehehe! Jay.

Glenn Newell · #8 Post by **Glenn Newell** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 3:05 pm

Jay I have an obsidian head I worked on a couple of year ago but threw it in the box with the rest of the half made heads, the tip is nice and thick but it is too thick, how do I reduce the thickness of the tip?

Glenn Newell · #9 Post by **Glenn Newell** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 3:15 pm

[Anyway you don't have time to learn knapping yet- with your family living under a sheet of bark in the rain, waiting for you to build that new house. Hehehe! Jay.[/quote]
I don't have my family living under a sgeet of bark at all Jay, I have some builders black plastic hug over the clothes line these days mate...Glenn...

#10 Post by **Stickbow Hunter** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 5:54 pm

Jay,

I've been making laminated longbows for nearly 16 years. I used to make quite a few but in recent times I have just been doing a few for friends etc.

I have only made a few selfbows. I have two Osage ones that are still shooters. I have shot a few pigs and a rabbit with them. They were flatbow design. I have a good friend, Dennis La Varenne, who can make beautiful English design bows. My first animal taken with a selfbow was with one of his English bows.

Hope you get a few ferals with those knapped heads of yours. Jeff

erron · #11 Post by **erron** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 8:56 pm

speaking of English longbows, does anyone know anything of those Turbow bows? I wonder if he'd be interested in this?

Erron

Glenn Newell · #12 Post by **Glenn Newell** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 9:26 pm

Cliff Turpin of Turbow doesen't have a computer Erron. Cliff went on a trip to England late last year and he brought back with him a 120 or 140# English yew war bow. I have photos of Cliff with the bow but I still haven't worked out how to load them yet, still beyond my capicity so far, I bet it is easy if I saw some one do it....Glenn....

Jay · #13 Post by **Jay** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 12:24 am

Glenn showing someone how to thin the tip is easy- explaining it here might not be. Try placing the arrowhead on it's side on a pad or table, after lightly abrading the edge of the bit you want to thin, using sandstone or carborundum. Tilt the point over past forty five degrees, put the tip of the flaker below the centre line at the point you want to thin, then press in and down, releasing the flake. Support the head near where you're working so you don't snap it- and don't take too big a bite or you'll break off the tip or take a section out of the edge and have to reshape it. Clear as mud no doubt. LOL. One of my kids just emailed me a picture of a bloke with an arrow stickin out of the back of his head. I'd forward it if I knew how. Jay.

erron · #14 Post by **erron** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:05 am

Jay,

can you post some pics of the process? That sounds like a toughcall, I know. Just a thought. I'd be interested to see some actual shots of a 'knapper in action'

Cheers,

Erorn

Jay · #15 Post by **Jay** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:42 am

Erron I'll get someone to take some piccies with the next roll of film- the one in the camera now was supposed to be in Brisbane a week ago- oh well. (ggg). Making a point from a lump of rock requires reduction, thinning and shaping using percussion- hammer stone, bopper or antler billet, and pressure flaking to get the final edge and notching. When you change from percussion to pressure on a given piece depends on material, your ability, and how thin you want the end result. Takes a long time to do it well, but progress is constant with practice- just enough to stop you giving up in disgust. I'll get some pictures but it'll take a while. Take care mate. Jay.

erron · #16 Post by **erron** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:25 pm

Thanks for that Jay. I've emailed you, BTW.

Erron

Dennis La Varenne · #17 Post by **Dennis La Varenne** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 1:08 am

For those interested in learning Flintknapping (like me when I get the time) I have purchased a few books on the subject. These are -

1. The Art of Flint Knapping by D C Waldorf (Fourth edition) and no ISBN number unfortunately - available from Mound Builder Books, PO Box 702, Branson, Missouri, 6565, USA;

2. Flintknapping. The Art of Making Stone Tools by Paul Hellweg (ISBN 0-942568-05-2) - available from Canyon Publishing, 8561 Eatough Avenue, Canoga Park, California, 91304, USA; and

3. Flintknapping. Making and Understanding Stone Tools by John C. Whittaker (ISBN 0-292-79083-X) available from University of Texas Press, Box 7819, Austin, Texas, 78713-7819. USA.

I cannot advise of price since I obtained my copies quite a while ago, but if any of you get copies of the Traditional Bowhunter or Primitive Archer, they tend to have current prices.

Stickbow Hunter and I have a mutual good friend in Hans Joachim Stein (yes he is German) who teaches Cultural Anthropology at the Gakuin University in Osaka Japan, and who makes very nice knapped arrowheads and knives.

Obviously this skill is important to his university work in teaching students to recognise stone implements of various cultural periods in Japan and elsewhere, as well as recognising quarries and places were stone was knapped into blades evidenced by the leftover flakes, and the techniques which were used to make them.

Hope the above is helpful.

Ozbow

Flintknapping

Flintknapping

Books on Flintknapping