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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Any yall knappin out there?
- Thread starter ndoghouse
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One of these days Ill knap a Bowie knife and maybe you could checker it for me
I wonder if Neanderthal ever did checkering?
Bawanna
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Well I never made it past 5'6" high so I ain't no authority on Neanderthal's.
Course I think contrary to popular belief they were short little fella's so maybe in reality I r one?
Make's me wonder what they did for wheelchairs prior to the invention of the wheel, must have been a tricky situation for sure I'm thinking.
Course I think contrary to popular belief they were short little fella's so maybe in reality I r one?
Make's me wonder what they did for wheelchairs prior to the invention of the wheel, must have been a tricky situation for sure I'm thinking.
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Bawanna, as long as you saved $500+ on car insurance you qualify as honorary Neanderthal.
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Short Neanderthal with a stone KhukuriRekon thats where Gurkhas come from?
My daughter was just watching a Maori movie "The Dead Lands" with great fight scenes.
They had flat war clubs which after reading a bit have been made out of wood, whale bone or stones (!) like jade.
http://www.donsmaps.com/maoritools.html
Looking at the shape, if cut in half you could get something like a Kukri. So it's kind of like a double Kukri and also has convex edges
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A Native American spiritual leader and friend gave me a chunk of basalt, an antler, some rawhide, and a couple brief words. Many hours later I had these.
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Is the link broken or is it my phone?
Can't wait to see what you made.
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Wow! Howard that is so cool! I just saw your update. That looks like it could truly get the job done! Well done! I havent tried knapping basalt yet but sure would be fun. The chert here is very tough stuff. You have to beat the tar out of it and glass is so fragile. If you just tap glass wrong it will shatter to gravel. I have a big chunk of glass about an inch and a half thick i think im going to try to make an axe or adz from it. Ill probably bust it all to heck in reality. I know it wouldnt hold up to real work but might be cool looking anyway. Thanks for the post. That is awesome! Is that piece of antler used as a pressure flaker?
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I'm not sure working basalt is called knapping. It doesn't fracture like chert or obsidian. You have to peck and abrade.
You could use the antler as a pressure flaker on the appropriate type of stone. That was the tip of the antler that forms the tomahawk handle. My advisor suggested it could be a useful item by itself.
You could use the antler as a pressure flaker on the appropriate type of stone. That was the tip of the antler that forms the tomahawk handle. My advisor suggested it could be a useful item by itself.
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Lost of work there. Im afraid my elbow wont hold up to all that peckin. I will try to make one sometime in the future. I injured some tendons or something in my elbow a few months ago hammering steel t-post fencing and it hasnt been the same since. Knappin dont help it either.
Very impressive piece to say the least. You should be very proud of that piece Howard. Its an honor to have such friends and advisers:thumbup:
Very impressive piece to say the least. You should be very proud of that piece Howard. Its an honor to have such friends and advisers:thumbup:
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I made a little bird point today.
It was meant to be a little bigger but I broke the corner off so had to change my plan.
Its a little thinner than some previous points. It should still take out a bird. Maybe a quail
Mr. Weston:
I got you some Kinley West Texas Chert. Its heat treated but is really nice to work. Its very similar to Keokuk if you've tried that. Didnt see much of anything else at the Llano knap-in except some obsidian. I got plenty of that. In case you dont see this post Ill PM ya too.
I did meet a Boyer there. He had some cool bows. One of Osage orange and a hickory laminated with bamboo and a few other sinew laminated ones. He makes some cool arrows for short range use. They had copper wire with the ends flattened out and stuck through a blunt point. Also the fletchings were spiral wound around the shaft. He said it was to slow the arrow down because he lives in an apartment with a small yard.
It was meant to be a little bigger but I broke the corner off so had to change my plan.
Its a little thinner than some previous points. It should still take out a bird. Maybe a quail
Mr. Weston:
I got you some Kinley West Texas Chert. Its heat treated but is really nice to work. Its very similar to Keokuk if you've tried that. Didnt see much of anything else at the Llano knap-in except some obsidian. I got plenty of that. In case you dont see this post Ill PM ya too.
I did meet a Boyer there. He had some cool bows. One of Osage orange and a hickory laminated with bamboo and a few other sinew laminated ones. He makes some cool arrows for short range use. They had copper wire with the ends flattened out and stuck through a blunt point. Also the fletchings were spiral wound around the shaft. He said it was to slow the arrow down because he lives in an apartment with a small yard.
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Sounds great ndog! I'll be dropping a box of Glass Buttes obsidian at the post office tomorrow. Is that point made out of Burlington chert? Nice little point!
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Hey if anyone is interested in viewing some world class stone pieces these guys are some of the best modern knappers in the world. I had opportunity to meet some of them at the Llano river knap-in last weekend. I dont know them but by their first names in many cases but had opportunity to have one on one instruction from a few of them as they had time. Some very generous and kind fellas! Sadly Ill have to fill in their last names and such as I can piece them together. They did give me permission to photograph their work and show it. I was just overwhelmed by all the new people. Ill say what I do know and show you whats possible in stone weaponry.
(Knapper Dan Theus) How bout that Danish dagger Bookie! He broke the case getting it there i guess but luckily all the stone is intact. Also some ceremonial dance blades.
Dan Theus
Some speculate the stitching on the handles of the dagger were done to replicate the hand stitched leather wraps on the more modern steel dagger handles. Steel was not readily available at the time so this may be how they tried to make a competitive piece or maybe it added structural support to the stone handle. Nonetheless it is not knapped but punched out like with hammer and chisel. Thats the way I understand it at least.
Dan Theus
Note the triangle faced points top right corner. Ive headr these are possibly made that way to penetrate armour.
Some super nice Clovis points by Dan Theus as well.
Ac couple of neat large blades made from Brazillian agate. by Dan Theus
Dan Theus
Some pertrified palm wood.
Dan Theus
I saw all kinds of shapes. Some ceremonial, Mayan shapes depicting afterlife destinations etc. really cool stuff.
Dan Theus
More nice Daltons and Clovis points. Deeply fluted for hafting supposedly. Clovis people were well known for this. That type of fluting is very difficult to do. It is the last step in fabrication so you could imagine after all that work breaking a long blade like that at the end of the process would truely suck. I have a few pieces the guys gave my that were broken in the end. Im not kidding this pieces are between 1/8" and 1/4" and started out with a two inch thick slab maybe. Amazing work!
?
More miscellaneous points.
That big blade in the middle was crazy thin. Seems impossible when you watch them guys wallop on them. Their accuracy is amazing.
I was watching one old guy bust out a 12" blade in less than an hour. He was shaking like a leaf and I though no way this guy could hit that blade in the right spot without breaking it. Ill be dang if he never missed. He said he was retiring and this was his last year to knap. Some reason i doubted that.
Nice silver lace obsidian blades. (Jim?)
This is neat! These are the chips removed to form the point seen. Cool stuff.
Heres my biface from Glass Buttes mahogany obsidian. Its not a point or anything yet but shaped and ready to go. Back then the old guys would find stone and instead of carrying the whole rock back with them they would knap it down to a generic shape to be used later for a more specific task. This is the way they maximized efficiency getting their material where they needed it. Sometimes they would bury cashes of these bifaces so when they came back next season or sometime later they didnt have to carry as much material. Enjoy!
(Knapper Dan Theus) How bout that Danish dagger Bookie! He broke the case getting it there i guess but luckily all the stone is intact. Also some ceremonial dance blades.
Some speculate the stitching on the handles of the dagger were done to replicate the hand stitched leather wraps on the more modern steel dagger handles. Steel was not readily available at the time so this may be how they tried to make a competitive piece or maybe it added structural support to the stone handle. Nonetheless it is not knapped but punched out like with hammer and chisel. Thats the way I understand it at least.
Note the triangle faced points top right corner. Ive headr these are possibly made that way to penetrate armour.
Some super nice Clovis points by Dan Theus as well.
Ac couple of neat large blades made from Brazillian agate. by Dan Theus
Some pertrified palm wood.
I saw all kinds of shapes. Some ceremonial, Mayan shapes depicting afterlife destinations etc. really cool stuff.
More nice Daltons and Clovis points. Deeply fluted for hafting supposedly. Clovis people were well known for this. That type of fluting is very difficult to do. It is the last step in fabrication so you could imagine after all that work breaking a long blade like that at the end of the process would truely suck. I have a few pieces the guys gave my that were broken in the end. Im not kidding this pieces are between 1/8" and 1/4" and started out with a two inch thick slab maybe. Amazing work!
More miscellaneous points.
That big blade in the middle was crazy thin. Seems impossible when you watch them guys wallop on them. Their accuracy is amazing.
I was watching one old guy bust out a 12" blade in less than an hour. He was shaking like a leaf and I though no way this guy could hit that blade in the right spot without breaking it. Ill be dang if he never missed. He said he was retiring and this was his last year to knap. Some reason i doubted that.
Nice silver lace obsidian blades. (Jim?)
This is neat! These are the chips removed to form the point seen. Cool stuff.
Heres my biface from Glass Buttes mahogany obsidian. Its not a point or anything yet but shaped and ready to go. Back then the old guys would find stone and instead of carrying the whole rock back with them they would knap it down to a generic shape to be used later for a more specific task. This is the way they maximized efficiency getting their material where they needed it. Sometimes they would bury cashes of these bifaces so when they came back next season or sometime later they didnt have to carry as much material. Enjoy!
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Its made of Keokuk. I think it from Missouri but not positive. It is some really nice stuff if you ever get a chance to get some. Get it heat treated.
I have seen some Burlington but havent worked it. Id like to try it. Im thinking it was the multicolored stuff? There was also a few guys that had some "flint ridge"? Pretty stuff. None for sale tho. Ill pack up some of that Kinley chert and let me know how you like it. It was $2.00/pound heat treated. Very reasonable. I found out the rock im getting here is called "Bull rock" and is not very desirable unless its heat treated. Many like to slab it then cook it. Its inevitable ill have to get a rock saw and turkey roaster.
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I visited Flint Ridge in Ohio a few years back. There is a nice park and museum there, where you can see the old mining pits from the Native American flint operations. Flint from there was traded across the continent along the trade routes. Such high quality knapping material is rare and was of great value. The natives had a kind of longstanding truce, that whatever regional warfare was going on the artisans at Flint Ridge were not to be harmed.
You can still get good knapping materials in the area. Probably much cheaper than the natives did, due to the greater demand in those times.
You can still get good knapping materials in the area. Probably much cheaper than the natives did, due to the greater demand in those times.
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Cool thread! 
thumbup: Lots of awesome points!!!
I was taught flint knapping by a fellow in Tennessee. His main knapping tool was a 1" diameter piece of solid copper about 8" long.
He also used a small, finely pointed piece of Deer antler.
These were my first two points ever, using his tools. One is the glass from the bottom of an old Clorox bleach bottle. The other is some random, crappy chert I found walking along a creek in the area. Not great work, but I didn't feel too bad for my firsts.
Great skill to have handy! :thumbup:
thumbup: Lots of awesome points!!! I was taught flint knapping by a fellow in Tennessee. His main knapping tool was a 1" diameter piece of solid copper about 8" long.
He also used a small, finely pointed piece of Deer antler.These were my first two points ever, using his tools. One is the glass from the bottom of an old Clorox bleach bottle. The other is some random, crappy chert I found walking along a creek in the area. Not great work, but I didn't feel too bad for my firsts.
Great skill to have handy! :thumbup: