Don't Fret Over the Perfect Knife

Triquetra

Triquetra

Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
759
Here's a video that I found that I thought was really informative. He's in the woods without a knife. Takes a piece of flint...carves with it, cuts with it, batons, with it and makes a fire bow kit, then shows you how to make fire with what he makes. Improvision not the perfect designer knife saves the day. The rest of the videos look interesting too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn9GmxWvABk
 
Nice link. But the shorts he's wearing on Country Tracks Episode 5 - Coke can fishing (linked to at the end) should have been left in the 1980s. I almost mistook it for a WHAM! music video at first.
 
I didn't watch the video, but I've had a short primative skills class in knapping. Almost anyone can smack rocks together and get a sharp edge, but becoming proficient in tool-making is a serious accomplishment that takes months or years of practice.

Also, there are many places where suitable materials are not available.

So I think it's unwise to rely on spontaneous developement of knapping skills. ;)
 
Bob W said:
I didn't watch the video, but I've had a short primative skills class in knapping. Almost anyone can smack rocks together and get a sharp edge, but becoming proficient in tool-making is a serious accomplishment that takes months or years of practice.

Also, there are many places where suitable materials are not available.

So I think it's unwise to rely on spontaneous developement of knapping skills. ;)
Click to expand...

I personally would never go into the woods with out some sort of knife or 2 or 3 or...but I do think that it's good to know available options and how to adapt if you find yourself without a knife. Also in this video he really didn't do any knapping, he just made some basic sharp edges which seemed to work great for the intended purposes.
 
I've always like Mears' teaching style. He is one of the best in my opinion. More "you can do this" instead of "watch me do this".
 
Great stuff. I like listening to Ray... his Brit accent is soothing... lol
Rick
 
In the first ep of 'Wild Foods', he describes how to select a good piece of flint for knapping. A cool series in itself BTW, all about what foods aboriginal Britons might have eaten.
 
Bob W said:
I didn't watch the video, but I've had a short primative skills class in knapping. Almost anyone can smack rocks together and get a sharp edge, but becoming proficient in tool-making is a serious accomplishment that takes months or years of practice.

Also, there are many places where suitable materials are not available.

So I think it's unwise to rely on spontaneous developement of knapping skills. ;)
Click to expand...

The fact that you didn't watch the video is apparent. He wasn't making arrowheads or an intricate knife, he was merely looking for a chunk of flint with a sharp edge to it.

I know some people who are very good with flint. It is an art indeed. Getting one piece to come off that is sharp is not so hard.
 
Amazing skills!!! Just a reminder, flint, chert or obsidian are not found everywhere in the US or Canada. Flint and chert are found in association with sedimentary rocks. Obsidian is found in association with igneous rocks. Anthropologists can trace ancient Indian trade routes by the flint or other materials they used. These materials can be traced back to the area of origin. So if you plan on living off the land and using primative skills you may not always find the materials you need.
 
I haven't tried to watch the video because of my slow connection.

While I always like to have some sort of a steel blade with me, it is comforting to know that a broken 'cobble' from a creek bed can provide a chopping edge that can help out in an emergency. It doesn't have to be flint to be useful.

I agree...improvisation is heaps more important than a trendy knife. As a species we survived for generations using sharp bits of rock for cutting jobs.

Here is a picture of what I believe is a genuine artifact. It was found on a beach where whales have often washed ashore. It is likely that it was produced on the spot from the local boulders when a whale washed up and needed to be butchered. There is nothing too ornate about this tool, and it looks like it could have been made from a smallish cobble by being hit maybe eight times by a suitable hammer-stone:

HandAxe2.jpg
 
I have an uncle that made a living by knapping reproduction points (yes, there is a market for it). Did some very nice pieces from gemstones and brazilian agates. Everything from Clovis points to Egyption knives.

Anyway, the basics of popping out a useful edge is very easy. I've used a sharp flake to clean and gut several large catfish once when I lost my pocket knife.

Ray is King!
 
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