flint-knapping?

[devilboy]

Are there any courses/ seminars offered in the Southern CA area for people interested in "primitive" fieldcraft?

I'm no hippy, but the idea of going into the woods and being able to survive off the land with maybe a daypack's worth of gear (or hip-pack for you hardcore woodsmen) has always been fascinating. I just remember weeklong backpacking trips with 60+ lbs of gear.

The idea of stone blades is intriguing to me. Also, are there any sources via the internet for stone or obsidian blades?

I'm not looking to make fire out of ice or anything: just looking for some different takes on fieldcraft that don't involve a whisperlite, glow sticks, and a thermarest.

cheers,
steve

 

[donutsrule]

I'm sure there are. Try contacting a local archaeological society (they will know who the local specialists are -- IIRC this is known as "applied archaology") or college. For instance UCLA and UCRiverside have pretty massive archaeology depts, but it might take a while to find the right person to answer your question. Then again it might not.

They cover it a lot of beginning and advanced anthropology and archaeology college courses (you could even take a community college course for cheap).

From my experience, it's much, much harder than it looks to do well. Everyone who tries it in class ends up with bleeding hands

But it's fun, and not expensive. You'll learn lots about bulbs of percussion, cores, etc. and how to touch up edges. Also you'll learn about local sources of rock and where to get your cores. Obsidian is easy and incredibly sharp if you can find it.

HTH

 

[PropellerHead]

Steve,

Look in the calendar section at www.primitivearcher.com. I've seen a regular Knap-Inn in the Bakersfield area if that's close enough to you. You might also contact them to see if there are any others that may be closer to you.

I took a knapping class about 10 years ago and really enjoyed it. I haven't done much with it since, but I do remember that I got good at making big pieces of obsidian into really small pieces of obsidian.

I hope you find something that works for you!

Cheers,

Mike