Flintknapping & Making Knives from Natural Materials

Brian Jones

Brian Jones

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This is an area I'm very weak in -- I have chipped some quartz and used it a little to test, but my skills are sorely lacking here. It's not as easy to make a nice cutting tool as one may think...

Anybody done much of this? What were your experiences? What did you used the "knife" for?

If you were caught in a survival situation without a knife, would you try this as a measure?

What other materials would you use (i.e. bone)?

Best,

Brian.
 
I really don't know much about this but I think obsidian and chert are preferred materials. These are glass-like and when they flake, the cutting edges is sharper than any steel you can sharpen (at least that's what I was told back in my under grad days in an archaeology class). These "blades" are so sharp I'm told that the chips have been used for scalpels.

Maybe someone can chime in here and tell me if I'm all wet or not.



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Hoodoo

When you arrive at the fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra
 
Hoodoo,

You're right about the preferred materials. Often, it's a case of what naturally occuring minerals are in your area.

Best,

Brian.
 
Hoodoo is right. Obsidian breaks on an almost molecular level giving an edge 500 times sharper than a steel scalpel according to an article I read. Scalpes for eye surgery are made fron obsidian.

Material that were used around here are Obsidian from Yellowstone Park, agate form the plains, basalt, chalcedony, (old diggings a few miles from my home) petrified wood and a lot of other materials.

I have made a lot of stone tools, and they work suprisingly well. Last year I dressed a deer with a stone knife I made on the spot for fun, took me a while to do but it went fairly well.

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www.simonichknives.com
 
I've cut a lot of meat with obsidian blades and pieces, most of it was on my hands and arms and feet (Rule number 1: Never walk around a flaking pit barefooted)

If you are going to start making stone tools it is a good idea to do your work outside. The fine powder can cause respiratory problems.

Rob is correct it can fracture down to a sharpness that is scary. That shimmering you see on the edge of an obsidian blade is where it is cutting through to another dimension ;>)

I really like to teach lithic arts with obsidian because it is relatively easy to find, easy to work, satisfying and durable. Another option is the glass from bottles. We often have our students make arrow points and cutting tools from glass found in the wilds. The students get tools and skills while cleaning up trash.

Ron



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Learn Life Extension at:

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Ron, another scary thing about working stone is when you are roughing with a hammerstone the little snap you hear and then the bee sound, the little snap is I believe the flake breaking the sound barrier! I have a tiny piece of some kind of rock in my left knee from that, went right through my pants and into my leg and stayed there. Saftey glasses are a good idea!

Yea Ron, obsidian is the nicest stuff to work, very predictable. I am not too good at making the big chips run the way I want to though.

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www.simonichknives.com
 
So Rob... we are brothers of the stone. I had a piece in my cheek for several years till it finally cut it's way back out. Looked like a huge zit with a real blackhead :>)

Best thing about stone chips is they don't show on xray.

I can tell you the secret of the long flake if you tell me one of your secrets.

Ron

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Learn Life Extension at:

http://www.survival.com ]
 
A real blackhead! I imagine so, but better than your eye. If you can run the long flake I dont think I will have a secret for you but I will think real hard! I know the dynamics of the long flake, just cant make it work on purpose. Yup, looks like we are brothers of the stone!

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www.simonichknives.com
 
The tools I use for knaping depends upon the stone and if I am trying to be consistent with aboriginal methods.
Most of the time I use copper pressure flakers and billets. I prefer to use the a pressure flaker built as an Ishi stick ( this will save your shoulders if you do alot of knaping) . I use pieces of old grinding wheel as an abrader.
For more aboriginal work I use a mule deer antler tines for a pressure flaker and for indirect percussion , a moose antler as a big billet and a host of river cobbles as hammerstones of various size and weights and as abraders. I have a wooden mallet made of pear wood that I use for tough stones like quarzite.
To protect my hand when pressure flaking and my leg when using a billet, I use a double thickness of elk hide.
Obsidian and glass are the easiest materials to work with as they require very little pressure to remove flakes. These materials make good looking points and blades but are fragile and cannot be used for choping and hacking. If you miss your target you will in all likely hood break the point.
Cherts and flints are harder to work but produce very durable points and blades. These can be resharpened many times as required.
I start out making spear points. Spear points can be hafted to a long shaft and you have a spear or to an antler or piece of wood and you have a knife. Push come to shove just wrap a bit of leather or rags around the back third of the point and you have a decent knife. You will always break some of these larger spear points as you work on them and these broken ones are turned into arrow points. Big ones for large game and smaller ones for birds .
Be glad to answer any questions.
 
Good post Doug!

Did you get training in the skill or did you learn through practice and reading? Or?

I love to hear how folks learn a skill like this one.

Ron

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Learn Life Extension at:

http://www.survival.com ]
 
I've been trying off and on for years to learn flintknapping. I run into trouble once I don't have a decent edge to chip. I've never figured out how to abrade a platform so that I can continue. Can someone direct me on abrading a platform? I don't know how to shape one or what it should look like...
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Lost in a knappers art!
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Any help is GREATLY APPRECIATED! THANKS!
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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
Ron
I learned to knap from watching the elders and breaking rocks and breaking rocks and breaking rocks.
As I grew older and moved away from my boyhood home, I still had a great reverence for the old ways and so I continued to practice my skills and knapping was one of them .
Along the way I have read books by Whitaker , Helwig and others and have located others individuals who like to flintknap for pleasure or profit or both. I have taken knowledge from these sources as well.
In the last three or four years I have watched some flintknapping videos . I think Craig Ratzat and Woody Blackwell both have some good videos and do a good job of presentation.
In my opinion, there is no way to become a decent knapper with out breaking a lot of stone.
 
Plainsman
Regarding your question:
< Can someone direct me on abrading a platform? I don't know how to shape one or what it should look like... >
A platform is simply a place on the stone that has been ground so that it is tough enough to take and transmit the energy of the billet strike into the stone without failing.
I am assuming we are talking percussion flaking now, but the same things apply for pressure flaking.
Generally abrading is done in the direction OPPOSITE from the face that you want to remove flakes from. In essence you will be moving the edge of the mass towards the face you want to take flakes off of by sanding them using a pushing motion. Once you have moved the edge above the centerline, then turn to the point over and remove the flakes from below the centerline area.
Flakes like to follow regions of most mass.. TRANSLATED means flakes follow ridges. You CANNOT run a flake through a concavity, so remove flakes from areas that are CONVEX..
Choose areas like those to remove flakes from. The platform will be can area from the edge to about 2 mm in from the edge depending upon how large a flake you want to remove. The platform area can be isolated by removing a feww flakes on either side of the platform area using a pressure flaker. Isolating the platform will increase your success rate and the likelyhood that you will remove the desired flake size and shape. The intensity of the strike will have to be adjusted to the size of the flake to be removed ( Big flakes require alot of intensity in order to guarentee flake removal and small flakes do not require much intensity). The size of the billet / hammerstone should be sized to the mass of the preform.
 
DOUG: Thanks you very much! I have found a couple of books that attempted to explain it, but were not much help. Also, I have seen some drawings that weren't a lot of help. Your explanation clarifies a lot. I may now be on the road to knapping once again.

I have a box of about 50 lbs of FLINT from ND that I collected about 7 years ago and chip on pieces every once in a while. I never wanted to ruin the larger pieces so I have been holding back until I could do the "platform" thing correctly. I will go at it again soon!
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Thanks again!



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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
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