Flintstone Knives

C

crafty

Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
212
Hi folks,

some time ago I enjoyed a course with Lynx Vilden (www.lynxvilden.com). An important part was working with flint, so flint-knapping! I really enjoyed it and got quite some nice pieces. I picked two of the blades I made and used them for most of the time. Butchered a sheep with them, made a firebow, carving, etc. Used the firebow to make a fire in a cave (were we slept too). My steel blade stayed somewhere in my bag the entire time. Was amazed how nice it was to use the flint! Definitely gonna practice some more flint knapping! Anyone else played with flint?

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I have used flint (chert) knives and tools, found archaic and of my own making. I consider it a good skill to learn. And not that hard once you understand the basic principals of flaking and knapping. I've used them to make things and to skin and butcher a deer. I am confident that, should I loose my knife and need to, I can make a fairly efficient knife from found stone in many environments.
 
That's very cool and a good skill to know, thanks Codger for your input; I might have to give it a try someday. I'm usually in a hurry to get my deer on ice as soon as possible down here in the Florida heat.
 
It's addictive. And I definitely agree it is a valuable skill! I was really surprised what you can do with a piece of rock, once you start knapping your creativity takes over and you start to see more and more :)
 
A stone knife can be as simple as a spall broken off of a larger stone, used and dropped. It need not be worked into what we modern people think a knife should look like, in order for it to work. The same for a drill point. Bone also can be made into a usable knife. A femur is good for this.
 
I live a few miles from one of the largest flint outcropping areas in the US: Flint Ridge State Park in Ohio. Every year there is a "knapp-in".
It's fun to see the flint knappers do there thing.
 
Brules1 said:
I live a few miles from one of the largest flint outcropping areas in the US: Flint Ridge State Park in Ohio. Every year there is a "knapp-in".
It's fun to see the flint knappers do there thing.
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There's actually 2/two of them every year. The one in the spring isn't as big as the one at the end of summer but still nice.

I've been to every one since 97 except for a few when I was out of country. Some of the pits go back to Paleo times, there's even been clovis and folsum points of Flintridge flint found.

Nice place to visit.
 
I already found a flint mine where I can pickup some pieces. Only need to find some time now to drive there :)
This time I will have some band-aid with me too ;)
 
Cuts are to be expected when working flint, right? It helps to have a small piece of heavy leather. A craft store or even an old pair of boots are good sources. I find it interesting that often archeologists can determine the source of the stone artifacts are made from, sometimes found very long distances from where they were mined. There was quite a network of traders crossing the country in every direction even in archaic times. The better stones commanded higher values from the cultures remote to the source.

I don't recall the names, but I used to have several books which explained and illustrated the process of flintknapping. They went a long way in helping me understand tempering, percussion and pressure flaking. Examining actual artifacts closely helped too. Most modern hand tools had an archaic counterpart though the uses are not always apparent without some study. Many of what we call arrowheads were actualy spear or atlatl points. And the smallest ones were dart points or drill points.
 
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