I just got back from a daylong primitive skills class that taught flint knapping basic stone tools, cordage making, and fire by bow drill. I have made cordage already and I have been successful with a bow drill previously but I had no experience with stone and knapping. The class was taught by Ben Kirkland (chehawknapper on GON Forum) he really know his stuff. But the stuff we covered on just basic stone tools really opened my mind. He taught us how to take a spall of the rock. And if done right gives you a razor sharp edge. And I mean razor sharp all of us were able to get edges that made the hair on your arm jump off. He also showed us how to pressure flake a saw type or serrated edge that made a good saw. The other technique he showed us was how to put a single bevel on the stone to use it as a scraper. Bear in mind though, these tools were not hafted or have any resemblances to looking like a knife or modern tool. But they were still very functional tools none the less. I know what he showed me today was just minor speck in the world of knapping but man great skills to know. This has really sparked my interest in knapping and something I plan on getting into more. I know this is probably old news to some and especially those old knappers. This does not mean that I am going to start leaving my Gossman at home neither. I guess one questions to others is how much thought have your given to stone tools as a must have skills. We talk alot about fire by friction and other survival/bushcraft skills but I do not ever see much talk here on this. I really think this is a skill alot of us overlook and under estimate.
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Knapping
- Thread starter cddogfan1
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cddogfan1,
I am a professional (by which I mean I get paid to do it, not that I am the world's best at it) archaeologist, and I can say that based upon the quantity and quality of stone tools that we recover on many sites that they were/are a VERY significant and important tool and the ability to manufacture them is a key skill set. Keep in mind that this is my personal opinion, but based on the evidence I stand by it. I'd also like to point out that not all stone is created equal. Here in the southeast there is no obsidian which is by far the best stone to work, in my opinion. Second best would be chert, but again this is lacking in parts of the southeast. Rhyolite and Quartz are what we get primarily here and they are both more difficult to work, but quartz is especially so, as it tends to shatter, and does not exhibit concoidal fracture patterns as well as other materials. So, not only are basic skill sets necessary, but one must also have skill sets or at least knowledge tailored to the type of stone which one has available. Again, I'm not much of a knapper and am going on what research I've read and what little I've done myself, so I'm sure there are errors in the above and that some far more experienced knappers will have other input. But at least we can keep this discussion alive.
Lagarto
I am a professional (by which I mean I get paid to do it, not that I am the world's best at it) archaeologist, and I can say that based upon the quantity and quality of stone tools that we recover on many sites that they were/are a VERY significant and important tool and the ability to manufacture them is a key skill set. Keep in mind that this is my personal opinion, but based on the evidence I stand by it. I'd also like to point out that not all stone is created equal. Here in the southeast there is no obsidian which is by far the best stone to work, in my opinion. Second best would be chert, but again this is lacking in parts of the southeast. Rhyolite and Quartz are what we get primarily here and they are both more difficult to work, but quartz is especially so, as it tends to shatter, and does not exhibit concoidal fracture patterns as well as other materials. So, not only are basic skill sets necessary, but one must also have skill sets or at least knowledge tailored to the type of stone which one has available. Again, I'm not much of a knapper and am going on what research I've read and what little I've done myself, so I'm sure there are errors in the above and that some far more experienced knappers will have other input. But at least we can keep this discussion alive.
Lagarto
He used obsidian and chert in the class. That obsidian is crazy sharp. The chert was actualy harvested close to the guys house (near flint river). This class has really peaked my intrest in stone. Ben showed us some hand drills he had made and you would be supprised how quick they went through the wood he was drilling. On could easily process a whole deer with a properly prepared spall. Which is crazy to me that with the proper technique some one can pick up a rock and with a few careful strike have a shard that will skin and gut a deer. Think early man figured this out and we still call them primative.
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Cddog fan1, they figured that out and a whole lot more. And as my father likes to say, Primitive doesn't mean stupid. My MA is in maritime archaeology and I'm fascinated by how early man utilized the seas and rivers they had access to. Inuit watercraft technology is truly amazing, as well as that of the Kwakuitl (spelling) on the west coast. I've worked on a site in Idaho and we recovered stone drills that were over 6,000 years old and still sharp, so yes, obsidian is an amazing material. Good luck with your knapping. Also, not sure if my email is visible on my profile anymore. If it is, and you're curious about stone tools contact me off list. I'll send you some pictures from my personal collection of ones that have been recovered from archaeological sites. My company just got some awesome stone knives last week.
Lagarto
Lagarto
Codger_64
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I love this subject and wonder why more people who practice wilderness survival skills don't learn basic knapping. It is one of those skills that once learned can provide you with mankind's most basic tools, which let you make better tools.
I was surprised to find how far and widely early natives traveled and traded. In Arkansas along some minor rivers, I found midden piles and hunting camps of the Quapaw, Caddo and Cherokee. In those sites were flakes of stones that came from thousands of miles away, as well as shell from the gulf. Such finds are not entirely uncommon earlier during the moundbuilder culture. Worked stones from the Great Lakes region, copper, basalt, obsidian and others which could only be found great distances from the Mississippi Valley show up frequently there in archeological digs.
I have used stone tools to dress, skin and butcher a deer before. Once I had the tools made and technique worked out, it was just as quick and efficient as using a modern steel knife. It surely put the lie to the popular myth that loosing your knife in a survival situation means certain death (or at least the inability to cut things).
It is fun to do and not hard to learn. Plenty of museums have programs with skilled knappers giving demonstrations. You can even buy modern knapped pieces on eBay to use as an example, or just to try out in a wilderness setting.
I was surprised to find how far and widely early natives traveled and traded. In Arkansas along some minor rivers, I found midden piles and hunting camps of the Quapaw, Caddo and Cherokee. In those sites were flakes of stones that came from thousands of miles away, as well as shell from the gulf. Such finds are not entirely uncommon earlier during the moundbuilder culture. Worked stones from the Great Lakes region, copper, basalt, obsidian and others which could only be found great distances from the Mississippi Valley show up frequently there in archeological digs.
I have used stone tools to dress, skin and butcher a deer before. Once I had the tools made and technique worked out, it was just as quick and efficient as using a modern steel knife. It surely put the lie to the popular myth that loosing your knife in a survival situation means certain death (or at least the inability to cut things).
It is fun to do and not hard to learn. Plenty of museums have programs with skilled knappers giving demonstrations. You can even buy modern knapped pieces on eBay to use as an example, or just to try out in a wilderness setting.
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I read somewhere that high-quality obsidian flakes produce an edge sharper than you can get with any steel -- i'm talking approaching molecular level that cuts cells, rather than tears cells like steel does.
You do not know sharp till you have experienced a obsidian flake. It is un real. Hair popping is not evern close to a description. Hair runs away from it.
A question to the rest of the forum, since we should all be fairly like minded in the broad since of the term since we frequent this forum. How many of you really considered learning this skill or how many considered this skill a necessary skill of the well rounded, woodsman/bushcrafter/survivalist. Honestly until seeing what I saw today I thought it would be cool to know I never thought it was really necessary. I have since change my mind today. I think If you feel like you need to know a bow drill and cordage then you need to know some basic knapping principals not talking Clovis point skills just basic stuff. With just a few principals under your belt you can make several useful tools
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moogoogaidan, supposedly obsidian is the only material that can be sharpened down to a single molecule in thickness. There are stories (apocryphal or not, they make the point) of one anthropologist going in for eye surgery and requesting that the doctor use a knife that he'd knapped himself instead of a scalpel since the obsidian was sharper. Codger 64 if you're a fellow archaeologist please shoot me an email. I'd love to learn Great Basin archaeology I've never worked out that way, except for one training dig. I do a lot of work in the Caribbean though, and I too am always impressed with the extensive nature of the early trade networks.
Knapping is indeed a handy and interesting thing to know. Errett Callahan has a primitive skills school in Lynchberg Virginia that I went to many years ago, and my friend got me to go to the big knap-in at flint Ridge Ohio, near Brownsville Ohio. Hanging out with other knappers is a great learning experiance. It's also a eye opener to see what can be done with a sharp flake of obsidian or flint. You can even heat treat them in a fire to take some of the brittleness out of the material.
I play at it, and my stuff is not great looking, but it does function well. It's very satisfying to gut and clean fish with a flint knife you made yourself.
The next big get together at Flint Ridge is coming up, you should go and have fun and meet other knappers. You'll never look at your steel knife the same way again.
Codger_64
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lagarto, I am not an archaeologist, just someone who has always been fascinated with the develpoment of native Woodland and Missippian (pre-Columbian) cultures in this area.
"Experimental archaeology" has been a hobby of mine for many years. As much as an excavation gives a professional archaeologist insight on the workings of the inhabitants of a particular site, my trying to reproduce, by trial and error, artifacts I find in the field or in books and museums gives me a better perspective of how the people did things, though on a broader scale of time and area than on a specific site basis.
The more I learn, the more I am amazed by the complexity of those societies. How labor was divided, professions handed down, mathematics and astronomy, architecture and navigation and trade routes developed. None of this would have been possible without the development and dispersal of advanced tools and political alliances.
So much of this puzzle has been pieced together in just the last fifty years, I am excited about what more will be revealed in the next fifty.
"Experimental archaeology" has been a hobby of mine for many years. As much as an excavation gives a professional archaeologist insight on the workings of the inhabitants of a particular site, my trying to reproduce, by trial and error, artifacts I find in the field or in books and museums gives me a better perspective of how the people did things, though on a broader scale of time and area than on a specific site basis.
The more I learn, the more I am amazed by the complexity of those societies. How labor was divided, professions handed down, mathematics and astronomy, architecture and navigation and trade routes developed. None of this would have been possible without the development and dispersal of advanced tools and political alliances.
So much of this puzzle has been pieced together in just the last fifty years, I am excited about what more will be revealed in the next fifty.
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havent yet done in any knapping. the guy who has been teaching me primitive bow making is also a knapper and is gonna start some informal classes like our bow making get-togethers. been wanting to do this for a long time and am really excited about it. so yes, i agree it is a basic skill that would be very useful in a survival setting. certainly one i want in my arsenal.
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I think it is an excellent skill set to learn. I've been exposed to it a few times but wasn't in the right mindset to learn at that point just because there are so many things to learn and I sort of seem to make the rounds on skills.
Anyhow, your class as described in the OP sounds exactly like what I'm interested in. Often the workshops on the subject I've seen want to get too technical and jump into elaborate points or the knapper feels a need to show of his skill and that takes 75% of the time of the demonstration. The things I'd really be interested in would be: a) how to recognize good quality stone in its natural setting, b) how to test that stone for its qualities - I see knappers often pick up a rock bang it and may or may not get a fracture toss it or keep it, I want to know the rules for toss or keep; c) how to engage in a minimal path to get a working tool, e.g. a straight edge for cutting or I'm intrigued by your serrated edge for sawing, d) how to manipulate these simple tools for survival tasks.
Personally, I don't think making survival points for arrow heads is all that critical of a survival skill. But being able to create a simple usable edge, to create them at will when you destroy one in use, is excellent insurance as a back-up to your blade. Thanks for your post!
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I often run across chert flakes , that the Indians discarded. . They are already flat and sometimes fairly sharp. Ive been able to use my leather belt as work base and the long skinny part of the buckle to shape the flake into a crude point or cutting edge.
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What is the GON forum?
-Stan
-Stan
Codger_64
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He covered all of the above plus some. No actual arrow head or blade was knapped out. Everything was very basic, basicaly shards that had there edges modified per the job. Blade,Scraper, Saw. He says it takes years to get to the point you can knap out quality hunting heads. This is coming from a man that eats mostly deer harvested with his own river cane stone tipped arrows. He really does not qualify this a true knapping class. He does offer it 3 of them in fact with a required 1 year wait between classes. He called the class ABO 101. He said these were the 3 basic foundation skills for a primative/survival/bushcrafter/woodsman.
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Three of my buddies went out for rock, today (too early in the morning for me). On the way back, they stopped in for a coffee. I can knap a point that would work, but no work of art, by any means.
Two of my buddies, Luis and Tony are both accomplished knappers and do great work. Today, Luis presented me with this knife that he made for me. Thought I would share it with you.
The blade is Onondaga chert and the handle is deer antler stained with tea.
Doc
Two of my buddies, Luis and Tony are both accomplished knappers and do great work. Today, Luis presented me with this knife that he made for me. Thought I would share it with you.
The blade is Onondaga chert and the handle is deer antler stained with tea.
Doc
I was into experiment archeology for the longest time and studied with some truly great professionals, but I could never get the hang of knapping. I just don't have it in me.
One of the best books I've ever read on the subject and how it relates to human evolution is called, "Making Silent Stones Speak" If you haven't read it, get it. You will be truly amazed at what professional archeologists can read into a flake or blade.
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Silent-Stones-Speak-Technology/dp/0671693719
From Publishers Weekly
"Tools are us," assert the authors, anthropologists at Indiana University, referring to the pivotal role that tool making and tool use played in transforming apelike hominids into modern humans. In East Africa, Schick and Toth learned to duplicate and use Stone Age-like tools for woodworking, animal butchery and other tasks. Drawing on this experimental fieldwork and on the fossil record, they conclude that approximately two million years ago, early hominids turned to flaked stone tools as part of a decisive adaptive shift stressing deliberate planning and manipulation of the environment. This development, they argue, set in motion a "circular feedback loop," with advantageous tool use favoring a large brain to plan even more tool use, which in turn fostered social interaction and intelligence. Illustrated with 100 photographs and drawings, this lucid primer is an exciting exploration of the world's most ancient technologies, of human origins and of controversies in paleoanthropology. BOMC, QPB and History Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Hide tanning, I can do that. Bows? Maybe on a good day. Fire? If the planets are in alignment.
That's why I carry modern tools! I appreciate what early man had to endure and overcome, but I just don't see those skills as viable in this age because we just don't have the mastery of them.
Awesome excuse to get out into the woods, though! "Honey, I'd love to get started on that list you have for me, but I have to run out into the woods and practice my primitive skills. I'm doing it for you, Love!"
One of the best books I've ever read on the subject and how it relates to human evolution is called, "Making Silent Stones Speak" If you haven't read it, get it. You will be truly amazed at what professional archeologists can read into a flake or blade.
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Silent-Stones-Speak-Technology/dp/0671693719
From Publishers Weekly
"Tools are us," assert the authors, anthropologists at Indiana University, referring to the pivotal role that tool making and tool use played in transforming apelike hominids into modern humans. In East Africa, Schick and Toth learned to duplicate and use Stone Age-like tools for woodworking, animal butchery and other tasks. Drawing on this experimental fieldwork and on the fossil record, they conclude that approximately two million years ago, early hominids turned to flaked stone tools as part of a decisive adaptive shift stressing deliberate planning and manipulation of the environment. This development, they argue, set in motion a "circular feedback loop," with advantageous tool use favoring a large brain to plan even more tool use, which in turn fostered social interaction and intelligence. Illustrated with 100 photographs and drawings, this lucid primer is an exciting exploration of the world's most ancient technologies, of human origins and of controversies in paleoanthropology. BOMC, QPB and History Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Hide tanning, I can do that. Bows? Maybe on a good day. Fire? If the planets are in alignment.
That's why I carry modern tools! I appreciate what early man had to endure and overcome, but I just don't see those skills as viable in this age because we just don't have the mastery of them.
Awesome excuse to get out into the woods, though! "Honey, I'd love to get started on that list you have for me, but I have to run out into the woods and practice my primitive skills. I'm doing it for you, Love!"
Last edited:
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Three of my buddies went out for rock, today (too early in the morning for me). On the way back, they stopped in for a coffee. I can knap a point that would work, but no work of art, by any means.
Two of my buddies, Luis and Tony are both accomplished knappers and do great work. Today, Luis presented me with this knife that he made for me. Thought I would share it with you.
The blade is Onondaga chert and the handle is deer antler stained with tea.
Doc
Looks great Doc, how does it cut? :thumbup: