Flintknapping

My husband is more the "wilderness" type person, but I'm trying to learn.

Do you think you can use flintknapped spear points in primitive camping?

I am really not familiar with this - would this be to hunt animals? I think you would be right, then.

I think the time it takes to find a flint and nap it to the size of a spear. Then fire it is good in times where your not trying to survive. It's a lost art and great accomplishment to make. Yet a fire or knife sharpened stick will work just as easy. When you don't have a knife a good sharp flint makes an excellent cutting or fleshing tool.

We've been "embracing" our native heritage more lately, and so that's part of the reason for my husband learning to flintknap. I'm sure you could use the points or spears for hunting, if you were accurate with them. I mean natives did it for years.

What other primitive skills would be helpful for camping?

When I go primitive camping, I want to know every available source of moisture that I can find. From safe plants to eat for moisture like the bull thistle or local cactus to natural springs, I look for clean water availability. If it might rain, I'll take a tarp and a couple of garbage bags to hold the rain water. When I can find water, I'll accommodate other hardships like not finding available shelter material close by, animals with bad attitudes, and such just to stay near the water. I can go all weekend without carried in food (MREs and cans of food) and will eat what I find, but I have to have clean water daily.

I've tried flintknapping, too. Bought an informative video on the matter of knapping heat treated stone. I need to learn how to heat treat stone to make it easier to knap into weapons and such. I've knapped a lot of fair specimens of arrowheads from thick glass, but want to try flint or jasper next.

I've learned flintknapping from a professional. He does it for a living and can make a perfect arrowhead in just a few minutes. I've only had a couple lessons from him but I can't make an arrowhead fairly well and could probably do a knife if I had multiple tries. I can't read the rock well so sometimes I crack whatever I'm making but that's to be expected. I don't think it'd be a viable survival tool but if you were as good as the man who taught me and you had the material around it'd work.

I use flint tools to skin hogs. They work better than metal knives as the grease does not make the edges dull.

You would be surprised how sharp these rock knives are. I'm making one right now, kind of a bowie or as one friend called them, Caveman Kabars.

Here is a pic.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...Mvc-001s-1.jpg