Questions for knappers

**canid** · 01-31-2010, 08:41 PM

ycc: that stone doesn't look outstanding, but it's better than a lot of the suff i've had to work with.

i miss having a supply of obsidian. i've actually been knapping basalt on and off the last year or so.

your points are not bad. thanks for sharing.

**your_comforting_company** · 02-01-2010, 07:58 AM

h63, I'll try some rougher steel. The piece I tried raw didn't spark either, I think this crude of rock just doesn't have enough silica per limestone quantity to throw sparks. I'll also try shaping the rock differently.
Thanks canid. I'm not trying to make art pieces, just functional points. I'd love to trade out some obsidian to play with. this rock likes to break short of the end of a flake and it winds up one-sided in regard to the center plane. I blame the vacancies left by the fossils, but honestly I haven't been knapping long enough to determine the actual cause.

**your_comforting_company** · 02-09-2010, 09:27 PM

got to spend some time with my knapper friend today who gave me a few tips... I learned the importance of Progressively flaking a piece down. apparently I was pushing too deep into the center of the rock, trying to take too much material off a rough surface. It needs to be worked gradually toward concave and then the flakes pull off long and straight. For the first time today, I made a point where all the bands met symmetrically in the middle.
Then I immediately broke it while trying to flute it. hahaha
oh well, If you ain't breakin 'em, you ain't makin em, eh FVR?
I was also shown the critical importance in abrading and setting up your platform properly. I have to admit, I was basically banging rocks together, but after about 30 minutes today of hands on mentoring, I spent about an hour and made a point roughly 4" long, 3/4" wide, and 3/8" thick.
first piece is cooked "nervaculite" and flaked like butter, but I broke it a couple times while working on it.. I thought it was too brittle for my taste. second pic is some local rock and it was harder to flake, uncooked, but I thought it held up well under the pressure much better without breaking than the cooked rock.
so there you have it.. pushing too deep with a bad platform was the culprit.. no wonder my hands were getting so sore!

**crashdive123** · 02-09-2010, 09:46 PM

Nice work.

**Ted** · 02-09-2010, 10:40 PM

More great info from the man with a plan! They look great! Thanks Bro!

**Rick** · 02-09-2010, 11:41 PM

So easy a caveman can do it.....

Very nice!!

**hunter63** · 02-10-2010, 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

So easy a caveman can do it.....

Very nice!!

Yeah, thats the ticket, I get it, LOL.

Yes, very nice work.

**your_comforting_company** · 02-10-2010, 07:39 PM

seems like while life grows ever more complex, we begin to overlook the simple and obvious. thanks for the compliments. Next time I meet with Craig, we'll be setting up a cooking pit (or either an old oven) and (hopefully) heat treating some of the local rocks the right way.
thanks for the compliments, I know the second one is still pretty crude, but I'm learning and thats what's important.

I wanna make that my slogan... so easy a caveman can do it
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