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4 Attachment(s)
My First Try At Knapping
It was a pretty good day today. I had my first experience with knapping. There were about fifteen experienced knappers there, and they were all more than willing to share their experience and give tips to the newbie.
These are the first three points that I have made.
I dont know if Im hooked yet, but I plan to keep working on it. What a joy to find a resource like this. Several of the guys were local, while others traveled from around the state. Evidently the guy that is my customer is known fairly well around the country. Some of the stuff he has made is just incredible. Whats more astounding is his collection. Here are a few of his knives.
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I'm jealous again. Good job, Crash. Amazing stuff.
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Man, you're going to get me to looking into this and I need one more hobby like a hole in the head!!!
Good work on your first ones.
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What type of stone did you use?
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Coral. I was just using some flakes. Some of the guys were using big stuff. It's heat treated at about 500 degrees. They were saying (because honestly I've got no clue yet) that raw coral is too soft and if you fire it too hot or too long not good eiter. A couple of guys were using chert. One of the guys daughters - she looked to be about 10 years old - would wander around and pick up pieces and pressure flake them into points. I think she did about 9 or 10 before I had done my first. Oh yeah, hers looked alot bettter.
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Isn't coral protected in Fl? Is that something you can easily obtain?
I thought coral was mostly porous. What do I know?
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They get it in a couple of areas of the state (inland) at dig sites. The coral they're gathering is old, real old. One guy said that this stuff hasn't been in the water for thousands of years. He suspected that there was a deposit in an area, but the land owner wouldn't let him explore. Apparently he was doing some building and alot of excavating. He bought 3 truckloads of fill dirt. So far he's found about 200 pound of good rock - mostly coral - and as a bonus he's found about 15 arrow heads and knives that were burried pretty deep.
This stuff wasn't porous. as flakes came off, you could see little fossilized remains sometimes. A guy that was working on an uncooked piece hit a hollow spot. Don't know if that ws from not baking it.
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Nice! I don't know if this helps but, I used to pick up flint on the dirt roads in your area.
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One of the guys warned me that I'd be looking down a whole lot more while I was out in the woods.
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Looking good.
Use that skin pad, pilgrim,
before you lose all your fingers.
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i get the same thing with mushroom hunting and foraging crash. i can't go anywhere even in urban areas without catching myself scanning the grass, the landscaping, etc.
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