I wish I had some photos to post.....I'm currently at work and (very unfortunately) away from my lovely wife...having a few minutes though, I found some nice rocks and for some unknown primal instinctive reason began to 'practice' the flintknapping that I've read about....I've practiced it before but not with much luck....today....I produced a decent edge on the rock....Granted there will always be some abrading when 'cutting' with a rock, but it produced a nice cut. If anyone is interested in learning it, I learned through the book: Naked into the wilderness. I have yet to but the second book but I think I'll get it soon...

Boy did that feel good.

Good job!

-Blast

Very cool. I've always been fascinated by flint knapping. The idea of obsidian blades especially. Another good book on it is "Old Tools, New Eyes" by Bob Patton. I've seen some of the tools he knapped and they're pretty authentic.

Several years ago we vacationed near a place called Obsidian Dome, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mtns. Brought home a five gallon bucket full of chunks of black obsidian. Been planning on trying to make a knife/arrowhead/something ever since, but somehow haven't gotten around to it yet. Congratulations!!!

I was doing the archaeologic assessment for Wood Ranch, below the Reagan library and then a near pristine riparian oak woodland and chaparell, now another housing 'development.' This volunteer student did nothing BUT knapp on breaks, sometimes the waste flakes flying directly into a active excavation unit. The last hereditary Chumash Chief, Charlie Cook kept asking him to be more carefull and use a drop cloth. The kid was in his own world of Clan of the CaveBears meets Indiana Jones.He also had no concept of keeping horizontal integrity when excavating and tore into units like a pothunter. I finally ordered him off the site over the project director's authority when a percussion flake went wizzing into another student's eye. He either ignored or failed to hear me. Charlie Cook walked over with a nice True Temper steel shovel, and with all the dramatics of countless 'savages' filmed in these parts slammed it like a killing spear into the soil right between his legs and inches from a rather delicate body part with a bloodcurling scream. Kid looks up from now soiled levis and Charlie escorted him off the site. Upon Charlie's return we all raised our shovels overhead shouting HOKA HEY! and making war hoops with our hands over mouths. Charlie asked for a simple high five and a Coors. I always thought that was a perfect example of cultural borrowing. Always use a drop cloth and dispose of waste flakes if outdoors.

Good advice. Waste flakes can't be dated except by their surrounding strata. If you do dispose of them outdoors, leaving something small but significantly modern can save future anthropologists frustration. Bottle caps come directly to mind.

Last year I took a two day class in flint knapping with a local primitive skills group. I loved it, but as of yet I haven't had the time to sit and practice for any extended amount of time. I have to sneak in time here and there and in between other things.

It's great fun and there's a sense of pride when you produce something that can be used. Of course there's also the frustration when you miscalculate and screw up something that you've been working on.

I hope to get a feel for stones so that I start seeing the angles naturally. Right now, I spend too much of the little time I have, just studying the rock I'm working on. I'd feel better if there was some kind of "Undo". LOL

On the other hand, there's no better teacher than trial and error I guess. I should just bang away...