Beveled Points

I acquired this point from an artifact hunter at a gem and mineral show. He related it was a personal find he picked up in Oklahoma. It looks like it was knapped out of Burlington chert and possibly would have been a small knife form. It measures 2 1/4 inches long, and just over 1 inch wide. Even though it was missing part of the base, I found it interesting because it appeared to be beveled in the Archaic style. I am no expert on artifacts, but appreciated the knapping technic it demonstrated. The Archaic period (8000 - 1000 BC) in North America was characterized by some points, that were beveled, or unifacially resharpened. Basically, what this means, was that a series of flakes were removed from the face of one side - to produce a steep, wedge-shaped cutting edge. The point was then turned over and it was repeated on the other side. As you do this the point takes on a parallelogram, or propeller-like shape, in the cross section. In this manner it takes less effort to make a cutting edge and you can get more resharpenings before the piece is exhausted. Some beveled points have been resharpened so many times, that they have come to resemble drills, archaeologists have speculated. What do I learn from all of this? Beveling is the easiest method to produce a strong sharp edge on a dulled stone blade...perhaps to retouch after sawing fireboard notches. It may not be the prettiest, but it is a functional technic.

Novaculite Chert

You know, I have a really great job. Every year the plant shuts down for a couple weeks over the Christmas and New Years holidays. This has given me a chance to slow down and do some of the things I love...like breaking rock. Lately, I've been knapping some novaculite. Heat-treated it has a nice glossy shine when you flake away the surface. Novaculite is a type of microscopic crystallized quartz found in the Ouachita Mountains (pronounced: Wa-cha-taw) of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Every area seems to have its own distinct type of stone suited to knapping. The color can vary from white to grey-black. Since prehistoric times this stone has been mined to make points and tools, and in historic periods as whetstones for sharpening steel implements. The word novaculite comes from the Latin word 'novacula', which translates as 'razor', or 'sharp knife'. This was a term formerly used in England for certain stones that served as whetstones. Pictured is a knife I just finished today, a novaculite chert blade hafted with sinew and pitch mixture to an elk antler handle.

Burlington Chert

One of the most popular and widespread lithic resources in the central US is burlinton chert. Artifacts of the material have been found throughout the midwest. The colors can vary light in shade with white, cream, tan, and light pink predominating. Outcroppings occur primarily in Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, but are found in other areas. One source said the chert was named after the city Burlington, Iowa..? According to John Stade, "some 320 million years ago much of Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois were covered by a large, warm, shallow sea which teemed with life. The primary life form was the crinoid, uncommon today though some are found in trenches of the deepest parts of the oceans. Crinoids were actually an animal but look like a plant. In the 320 million years since these creatures lived, died, and fell to the sea floor - the bottom became covered with many feet of sediment and compressed into limestone. Dissolved silica in the water helped to form large masses of chert" that we know today as burlington chert. This stone was prized by the Native peoples and utlilized for making their many stone tool forms - points, scrapers, drills, gravers, etc. ( Pictured is burlington chert samples and latest knife.)

Fluting Technology

It is a curious thing that some of the oldest cultural point styles in North America are also the most technically complex dating back 12,000 years.

The Clovis point was a lanceolate blade about 4 to 5-inches long, with flutes on both sides running half way up the point, and presumably used on a thrusting spear because of its size. It was given this name because of the find made at Clovis, NM, in 1932. These points have been found from Alaska to Mexico, California to Nova Scotia. Bob Patten, in his book: "Old Tools, New Eyes", remarked that..."Clovis projectiles paradoxically are too advanced to be the earliest technology in the Americas, but they have no apparent predecessors."

Around 10,000 years ago the American plains gave rise to the Folsom culture. Named so because of their point style found among the bones of an extinct giant bison that roamed the plains 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, found near Folsom, NM, in 1925. Folsom points were thin, around 2-inches long, with flutes running up both sides nearly the the entire length of the point. It is logical to presume that Folsom fluting technology evolved from the Clovis fluting technic. Some speculate that these points were used on a new hunting weapon that was emerging-the dart and atlatl. It is interesting that after reaching, what some consider an apex of flintknapping, this fluting technology disappeared.

What makes these points so curious is the parallel fluting. Most likely it facilitated hafting to the foreshaft. Modern knappers replicating these points have devised various methods to drive these flutes from direct percussion to various types of jigs. It is a challenging process and breakage rates can be high. In any case it is still a mystery how these complex points emerged so long ago in comparison to the following styles.
(Casts by Peter A. Bostrom/Lithic Casting Lab. Check his site out at: http://lithiccastinglab.com/index.htm )

Flintknapping 101: Reading Rock

This is a continuation of the Flintknapping 101 series, if you look back thru past posts. I am trying to explain some of the strategies that come into play as you determine how to proceed at the stage of a large spall-using percussion, or a flake-using pressure. I am just trying to present some basic concepts, without writting a textbook...of which there are those much better qualified.

This spall is about 4-inches by 6-inches, and 1 3/4-inch thick. It had already been worked on when I recieved it. You can see where a large expanding flake had been struck off (Pic 1).


One of the side views (Pic 2) shows we have thick areas, top and bottom, to thin out. These slope to a thin sharp edge, seen at the lower left half. My initial thought picking it up was that it would make a nice chopper, fit in the hand well. The right hand side shows a squared edge, with a little cortex, that will have to be removed.

One of the principles is that- energy follows ridges (Pic 3). Look at any of the pictures, where ever you have a nice prominent ridge leading into the stone, this is a good place to intiate a fracture that will take off a nice flake-thinning the stone. A good strategy is to intially look for any ridges that lead to the high thick points of the spall first, to start thinning these areas first.




(Pic 4) Another concept that will become clearer as we go along is: centerline. This affects us in two ways. 1. As you work the piece, you want to move the edges of the rock up, or down, to the centerline. Hold an arrowhead on edge and you see that the edge follows a straight line back to tip...this is the centerline. 2. You can best strike, or push, flakes off of a stone from platforms that lie BELOW the centerline. The three "x" show possible platforms to use. If the edge lies above the centerline, as in edges to the upper right - flip the stone over. Now these lie below the centerline. Note: you are removing flakes off the bottom side of the stone while knapping.
(Pic 5) We have a squared edge on one side. To remove that we will use a process of alternate flaking. On the right hand side I will strike straight down (1). If you refer back to the post where we discussed the Hertzian Cone...rock fractures with a cone of approximately 100-degree angle. I will flip the rock over, and strike the angle left (2) from the first strike. Flip the rock and strike (3), repeating this process till my squared-edge is gone. In its place will be "zig-zag" edge. I'll show these actions in later posts.

Basically, this is a few of the mental exercises you automatically go thru when you pick up a potential piece and evaluate it. Probably another very important one would be: Begin with the end in mind. What do you want to make. With this piece I will initially make a preform. Basically, keeping the 6-inches length intact and eliminating about 1 1/2-inches of thickness in areas. It will look like a long ovoid thinning down to the edges. Early flintknappers would often make preforms at the quarry sites. They were lighter and easier to carry and could be modified, as needed, to spearpoints, knife blades, scrapers, adze blades, etc.

Rocks and the Great Spirit

The UPS truck stopped out front with a couple of packages... wheeee! They were full of hand-sized spalls of novaculite chert and keokuk burlington. One of the knapping suppliers had written a tantalizing advertisement for their rock... "Knaps like butter, Chips to a Glossy Finish!" A month later, and $100 poorer I was the proud owner of a couple dozen spalls of quality knapping stone.

I know this sounds funny to many to spend a hundred dollars for stone. (I've spent much more at times.) This was an adjustment for my wife. But, business-wise, all I need to do is make 2 or 3 items and sell them at an event and the cost is covered. Despite the cool, no cold, weather I was anxious to break some rock. One spall spoke to me and revealed that it would like to be a tomahawk blade...and so it became. You know that is one thing I have learned to trust while knapping...my instincts, or inner voice. Particularly as you are doing some delicate work the voice will tell you, "Put it down, you are going to break it with your next strike." It's just a whisper. If I ignore it, sure enough, I suffer the consequenses. After awhile you learn to trust in that still small voice...the Great Spirit?

Slab-o-riffic

Earlier this month I attended the Nebraska Mineral & Gem Show and met a vendor who was eager to unload some mahogany obsidian slabs. This is the first knife, from those slabs, next to a cleaned slab. They are laying on a couple sawn slabs. Knappers will use sawn slabs to conserve good stone. The knife is 10-inches long, in a elk antler handle, wrapped with sinew.

This blade has already tasted blood...cut my finger handling it...>ouch<.

Flintknappng 101: Platform, Cone & Ridge

Flintknapping is a process of reduction. You have a large nodule. You fracture off a spall or flake. The thick parts of that flake are thinned out with percussion, then pressure flaked into a point.
I am going to try to explain a few basic concepts behind striking 'predictable' flakes off of a core with a hammerstone. Your intial core needs a flat striking surface...this is called the 'platform.' Some oval nodules would need to be broken in half, or one end knocked off, if necessary to produce a flat platform.


The angle between the striking platform and the adjacent face should be 90-degrees, or less, to successfully strike flakes off. An obtuse angle of more than 90-degrees will not work. The obsidian core pictured has a platform, and adjacent side, at slightly less than 90-degrees as an example.
The next concept is important.


If you have ever seen a BB hit a glass pane...it produces a cone of about 100-degrees. This is called the 'Hertzian cone.' It is consistant. The picture shows an obsidian core which has been struck, with insufficient force to crack the core, that left evidence of the force generated into the rock- forming the hertzian cone. Cool, huh? Early man was intelligent and took note of cause and effect to be able to develop stone working skills to high levels.




Now, in order to strike thin predictable flakes off the core, and not just make gravel, I mentally apply this concept of the hertzian cone. I judge what angle I need to strike a glancing blow, that one edge of the cone of force will intersect into the edge of the rock face. I prepare my platform, grind it some with the hammerstone, to make it more abrasive, so that it make grip a little when I make contact.


There is one more principle I can apply - energy follows ridges. You can see some of the ridges formed by the removed flakes on the next pic. My flakes will be longer if there is a ridge to follow. If there is no ridge, the flake may end up somewhat clam shell shaped. Depends on what you want. Aborigninal man at times took great care in the preparation of the core to remove specialized flakes, as in the European Levallois and Mousterian technics.



Here is a top shot of the removed flake. You can see ridges left behind, which set up for more long flake removal.





Here are several flakes, about 3 inches long, 2 inches wide. The one on the right struck a pebble and lost a section when it detached. This is how butchering flakes were made - basically one blow stone tools. The edges are very sharp. The middle and right flakes have a curled base edge. This could be retouched a little, and sides dulled, to make hide scrapers. The one on the right could have the top retouched to make a perforator/awl for making holes in a hide to run lacing.
By judiciously striking somewhat thin flakes off of the core - I have less work to thin the flake for a point, and I can remove more usable flakes and blades per pound of material (stone age economics).

Flintknappng 101: Tools

Flintknapping is a process of reduction, and different tools are needed at different stages. Hammerstones are used with large nodules of stone to fracture off spalls, or smaller flakes. They have a coarse surface and ideally are egg-shaped. The spalls can further be thinned down with hammerstones, or billets. Billets are antler of deer, moose, or elk - where the antler joins the skull. The material is denser there. Modern knappers use copper headed billets. Antler and copper are used because they give a little on impact, not putting as much shock into the stone.

Spalls and flakes are thinned down with billets till they are considered thin enough to procede to the next stage which is pressure flaking. Again, pressure flakers can be of antler or copper. In my opinion, antler might be too slick for beginners and might slip more easily leading to injury. This is usually the stage most people are introduced to flintknapping, chipping small flakes into arrowheads. Also needed are an abrading stone to grind the edges of the piece you are working. This can be a broken grinding wheel, or a stone with an abrasive surface. Edges are abraded throughout the stages to strengthen the area worked on. This strengthens the edge to be able to take more pressure, or impact, and remove better flakes. Thin weak edges crumble. During the process of knapping you will want to protect your hand, and leg during percussion, with a leather pad to avoid injury. You can find and make your own tools, or purchase them from a flintknapping supplier. The small picture is some of the tools Rick Hamilton uses to demonstrate traditional knapping - hammerstones, abrading stones, antler billets and flakers. Also, pictured is a box of bandaids. We'll talk about that next.

Flintknapping 101: Material

Early man searched far and wide for quality lithic (stone) material to make tools. We see evidence of its value in the extent they went to obtain it. Early archaeologists found nearly 300 excavated pits, to obtain the Nebraska nehawka flint sources, some over 10 feet deep. This was done with primitive digging implements! Good stone was a trade commodity, and carried hundreds of miles from its source. One of the qualities they looked for was that it would form a sharp edge when it fractured. Often the flake resembled a shell. We call this a 'discoidial fracture.' The dark dacite, upper left, shows where this type of flake was removed. Another aspect was that it is 'homogenious'. Basically, that it is uniformly the same material throughout. You can see this in the stone pictured. Clockwise from the upper left you have: dacite, nehawka flint, keokuk burlington, obsidian, Fort Payne chert, novaculite chert, and republican river jasper. Glass is a good example of the qualities you would like in knappable stone. In fact, some flintknappers regularly flake some fine points and blades from colored glass. Some lithic material is easier to work than others. An example of that would be obsidian, dacite, heat-treated novaculite and burlington. I mention heat treating. Some stone, to really be workable needs to be slowly heated. This changes the crystalline structure in some way as to make difficult stone glossier, fracture to a sharper edge, and require less force to knap. Early man may have done this periodically, by placing spalls in a layer of sand, under the camp fire. Nowadays kilns are used. Where can you find lithic material to knap? Probably, the easiest recommendation is to use an internet search for flintknapping suppliers, or possible upcoming Knap-In events. Vendors will have instruction material, tools, and appropriate rock. One vendor I like, in my personal opinion, is Craig Ratzat at http://www.neolithics.com/ . At local rock shops I would really only look for obsidian. If you are fortunate enough to live in area that has rock you may be able to locate outcroppings by internet searches, inquiring local rock clubs, or searching road cuts or ravines. Some archery clubs have members who knap their own stone points and would be sources of information and instruction.

Flintknapping 101: Introduction

I've decided to work on a tutorial overview of flintknapping. I almost regret it as I try to envision how to illustrate some principles. Hopefully, this can be done in about a dozen installments covering topics such as materials, tools, priniciples, strategies, etc., - to give a working understanding of how it is done. The name flintknapping is believed to have orginated in Germany, in the gun flint industry. "Knapp" meaning to crack, or pinch off, as in the manufacture of gun flints. In a broader sense, it refers to the making stone tools. When you mention flintknapping, people tend to think in terms of arrowheads and stone spear points. That is common, and some consider them to be man's first art form. But, that tool list also includes drills, scrapers, choppers, handaxes, adze blades, axeheads, cutting flakes, perforators, burins, ...and the list goes on. These are probably the real work horses of daily life.

Newpaper Pictures

I had the day off work and decided to do some deep cleaning behind furniture...what a good hubby I am...lol. That's where everything goes when I lose it! Next time I misplace something I am going directly behind the old computer desk. Found some old newspaper articles from 2001 - 2004, and a small case of stone points I have been looking for a year >sheesh<. The top pic is from the August 2004 Lewis & Clark bicentennial event...making a stone knife. Middle pic is blowing a tinder nest to flame at 2001 city event, son Jacob in the background. The bottom pic is special. My wife, Joyce, is grinding clay to clean it for making pottery, a 2002 local event. What a good woman!

"Stone knives and Bearskins"

"Don't get too used to the facilities here. Once you leave SAIL it's stone knives and bearskins as far as the eye can see." "Stone knives and bearskins" was a colorful phrase Mr. Spock used in the Star Trek episode-"The City on the Edge of Forever." He was referring to the 1930's technology he was forced to use to repair his tricorder. I've been under the weather, home sick from work the past few days, staring blankly at the tv...this phrase triggered this little knife of stone and wood and sinew.

NAS Stone Age Fair

Just got back from the 4th annual Nebraska Archaeological Society Artifact Show, held August 23rd, in Seward, NE. Collections of stone and bone points and tools were on display from Paleo, Clovis, Folsom, and historic time periods. One of my reasons for going was to see Rick Hamilton and, his wife, Doris. Mr. Hamilton is a skilled flintknapper & primitive technologist. In the picture he is demonstrating thinning a spall of novaculite chert with only hammerstone percussion. Every September they host the Beaver Creek Primitive Skills & Knap-In, near Stuart, NE...good time. Check out his website at: http://www.spiritinthewind.com/. One of his specialities is plant use, by the Native Americans, for edible, medicinal, and utilitarian (tools, dyes, firemaking, bow & arrow, etc.) purposes. He recently finished a-10 years in the making, 3 DVD set on plant identification over the seasons, and Native uses. I particularly enjoyed segments on how to extract starch from cattail roots to make a flour, and harvesting arrowhead tubers. Also, the background flute music, by Virgie Ravenhawk Villarreal, was thoroughly enjoyable and worth mentioning.

Pecking Axeheads

Started another pecked celt axehead (lower middle). A celt is defined as "an ungrooved, tapered ground stone with a centered edge at one end." Doesn't look like much right now. It is wedged into a tapering slot in the handle. I've been using some Virginia greenstone I got thru Errett Callahan...this is some tuff stuff...>sheesh<. Using a hammer stone I #!#forcefully!!# knocked off some thinning flakes, the best I could. Then comes the fun part...hours of pecking, with the hammerstone, as the face of the rock s l o w l y crumbles away in a fine dust. (I read once that December, in some Native cultures, was considered the Moon of the Clacking Rocks.) The edge is then ground and honed in a slurry of fine sand and water. Some beautiful polished axeheads have been made by this method for millenia that are literally works of art. I seem to only have the patience for making functional pieces. Larry Dean Olsen, in his book Outdoor Survival Skills, said: "Shaping stones by crumbling them requires little brainpower, but a lot of perseverance and resignation to monotony." Hmmm...little brainpower, monotony...sounds like I'm the right guy for the job...lol.

Hafted Blades

This is a follow-up to a post, dated Monday July 7, which pictured these quasi-Cody blades unhafted. At events I will throw out a trade blanket selling these small stone knives for pieces of paper with Presidents on them...which I trade for gas and food >grin<. Usually, I use deer antler handles, except the top middle blade is hafted in a deer leg phalanges bone. Flintknapper, George Stewart, who passed away last year introduced this idea. A hole is drill thru the knuckle portion to run a cord thru for carrying around the neck. It was curious that Lynx Vilden, in her 1700's Kootenai River living history project, had participants carrying stone cutting blades on cords around their necks for access to a quick cutting implement...no pockets in their buckskins...lol.

Had some time today to get this done, was doing gate security at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch, near Little Sioux, IA. This was the site the June 11 tornado that tore thru the camp killing four young Scouts and injuring forty others. My son was present. This was an experience that affected all present. My heart goes out to the families which lost sons, and those still recovering from injuries. The Scouts responded admirably digging out trapped members and applying first aid till help arrived. I am proud of them.

Obsidian

Obsidian is an incredible rock! When molten lava cools too rapidly for the rock to form crystals-it creates a 'volcanic glass.' Usually, gray to black, it can have brownish red streaks, or go from opaque to translucent. In the US, it is found in spots from the Rocky Mountains to the west coast, basically anywhere there has been volcanic activity in the past. Early man prized this stone for its beauty, workability, and the fact that it fractured to an extremely sharp edge. Brigham Young University, in Utah, did some comparitive studies between a surgical steel blade, and an obsidian blade, using the electron microscope. They found that obsidian was 500 times sharper than the surgical steel, fracturing down to almost the last molecule. People are fascinated, at flintknapping demonstrations, when I strike off a sharp flake and proceed to shave the hair off my arm. Being right handed, I don't trust my ability to safely shave with the left hand...so I usually end up with one bald arm and one hairy arm....lol.

Paleolithic Shop of Horrors

We are creatures of habit. I am amazed at how many times I step out to the Paleolithic Shop of Horrors, pick up an odd flake, and lo and behold I have another quasi-Cody knife blade. I think I have made a ga-zillion of them. Now to haft them...>sheesh<.

I make mention of the Paleolithic Shop of Horrors...as a modern hunter/gatherer...well, gatherer...I now have to sit on a stool just outside the door to work on my projects. It is so full of buckets of rocks, rivercane for darts, beat up deer hides, sticks for spears and handles for clubs & tomahawks. Buckets of clay and bones, and bundles of sinew and rawhide crowd me out. It really feels like Christmas though, when I start rummaging thru and come across a long forgotten [FILL IN THE BLANK]. It's the simple dirty stinky things that make me happy.

Stone Age Exacto Knife

Being a flintknapper, I love working large platters of stone. Though, sometimes it feels like you start off with a large spall and you're lucky to end up with a bird point...lol. Hiking around, I will periodically stumble upon a chunk of stone that has the right qualities to knap. They are generally on the small side...perhaps the size of a golf ball. Some native peoples, lacking ample stone resources, made the most of small blade cores. This turned into this evenings exercise in primitive skills. I found a small flint-like rock. Using a quartzite pebble I managed
to percussion strike a number of micro-blades. They were sharp. I cut my finger. Taking it a step further I split a stick I found, and compression hafted one blade with some tough plant fibers I didn't recognize. It may be small, but in a pinch it could skin a rabbit.

Hoko Knife

Probably one of the simplest, most resourceful tools, is the hoko knife. In the Spring 2001 Society of Primitive Technology Bulletin, Dick Baugh published an article about an artifact recovered from a buried Indian site along the Hoko River in Washington state. Basically, it was a stone flake set into a small split stick and tied with bark cordage. (See: http://primitiveways.com/pt-hoko.html) This simple compression haft allowed you to use a sharp stone flake with greater handling and leverage. I have used it to cut strips of lacing from wet deer rawhide, using a fresh sharp flake, to sawing fireboard notches and felling small saplings with heavier serrated flakes.

Flintknapping, I have produced some aesthetically functional blades, but still some of the most resourceful and useful tools are the simplest.