Flint Blades

Neck Knives

I started making these neck knives years ago, hafting small blades into deer leg phalanges.  There are four of these bones in one deer leg, and have been used for a number of purposes - fishhooks, whistles, rattles. These have been popular at rendezvous because of their unique blend of bone and stone.

Small Jasper Dagger

A couple of small 6 1/2 inch jasper bladed knives.  It is interesting that in the past half dozen years there has been a lot of imported jasper arrowheads from India showing up at the rendezvous.  They are a little blocky in the cross section, but knapped out of some nice material.  So, I decided to rework some into blades and haft them into deer  leg bone handles.  This will look good in neck sheath.

English Flint Knife II

Recent Tomahawk

This is the latest tomahawk.  Made of knapped Texas flint, hafted into a hardwood handle.  Deer hide is sewn over the handle and blade lashings.  It is decorated with seed beads, horsehair locks, coyote fur, and feathers.  Puruse some of the older posts to see pics of prehistoric tomahawks and read some of the history and lore behind the tool.

English Flint Knife

One of my projects this past fall was playing with English flint.  My previous experience knapping this material was unimpressive.  But, this heat treated blade, percussion knapped, made a nice 6 1/2 inch blade.  I hafted this blade into a knobby elk antler and wrapped with it sinew and hide glue to make a 10 1/4 inch stone knife.  This type of flint, as the name implies, was used by the prehistoric peoples of modern day England to produce cutting and chopping tools, as well as projectile points.  A nice website to check out is www.flintknapping.co.uk.  This is the site for John and Val Lord and their prehistoric research projects.