Flint Knapping

[chawbeef]

Walp, I picked up some flint along the shore of the Niagara river today to try my hand at knapping. I learned real quick that I shoulda wored gloves. I knocked a hole in my thumb in less than a minute. :rotf: Gotta find a bigger chunk. :hmm:

 

[Linc]

Was it Onondaga chert? If it is it is hard stuff to work. I'm not sure how it would work in a flintlock or even how it would be for flint and steel.

 

[chawbeef]

You are right in that assumption as the Onandaga Formation outcrops in an arch extending from Albany West and slightly North through the Niagara region and South Western Ontario over to Detroit. (a very rough description of the formation) :thumbsup: picture that thumbs up with a hole in it :grin:

 

[Rifleman1776]

You are right. Flint knapping cannot be done. It is impossible. I know, I have tried it. :rotf:

 

[Lonegun1894]

I have been trying to learn to knap too. I am still not anywhere close to being good, but am getting more consistent. Definitely have more of an appreciation for the skills of the people who do it right and make it look easy. Maybe in another few years I'll be able to pass for competent.

Have learned a few things so far though. a good leather piece or several layers of canvas as padding/protection on my legs helps. Also, made some tools out of copper pipe and end caps and put a bit of lead in them. And make sure you have band aids, yeah, pleanty of band aids. :thumbsup:

 

[BillinOregon]

I am very skilled at reducing large, promising hunks of obsidian to large piles of useless flakes, bleeding my way along. Trust me, it is a great hobby. Ranks right up there with breaking Coke bottles in your lap, just because ...

:haha:

 

[chawbeef]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one spillin my own blood. :youcrazy: :rotf:

 

[BillinOregon]

Boo: That's why you don't want to take too much aspirin before you knap, or you might thin your blood so much you'll bleed out before you finish your arrahead ...

:grin:

 

[tg]

Leather is good!, I bled a lot 20 years ago when I learned how to knap obsidian projectile ponts, and find it easier to work with than flint but not very good for flintlocks, it will spark but one shot is about it per piece. I made a couple hundred points then quit and have not made one for years. I do make a gun flint/spall now and then when I find dome material and a larger piece is the best way to go to get a good core to work with.

 

[BillinOregon]

Tg: Some nice pieces there. You re way better at knapping than I ever was. Some of the smaller points look like the ones we used to find in the corn and beanfields along the Willamette and its tributaries. Some folks call them bird points, but I read an article a while back in Primitive Archer that made a very good case that these were in fact intended for use on deer and other big game.

 

[tg]

Thanks for the kind words,I am not ertain about the bird pointb ything it does not make a whole lot of sense and I cannot recall much from my reseacrh 20+ years ago, I used to find a lot of smaller ones when we plowed a field years ago and looked for them at a settimng sun and they would glisten and show real well I suspect the size might be a regional/tribal thing based on type of game and evolutionary consideratiions. I made a lot of ones like the one below and sold them with arrows and wild Turkey fletching everything tied with Deer sinew with I shot a few with the one Halewood self bow I made it was only aboput a 40lb pull. It broke but only because I shut the damned thing in a car door, I kind of got out of making all the NA replicas when the shop I sold them at folded up and I never took the craft up again. To many things to do some times.I should have set the camera at macro for the pic it is kind of blurred

 

[fatboy]

Some guys I use to work with would go down to the Susquehanna river when water was low and bring back arrow heads alot were broke but he had some of these smaller points they called them bird points must have had a 5gl bucket full

 

[davec2]

A while back, I had some very small pieces of obsidian and thought I would give knapping a few arrow heads a try. These were a lot of fun to make. (However, as others have noted, there was some bleeding involved in the process.) Some of them were too small to even be considered "bird" points. "Mouse points" might be more appropriate.