r/knapping

This was done with raw material but heat treating it would make it knap much better. I’ll be getting an electric turkey roaster soon lol

Mookaite and Mahogany Obsidian

Broke out some red white and blue fiber optic glass for the weekend

Since I made a post about flintknapping porcellanite yesterday, let’s learn more about this type of stone! In North America, the primary source of this material occurs in the Fort Union geological formation which spans portions of Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, and Saskatchewan. What makes this lithic material so unique is how it’s formed. Natural fires ignited seams of coal, and the extreme heat metamorphosed surrounding beds of siliceous shale or siltstone, fusing it into a glassy material. Flintknapping this material, it has subtle differences compared to most cherts and other lithic materials. Grey is common, but also maroon and red porcellanite. Porcellanite was an important source of toolstone for indigenous peoples on the Plains, who used it from the Paleoindian period all the way to the introduction of steel tools.
Photo 1: distribution of geological formations which bear porcellanite
Photo 2: outcrops of porcellanite and raw material samples
Photo 3: Porcellanite artifacts

Source:

Kristensen, Todd J., Timothy E. Allan, Gabriel Yanicki, Emily Moffat, and John W. Ives. "Porcellanite in Alberta: A pyrometamorphic pre-contact toolstone." Archaeological Survey of Alberta Occasional Paper 40 (2020): 92-118.

Bit of trad. Damn it’s hard!

Had this minging piece of flint that wasn’t worth making into something fancy so I thought I’d have a go with trad tools. Little bit of copper pressure at the end and for the notching (trad for Bronze Age Britain). Very different skill set and one I need to practice. Underestimating the importance of isolated platforms cost me a lot of material. Ballsed up my notching around the concrete but oh well.
The early reduction went well but I started getting into difficultly when it got near the end. ThinkI’m going to adjust my billets to be more like boppers and try again.
Probably going to give it a handle and use it as a box cutter

I made this replica of the small arrowpoints used by Indigenous groups living on the Great Plains during what archaeologists call the Late Prehistoric period. Points like these would have been crucial for hunting, including dispatching bison in both solo hunts and communal hunts involving driving bison herds off cliffs, which are called “buffalo jumps”. A variety of stones were used for toolmaking on the Plains, but at many sites in the northern Plains, such as the Vore Buffalo Jump in eastern Wyoming, porcellanite was a commonly used stone for making arrowpoints. Thank you to @mcleanlithics for gifting me this stone!

Ask me questions right now about them. Or else…

Starting to get the hang of longer flakes, what I'm noticing is, iam hitting a bit harder but with more confidence in the strike but that comes with higher damage penalty if miss, is that accurate?

Very rare I get to work larger pieces like this. Very satisfying to take indirect flakes off a large as some of the points I make.
I’m really starting to learn the value of supporting the flakes with my finger from underneath, I’ve got through some pretty nasty stuff with that technique recently

Today I caught him putting on a demonstration in the Lowe’s parking lot. My heart is full.

I haven’t been very active lately on reddit. AZ is 100+ almost everyday, so knapping has been a little rough. Regardless i’ve managed to crank out a few decent points. All the material is self collected across various states, aside from the creamy MO rock my buddy Jake gifted me.(couple hardins and the scottsbluff) some is raw, some is heated, some material is naturally heated.
Everything was direct percussed, indirect, and pressure flaked.
Please enjoy my little photo dump.

Cedar wood handle w/ amber shellac, obsidian blade, and some of my homebrewed pine glue

I use a hammer stone to reduce larger pieces then a white tail deer antler tine to pressure flake them to shape. Pic at end is all my finished pieces so far.

I can’t ever figure out this posting 💩🤦🏼‍♂️