The Harry Mosquito

[Ron Kelley]

My Brother Owen and I surprised Tim (sneakygroundbuzzard) when we showed up at the Harry Mosquito Knapp-In and Pow-Wow in Minnesota. Tim and his wife were the greatest of hosts. Owen just could not believe that someone he just met for the first time could be so generous. Hey Tim Owen is making something for you for turkey season: That’s all I’m going to say because Owen wants it to be a surprise. I bought some stone that I am excited to have. I also picked up some knapping tools that I’ll be using. The food was great and all the people there were very friendly and helpful. I watched a lot of knapping, asked questions, and learned a lot. There were a lot of master knappers at this Knapp-In. You would have to see their work to believe it. I was too preoccupied to take pictures (Sorry). I don’t plan ahead usually but sure am glad I made it to this event.
Tim made my brother Owen a point that he made into a hat pin. Owen doesn’t wear a cap often but he hasn’t taken his cap off today LOL. Tim also knapped a  white point and then gave it to Owen. Both are beautiful points. Here they are:


Tim knapped a point from KRF (one of my favorite lithics). He made the point into a hat pin for me. It’s on my Packer’s Cap. I spotted one of Tim’s flakes that was shaped like a cork screw. As a joke I said, “Hey Tim what can you make with that?” He picked it up, somehow straightened that stone and made a beauty of a point and gave it to me. Here are my gifts from Tim:

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

Ron,i am so glad that you and Owen showed up
surprised me isnt exactly what happened, you floored me.
i am really glad that the two of you like the items that i gave.
the nice thing about making them is,i can give them to whom ever i feel like.
the wife and i are both glad to have met you an Owen, and we hope to see the two of you again at the mosquito next year.
there is a knapp in way down in s.w. minnesota the second weekend of august.but that is about 4.5 hours from milaca.
but feel free to come to it if you would like.if you do bring your tent and such this time,
camping is usually free,if the auction brings in enough to cover the expenses.
now lets see some of that killer rock you bought
Ron say hi to Owen for us

[Hoss]

Nice flaking and notches on that black hat pin. Some beautiful work Tim. Ron thanks for sharing this. Glad to hear you guys met.

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

Hoss, thanks for the compliment. that dacite is some nice stuff to work
but if your not carefull it can cut you badly.
the first day at the knapp in a guy dropped a spall and went to catch it.cut his fore arm bad enough he had to be taken into town and ended up with seven stitches. just missed his tendons and an artery  hmy:
im very we glad we met too  :cheer:

[Ron Kelley]

I picked up a few pieces of hornstone at the knapp-in. I made a point of hornstone and now I really feel like a newbie. :laugh:  :laugh:  That hornstone is some tough rock. I'm not going to touch the fancy stone for a while. Here is the hornstone point:

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

Ron, nothing wrong with that
considering you are very new at knapping,and that you have only worked some novaculite and obsidian
horn stone is a tough material,as far as hardness,and the ones you are used to are soft in comparison
remember, the harder the rock is the smaller the platform should be
but at the same time the platform needs to be strong and below center line of the piece
if the platform is as big as one you would use for dragon glass,you have to hit it super super hard,and it will more than likely step out on you

[Ron Kelley]

As I said earlier I am not going to knap this fancy stone until I am better at knapping. I don't remember all the rock names but the Brazilian Agate is one my favorites. There are several pieces of Brazilian Agate here. Some of the stone came from Randy Beech and some from Alan Anderson. The stone is sawed and the saw marks hide the beauty of the stone. That's why I placed them in water to take a picture.

[OnewiththewilD]

B)  SCORE! now thats a bucket full of potential ! i like the looks of the bluish-whitish stuff poking out from underneath, whats that stuff? and the green slab looks cool too! i cant wait to see whatcha' make outta those!

[Ron Kelley]

I picked up two Moose horn billets at the knapp-In. Right now I am using modern tools but I am collecting ABO tools to use later. At a future date I hope to knapp as Jay (OnewiththewilD) does with the tools that the ancients used. Why two? The top one weighs 20 ounces and the second one weighs 10 ounces.

[OnewiththewilD]

thanks for the complement Bud! ive recently been trying to use only different sizes of hammerstones to do almost all the work and only using the antler to put the nice final touches on my piece. do you have any nice hammerstone/ percussion stones yet? if not i can send you some really nice round polished quartzite and quartz ones from the ocean if you'd like.

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Jay, I picked up three river cobble that looked and felt right to knapp (Escanaba River Finds). However the material is probably not as good as your quartz and quartzite hammerstones. You have been more that generous Buddy but I would never turn down one of those.

[OnewiththewilD]

i might hit the beach today, if so i'll grab ya some nice ones in a few different sizes, i held onto yer address this time too!  :laugh:   im glad you've gotten into knapping and doing this kinda stuff and if i can help ya with it im more than happy to.

[Ron Kelley]

I tried to get some better pictures of the stone Jay asked about but it is overcast today. On the first two stones you can see some brown burn marks from the heat treatment. Of course that will be gone when the stone is knapped. The green stone was tough to photograph in today's lighting. You can see a test flake was taken off (Top left in the picture). I was given the names of all this rock but unfortunately my memory is not short: It's gone. Next year I will have a spiral pad and take notes.

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

if those are slabs from Alan
look closely as he rights the name of the rock and the heat treat temp in pencil on them

[Ron Kelley]

The three are all from Randy and no writing on those. I will take some more individual pictures later and list the rock names on the ones that are written on from Alan.