Heat Treated Edwards Blades

[Ron Kelley]

Great weather today and I got out to do some flintknapping. Today’s high temp was 62*F and that’s unusually warm for this area. I heat treated this Edwards Chert: I dried it at 250* and then brought the temperature up slowly to 600* increasing the temp 50* per hour. This high heat made the stone easier to knap, made the stone more glassy, and even made some of it translucent. The Edwards Plateau Chert took this high heat nicely but that’s not true for all the rock I had in the kiln. I had some beautiful Tiger Chert slabs that I should have knapped raw. The high heat made the tiger chert brittle. I spent a considerable amount of time cutting the tiger chert and then ruined it in the kiln. OK I’m done whining. Let me show you the two nice Edwards blades. They measure 4.75 and 5.25 inches.

[Kyflintguy]

Those are sweet Ron! Those materials are up there on my "eye appeal" scale. That bulls-eye spot is just mesmerizing! Lol you could polish those slabs up and they would be cool even without being worked. I started working that piece of heated Edwards yesterday but got frustrated after my skinning flakes started stopping short of center. Im not real sure why but I struggle on that part. Oh well ill figure it out tomorrow hopefully when the weather is nice. Thanks for sharing!

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Josh, When I cut the bullseye Edwards I got five nice slabs. That other one I got several slabs and I know you knapped at least one of those.

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Josh, When I finished sawing that Edwards with the bullseye I had a rectangular block that I gave to Owen. He keeps it on his end table.

[willjo]

Those are nice Ron what is that white stuff under those trees

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Johnny, Yes we have snow but if this weather continues it will be gone soon.

[CoachG]

Awesome.

[Havenhunter]

Ron, I stand in awe! You are an artist.

[p kurt]

Wow, perty. Stemmed piece is my favourite. That would make a killer knife.