Things I learned while hitting rocks with other rocks

[CTex]

On my hunting grounds I constantly find pieces that some NA obviously took some time and effort to create and for whatever reason they tossed it aside. In my continuing effort to understand my hobby as best I can, I decided to try my hand at flint knapping. So far, I haven’t made anything remotely resembling a point, but I have learned a few things:

1. There is a reason why knappers put leather across their leg. The bleeding did eventually stop, but by the time it did I looked like an extra from the walking dead.
2. It is incredibly easy to turn a big rock into a small one with nothing but a pile of chips to show for it.
3. Although I have seen it done, I believe It is impossible to do any controlled reduction on a piece of flint that is less than 5 inches wide.
4. Just when you think you know how a chip is going to come off, you are wrong.
5. It’s harder than it looks, and it looks really hard.
6. Once you finally get something that looks like it might be a special needs point, it will break in half. Now I know why I never find both halves of a broken piece while hunting.... once I settled down from my fit I couldn’t find either half of the piece that I had just broke.
7. You will occasionally miss your target when trying to strike a platform and hit yourself. The resultant bruising adds to the walking dead effect. Leather only serves to soften the blow.
8. You can give up any dreams you had of being a hand model.
9. Hinges are bad and is probably why most of the discards I find were discarded.
10. There is no such thing as an ugly point. They are all works of art.

Much love to Ron and all the other knappers, you have an amazing skill that I for one, really do appreciate.

[BabaORiley]

Very well put CTex. I monkeyed around with knapping a bit also and...yep...everything you said...lol...

[Hoss]

Great post ctex funny one too if you ever tried knapping these are true words i have broke way more than i have ever completed. Spilled blood and been bruised while doing so .

[Arti Facter]

Now you understand why they often went on the warpath after knapping points!

[Tam]

Oh gosh you had me laughing .. you are a good writer I really enjoyed this .
ill be looking for you on the walking dead .

[Kyflintguy]

ain't that the truth! Funny post! Welcome to knapping!

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Tex, I love your post. Been There -- Did That 100X. When I head out to the barn I don't say, "I'm going to knap a point." No what I say is, "I'm gonna go bust a rock."

[Havenhunter]

Tex, I needed a laugh today & your post was it! 😂😂😂

[toccopola]

after reading this post having never myself trying to knapp a point i want to post this picture of a point i found . just think of the practice this ancient native American went through to be able to make this.

[Tam]

Now that has some beautiful pressure flaking / serrations on the sides . What’s the story on that find?

[toccopola]

i found it in 1998 in north mississippi, i was hunting with 2 of my brotherinlaws and a buddy. we were in a dried up lake bed and it was pouring down raining. there was a stump out next to a creek in the middle of the lake bed where a few other good ones came from. i was walking a higher spot were i had found a broke banner and one of my brotherinlaws was headed to the stump. he came back with a base off a pinetree, said it was right besides the stump. i decided to walk out to the stump and have a look myself after seeing the base. i was walking step for step in his footprints. i was about ten feet from the stump and saw where he had flipped a rock, i happen to look down by my foot and my body pressure was making bubbles pop up from the mud and every time the bubbles popped i could see yellow flint. i reached down and sunk my fingers down around the flint and grabbed a chunk of mud and turned my hand over and i fell to my knees in the mud. a week later we were back and i found another hardin with a broke barb, then 3 years later within 2 or3 feet from the stump i found another hardin. this one i got a picture of before it got picked up. i will post a picture of my arrowhead shaped frame they are all in it. back to the post here about "things i learned while hitting rocks with other rocks" i was thinking about what CTex had said and i got to thinking about safety glasses, and i bet there was a lot of natives with eye damage due to knapping mishaps.

[Tam]

What a story !!!! Coffee in hand . I wonder how the lake bed dried up . Hmm man .
Or was it a seasonal thing and the NA took advantage of it . That would explain the big blades . Anything large I find is away from a camp where we are hunting ourselves .
Don't you just love seeing that flint chip ? You just know .

[toccopola]

from 1998 till 2001 we had the worst drought i have ever seen, it peaked in the summer of 2000, nearly all the natural ponds and lakes went dry. the river that is close to my home on average is 5 to 6 foot deep during the summer, in 2000 it went dry from early june till november.

[clambellies]

On my hunting grounds I constantly find pieces that some NA obviously took some time and effort to create and for whatever reason they tossed it aside. In my continuing effort to understand my hobby as best I can, I decided to try my hand at flint knapping. So far, I haven’t made anything remotely resembling a point, but I have learned a few things:

1. There is a reason why knappers put leather across their leg. The bleeding did eventually stop, but by the time it did I looked like an extra from the walking dead.
2. It is incredibly easy to turn a big rock into a small one with nothing but a pile of chips to show for it.
3. Although I have seen it done, I believe It is impossible to do any controlled reduction on a piece of flint that is less than 5 inches wide.
4. Just when you think you know how a chip is going to come off, you are wrong.
5. It’s harder than it looks, and it looks really hard.
6. Once you finally get something that looks like it might be a special needs point, it will break in half. Now I know why I never find both halves of a broken piece while hunting.... once I settled down from my fit I couldn’t find either half of the piece that I had just broke.
7. You will occasionally miss your target when trying to strike a platform and hit yourself. The resultant bruising adds to the walking dead effect. Leather only serves to soften the blow.
8. You can give up any dreams you had of being a hand model.
9. Hinges are bad and is probably why most of the discards I find were discarded.
10. There is no such thing as an ugly point. They are all works of art.

Much love to Ron and all the other knappers, you have an amazing skill that I for one, really do appreciate.

I always imagined that there were a lot of N/A knappers who had black & blue fingernails and a few fingers with the tips crushed off.