Flintknapping is the ancient art of removing flakes from stone to produce stone tools and weapons, such as knives, arrowheads, and spear points. Abo flintknapping is the term used to describe the oldest method of flintknapping using
hammerstones and antler as percussion and pressure flaking tools.The idea is to thin the stone blank as much as possible before pressure flaking the edges.
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Choose a suitable stone for knapping. Flint is the best choice, but chert, and other sedimentary rocks can be knapped, as well as basalt, obsidian and some other "glasslike", minerals.
Select a stone that has few, if any, large cracks, fissures, or other irregularities which would likely cause it to break or flake off in undesirable ways.Pick a stone large enough a similar in shape to the finished product you hope to produce. You may also wish to heat or water treat your stone, both techniques used successfully by experienced knappers, but difficult to go into in detail here.
Flintknapping is the age-old art of making arrowheads and other edged stone tools. Hunter-gatherers relied upon this key wilderness survival skill to create important tools and hunting implements. Many people continue to practice the skill today, including traditional bowyers, experimental archaeologists, and primitive skills enthusiasts.
At its most basic level, flintknapping consists of: breaking open a piece of parent material (called a core);striking flakes off of that core; and then shaping those flakes into the intended tool.
The best stones for making arrowheads include flint, chert, obsidian, jasper, quartzite and other stones that are somewhat brittle and have a fine-grained, uniform texture that is free of cracks, fissures, and fractures. Glass and porcelain can also be used. You can also tap the stone and listen to the pitch. Stones that produce a higher pitch when tapped are generally better for knapping.
To break apart and shape your material you will be using some simple tools for percussion and pressure flaking. These tools can be made out of antler, soft metal, soft stone, bone, or very hard wood. The best pressure flaking tools are made with an antler or copper tip.
Percussion flaking is the act of striking your material to break it apart in a controlled manner. In a uniform material, the force from a strike moves out from the point of impact in a cone shape that is roughly 100 degrees wide. This is called a Hertzian Cone. Understanding this concept of how forces move through stone allows you to angle your stone to break it apart in an intentional way.
Pressure flaking is the act of using a pressure flaking tool (such as an antler) to load significant pressure against an edge and then popping off a long thinning flake. Pressure flaking allows a flake to be carefully shaped down into the finished tool.
To pressure flake, an edge often needs to be strengthened by abrading it to remove thin weak pieces. A platform is then picked out, which is a point on the edge that sits below the centerline of your flake. The pressure flaking tool is then pushed onto the platform with significant force and a small thin flake is popped off of the piece.
A good video explaining the basics of flintknapping can be found HERE