How To Make Antler Hammers for Flintknapping
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- Flintknapping is a craft that requires only basic tools and equipment. Good hammerstones only require a beach or river bank with quartzite pebbles, but what about antler soft hammers for thinning and refinement? How did people break up deer antlers in prehistory to make hammers? Experimental archaeologist Dr. James Dilley talks through some of the processes used, and demonstrates how simple stone tools with some heat from a fire could be used to break antler. There is still a significant time investment to create an antler hammer, but was it worth it? Very few exist in the archaeological record, but many fine stone tools exist, so where are they??
Filmed & Edited by Emma Jones of ELWJ Media - www.elwjmedia.co.uk
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Excellent demonstration, Sir. The ingenuity/creativity and adaptability of our ancestors is quite amazing. They managed to make so much out of so little. Great video. Cheers from Indiana, USA.
Who would have thought that I find experimental Archeology so fascingting and calming. I love every bit of it
Weirdly, this is so relaxing 🤣
Thank you so much for this!
Excellent video! I learned a lot. One suggestion - soil is an excellent shock absorber. That works against you here. You might want to try using the log behind you as the anvil next time.
You can buy antler in pet stores for dogs to chew. I've had to cut or break antler into smaller pieces for the dog to manage. Antler is so hard that it's challenging to cut or break it even with modern tools.
thank you for the video. Brilliant demonstration.
Excellent video. A suggestion for heating the cut; Prepare a number of stout sticks with "Y" crotches and branch hooks on the ends. Heat them in the coals and use the inner radius of the stick end to wrap around the outer radius of the antler. You'll have better heat distribution along the cut and possibly less time to heat it to temperature. You'll also be able to work it into tight areas with greater ease. I have tried any of this yet, but I just got a shipment of white tail deer antlers and I'll give it a shot.
Cleanest job I've seen using this method, nice one.
Excellent video Mr. Dilley and all the best from Canyon Clans New Mexico U.S. - Lefty Cat
Great use of heat. However the larger portion of antler connected to the skull area I would have approached that differently. I would have removed the two times gaining greater weight & length achieving a more useful billet. For flint knapping it would have allowed longer use as the billet wore down. Possibly both sides could have been used.
I’ve got a collection of antlers I’ve found walking in the woods and fields. Have thought about using them to make knapping tools myself. After watching this video I’ll do it, but with modern tools 😀
Iv'e got a few deer antlers too; fallow deer. Iv'e cut one of them to make a walking stick handle but haven't got round to making the stick yet lol. The antlers feel like a lovely material for making things out of.
Fascinating James, thank you
Well! I was just about to message to find out how the antler was broken apart, so that it’s usable as a billet or flaker. Here in Colorado I often forage forage for elk, mule deer sheds or moose paddle, so I’m quite pleased you’ve gone over this before I could ask 🥰 cheers
What if you wrap some cordage around the cut and set it on fire.
Or, grab a tine in each hand and pull it apart.
Or, whack it on the log.....
thankyou for sharing this..
it's really good calming stuff.. 🙂
Sally Pointer shows wetting the antler to soften it to cut easier and faster. Have you ever tried that?
I have yes, I use it before cutting out blanks for harpoons and needles etc. Trouble is we don’t have a handy pond or stream nearby we could leave the antler in for a few days 🤷♂️
Good question and Mrs. Pointer sent me to this channel . You can surround antler with wet wood ash for a few days .
Do you think the lack of ancient antler hammers could possibly be from the affinity rodents and canines have for antlers? I know here in the Midwestern U.S. it's a race in the spring to find deer sheds before they get chewed to bits!
Using the embers was pretty cool, didn't know that was done.
AncientCraft UK - Dr. Dilley:
This is so refreshing for those of us who have had to be inside for the pandemic. Thank you! I think everybody who sees this is absolutely chomping at the bit to get it and try it. Everybody wants to be there to help pitch in and make the process easier. Lol. Me and all.
So if you’re tired of suggestions, ignore the rest of this. Because that’s what follows.
i’m thinking that you may not need an entire stream or body of water in which to soak the antlers, since you only want to remove a few lower tines. Really, just putting the lower section in a large basin, propped such that the bottom 12 inches or so are in the water might be enough. Does the pH matter? Because if it is, it wouldn’t be hard to add epoch-Appropriate substance to the water to help it right along, Like Ash if you want something more basic, or lime, or if it’s more acidity that you want, it wouldn’t be hard to put in a bit of vinegar. Cutting might be much easier then.
What happens if you soak the bottom end of the antler for a few days, and then apply fire to the scored area? What if you were to wrap the scored area with a resin-soaked wick, or build your fire in the ground with the vent coming out just a little further away, and rocks over the opening of your little fire pit that only allowed for a narrow but intense seam of fire aimed directly at your resin-wrapped scores section? Or, create a little oil lamp , With a couple of props to hold the cut seam directly over the flame of the oil lamp? I just heard you say The phrase “casting bronze“… I can’t help but wonder if it would be practical to cast a short rod of bronze that you could mount in a wooden or antler handle, that could be heated in the fire, and then used red heart at the point where you wish to have a seam, to melt some of the keratin in the very specific area where you wish to apply the heat for that very purpose. Even the edge of a bronze blade Could be heated to help out with this.
I can hardly wait till I can get out and experiment myself…Once the pandemic is over.
Hats off to your commitment to doing it the Palaeolithic way. The rest of us go through life thinking of the way we do things now, without a thought as to what it would have taken for our ancestors to get that work done. The last couple of pieces of antler that I used were cut on a saw. No thought to doing it any other way. But as I watch you do this, boy do I want to be outdoors doing this more than ever. Thank you for this break from pandemic life! And thank you for the education and inspiration. I’ll bet you a lot more people will be out there making antler tools the way you’re teaching, who never would’ve considered doing such a thing before :D
Nice video! Amazing the things you can do with deer antler.
I have a fossilized 'antler hammer ' clearly showing scorch marks & burning where it was separated from its beam in pre-history ! The inside of the short section of tine attached that was broken off is like iron ore ! The striking face is quite worn down at an angle ! The whole outer surface is very smooth & shiny ! One side of the beam has cut marks in the surface ! I have been told that the scorch /burning evidence would not survive fossilisation process though ,but here it is ?
It seems you don't want anything underneath the tine or part that you want to snap off. It might be possible after you have scored around the antler and tines to kind of stamp on the pieces you want to snap off, maybe even without bothering with the heat. I think it's kind of like scoring and snapping off glass. Whacking the antler on that lump of flint seemed to work really well and I think that would work without heat.
Dilly Dilly! I really appreciate Your videos
My armchair reason as to why antler hammers are rare archeological finds is that like shed antlers today they are readily chewed up and eaten by certain rodents, at least here in the US they are. Antler hammers would probably have to be buried or otherwise shielded to protect them from the same fate.
An awesome demonstration. Got to throw my 2 cents in....would it be advantageous to use some handmade cordage soaked in pine resin then wrapped within the cuts and set fire? That or some dried pine fine roots? Love your channel and have subscribed.
That’s brilliant, you should try it!
@@LeMayJoseph I'm too old 😒
@@WayneTheSeine it does make a lot of sense. You can cleanly break glass that way to turn a used bottle into a cup
I'm intrigued by this "t" shaped axe, have you made one before? Where could I see an example of one?
Very well done
is there a place called grimes graves?
where they tunnelled under the ground for flint (or something)
and there are antler picks they left down there in the tunnels, from all that time ago, still with fingerprints on them!?
or maybe i'm making it up?? lol
Are there any concerns with breathing in smoke from the antler? I work with it as well but have never thought to do it in such a primal way. Very cold video.
Breathing in any smoke isn’t particularly good for you, but a small amount (of wood or antler smoke) won’t hurt. Any dust caused by cutting antler or wood is more harmful
I'd love to send you a whitetail antler from the New England USA, if you're interested!
Can you use pitch in the cuts and burn the pitch to make it easier to fire it.
So the heat denatures the proteins - in the marrow? I know next to nothing of antler construction. That was surprisingly easy for you to do and I am very impressed.
It's the outer layer around the marrow that had the keratin, so that's where the protein is denaturing with the heat. Thanks for watching Leslee!
I feel you should try leverage to break off the pieces. In the crotch of tree for example.
my heart was in my mouth...never cut towards you and try to keep the thing you're cutting on something other than your own leg...
Bianca, Dr Dilley is a respected expert on the making and use of stone tools - he doesn't need any "advice" from you. Would you tell a brain surgeon how to use his scalpels?
If you ever wanna trade some red deer antler for some elk antler I'm down lol
More sawing, less bashing :)
I think you’re right there! Impatience was a driving force
why are you young and grey haired
Stress. Don’t be a flintknapper and do a full time PhD! But really, my Dad was the same