200 - 1/2 Spalling Chert (Flint) for Flintknapping
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2012
- A Levallois technique. This technique is not as efficient as cutting rock into slabs. I mentioned that this technique produces a lot of waste but only the small flakes. I use all the flakes you see that are 1" long or larger.
Finding good rock is frustrating for everyone. If you can't find any other knappers or rocks or anyone willing to help, you can still develop a good stash in complete isolation even if you live in an area with no knappable rock for hundreds of miles around. That's what I did. My yard is an oasis of knappable rock. Here's the big secret: be willing and able to travel hundreds of miles at the drop of a hat. The only way to get a good supply of rock to chase every lead, buy rock from landscape supply yards that carry "bull gravel" or agate or flint, ask permission to collect flint/chert from as many landowners as possible, and scavenge every bit of knappable rock from other knappers until you literally have a ton of rock. I'm not suggesting that you clean out all the rock from your buddy's "honey hole" with a dump truck and backhoe. God forbid! All I'm saying is to go on a mission to collect a good "stash" and then sit back and knap in relative peace, knowing that you have enough to last quite some time. It took me three years to accomplish that mission but I did it. And I didn't deplete anyone's private source to do it.
I have two other channels and a Patreon Account
Allergic Hobbit: / @allergichobbit3494
Patrick Blank: / @pabphilosophy
Patreon:
www.patreon.com/jackcrafty?fa...
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I just started doing this and it's not only fun but it also connects me with the people that lived on my birth ground thousands of years ago. The fields around my home town are littered with flakes and sometimes complete small tools. Oh a last note : watch your fingers !
Sure are a positive influence to us bewildered souls getting started. Appreciate your great videos up and down the scale of this artistic craft. Great work
Alabama. I like to watch your videos but that fire treated flint weakens the flint but makes for easy knapping have a good day
Dang, those flakes your throwing on the floor have me drooling! I'd love to have a couple like that for my flint and steel kits!! 😀
Try going to a knap-in. You can find info on the net. They throw away tons!
JackCrafty - Thanks! I'll check out what I can find in PA.
That’s some nice stone. Appreciate the tutorial and informative video.
Many thanks,
Mike
I commented on this one before but it popped up in my recommended list and I watched it again. I never get tired of watching you spall and knap. Truly a remarkable skill.
Thank you, Wayne.
Thanks for showing screw-ups too, its educational to understand the principles. Fascinating stuff!
Most of those pieces are SO SO NICE !!!! THAT is some Nice Sharp Flat Flint !!!
You are a master knapper. Thanks for showing the technique and sharing your knowledge
Thanks David.
I dunno why but it's so satisfying to watch.
i know right...
That's because its bringing out your inner caveman
Ya
Man, I really enjoyed watching that. I watched the whole video and I was not bored at all
Very nice work. Thanks for a wonderful explanation while working.
Great vid glad someone requested it. I'm drooling over all the rock. :)
Your videos have taught me so much about this ancient art I just wanna say thank you so much for sharing your knowledge I hope someday we can flint nap together. Thanks
Your videos are very instructive; I've seen very good knapping material, but at the time did not know what I was looking at. I used to think that I had to have obsidian if I wanted to make stone blades. Thanks for your careful demonstrations and discussion.
Glad you like the videos, Ken. Thanks. :-)
This is it, the Levallois technique!
Right now I am tackling how to get rid of the bulb of percussion. This is a harder task than I imagined due to the fact that the bulb edge seems to get shorter as I knap it away while the bulb itself stays. Thinning a piece is not easy! Ug! :) Thanks for the bit of information on this vid! :) Very useful.
very impressive. just got into flint and steel. was so excited when i made my first fire.
Awesome. I made a few flint and steel fires back in the day. Funny, now that I have literally a ton of flint chunks, I never use it to create sparks.
The best explanation of any almost like your not hiding any info imagine that . Thank you
Thank you very much. Fascinating!
Great spalling video....Thanks for doing these for us.
You're welcome.
Super fun one !!! Very entertaining as well as a great instructional video !!!
Only read this in a book, never thought I would see one. This is crazy.
This was super incredibly helpful. Thank you.
You're welcome
Thnak you. I'm lucky that I have good, cheap sources where I can buy my flint. It took me a long time to build up my supply. :-))
That was an amazing video. I am fascinated by what you can do.
Thanks!
Your waste is another mans treasure...lots of flintlock flints there!
Great video
Thanks
Where can we find large chunks like that?
@@silvertip8k278 knap-ins.
I will give credit where credit is due, some of the blades that came off of that second piece were really nice. Nice enough to make them into projectile points even.
Amazing little rocks out of big rocks
Yup-yup
A thing of remarkable ability and beauty.
Thank you.
You make that look so easy.
I'm not sure if I know Ray. I'm glad you have found some other knappers!
Wow, super helpful. Thank you.
You're very welcome
Wow. You are blessed with good stone in your area, I guess. Hard to come by in my neck of the woods.
You're very good at what you do I wish I could come and stay with you a couple days and give me some classes on all of this.
Well, I made over 900 videos so you wouldn't have to go through the trouble of traveling out to west TX. ;-)
Organic tools. Yes! Stone, antler, bone, Ivory & perhaps even hard wood etc. The path into an understanding true Lithic Technology. The fracture mechanics of blade & core industries! Very sharp tools that are surprisingly efficient. I have shaved with obsidian blades. Very informative demonstration. Tks. Vince James ( Ajello). Lithic Technologist/researcher
The fracture mechanics never change. Only the initial conditions are different.
Tks for your reply. What I meant was it was such a great presentation to see you apply organic tool approaches. It gave insight into how early man made their stone tools. I have found a difference in how organic tools transfer energy (load) into stone at different rates of speed & can effect flake removals. (Example - hard wood heat burnished billets used in percususion flaking quartzites, quartz & meta- sediments).
this works awesome i found some big pieces of flint (silex) in various colours reddish pink , amber brown ,multi colored too .......very niece pieces after knapping thanks !!!
Sounds great!!
Dude, that's some awesome material you have there! I've yet to find some material here in Rico, but when I do find some I plan on making a thread on paleoplanet, so if you hang around there, stay tuned!
Thanks! Yep, this video seems to be a popular one.
Thanks Brian!
Cool video. For some reason I’ve always imagined this process taking much longer haha
It does take much longer for novice knappers. This guy seems to have been flint-knapping for quite a while.
Hello Jack,all my tools are hand made, my heavy leather pads from old leather belts,and also an old gun holster,just bought 2 large copper nails at a garage sale for a buck,I've dried hardwood saplings and made ishi sticks and flakers,made copper boppers and antler boppers,,spent hours and days watching your video's.thanks.
Awesome! Always glad to hear from knappers like you. Low tech and high enthusiasm. Very cool!
Hello,
I live in Ottawa Canada where it is very hard to find any flint or chert,i need some to practice but i cant afford it right now,but i am enjoying watching what ever i can about it
+Nabih Zurkiyeh Thanks. I wonder if you have quartzite up there. Have you checked the river beds?
makes my ocd senses tingle
awesome video
+AlPha Thanks!
Sounds great!
Man what I wouldn’t give for a big ol piece of beautiful chert like that! It’s hard to find up here where I live in Indiana.
Big ole' pieces like this are overrated. The small stuff is the best quality. And Indiana Hornstone is one of my favorites.
I get most of my flint from surface hunting along public waterways. I also get a lot of flint from generous friends. And I buy some flint too.
In my area, there is no flint close by, so I have to travel a lot. And it helps to be a good scavenger. :-)
You are exactly right about your comment on where to find flint. I have greedily hoarded flint in the same way, lots of travel.When I started knapping 35+ years ago I had to find my own and I did a lot of traveling and talking to many archaeologists as I could find. It is a lot of work but if you are or want to be a flintknapper then you most likely love geology and or archaeology. Your travels will lead you to many amazing places where people like you were looking for lythic material hundreds to thousands of years ago.
I always wanted to try pedernales flint, I have seen may nice old points made from this material. I haven't been to Texas for 25 years and don't expect to go back. Most of my material comes from North Dakota (Knife River Flint) or the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming (red chert-excellent quality) or porcellonite from North Eastern Montana.. if anyone would like to do some trading let me know.
Kevin
k1j2f30 Hi Kevin, your offer to trade flint is exciting! What type(s) of rock do you need? I assume Pedernales?
I really don't NEED any, I like you have been picking and hoarding for many years. The points I have seen that were made from Pedernales Flint give me the impression it is very high grade and works somewhat easily. It appears to leave flake scars that are well defined and detailed. A couple of fairly flat pieces about the size of your hand (or smaller) would be enough to tell me if I want to try and obtain more.
I would offer to trade you for the same amount of my stash of your choice. Of course all of us flintknappers are looking for the highest quality of any type of material. Thanks for your reply and interest. if you want to trade I will send you some of what ever you would like to try and you can let me know what you think.
Thanks again.
Kevin
k1j2f30 Pedernales knaps a lot like citronel gravel. Some is good and some not. Most will get better with heat. Some of the darker Pedernales break up with heat, but it doesn't need it in most cases anyway. Stuff like Sonora, Pipe creek, and high grade raw Burlington knap way better than raw Pedernales.
Sounds like Pedernales works a lot like some of the poorer quality Knife River Flint. Unless it is the premium quality it is tough, brittle and very hard. It lends itself much better to percussion flaking than pressure flaking but it also produces a very sharp durable point if you can press through it.
I have paid my dues many times over working tough, brittle cherts, Maybe I should reconsider on the Pedernales and look for something that is more of a pleasure to knapp than a struggle.
thank you sir,
Kevin
I live in Bastrop Texas and have tons of those rocks everywhere. We have the colorado river passing through the city and the animal refuge.
Yes, I know. Go down there and get some, try to knap them, and give us a report. Chances are, many of the rocks you find on the surface in Bastrop are low grade gravel chert and is very difficult to knap without heat treatment.
Fascinating craft
Thank you.
Wow very nice
Thanks. this helped a lot.
some nice Native American flute music in the background would really be nice! Flute Dreams is an nice CD ! I just got some real nice Texas Georgetown flint cherts. So far it looks good for knapping ! Thanks for your videos. I am saving them fo later viewing as tutorials. I am a newbee too knapping but have made some pretty decent glass arrow heads. Just gave one blue arrow head to my wife for her birthday. I got some tiny diamond drills for my dremel and drilled a hole for the necklace ring. You inspired me to try this and I am having a great time !
Ill use a word that seems to be pretty common, fascinating. This is a primitive way of tool building that has always interested me but I never made the leap. It's obvious how sharp even the unimproved the flakes are. Very impressive.
Thank you.
Obsidian can usually be found in rivers and coasts where volcanic activity has been sighted. You can also find obsidian near a volcano(obviously), but I don't know if there are any volcanoes or even where they were located sometime in the past in Baja Califorrnia. Anyway, good luck finding some usable material!
I adore the desert and search for strange and rare stones and historical and natural places
Sounds very relaxing.
Yes, I use them all. :-)
Fifteith viewer and I still have not seen the pop corn. LOL, BTW, I picked up on how to spall better from this vid. Keep em coming. Thanks
Oh, also if you're in the mood for a road trip, go down to Glass Buttes in Oregon. Plenty of obsidian there!
Nice video thank you for sharing very good stay safe stay healthy good luck Stay connect
Thank you.
Thank you for replying
I have checked several time and brought home many stones, byt nothing that gave any spark
My favorite part .
I went up a creek (or down) a few days ago looking for arrowheads...I couldn't find any obvious ones. Maybe some primitive tools and I didn't recognize them for sure. But what I kept thinking was, "That stone would make a good arrowhead." I came back with some beautiful pieces to make something with. I think they're mostly quartzite though. One is so flat on both sides it looks like it was milled. Many stones in the creek were naturally round like your hammerstone here. I guess I need to go back and get one and start knapping!! 🛆 ⚪🏑
Yeah, start testing the stones. Some quartzite is knappable.
That's so cool I wish we had that rock around here I've been watching to make Flint and steel. But also making arrow heads. No we live by a lake there lowering it and a local went to the other side and found hundreds arrow head and other artifacts I was so made I was to late. But I tried to go dig it was to hot so didn't find any. But I hope run across something one day. Thanks for sharing I'm gonna sub want to learn more thanks god bless
Thanks Danny, in glad you are enjoying the videos. And in sure you'll find something soon. It's all about the time you put in.
JackCrafty thanks sir yes if I could walk more than a few min without setting from pain ide have better chance but I look were ever I go. Thanks again god bless
thanks for video
Thanxz for the video. Enyoyable.
Glad you liked it. Spalling can be relaxing... you don't need to be too focused on the work. It's a lot like unwrapping presents...hahah. It's over way too soon!
You are in a gold mind.. Try going to FL or New Guinea and find rocks like that.. Good luck!!
Thanks!
Central Texas has lots of chert: mostly small to medium sized nodes in riverbeds, construction sites, and eroded banks. You've just got to look and break some rocks to see what's inside them. You can also attend a knap-in and get rock there for free or real cheap. Join a forum and ask around. :-)
beautiful Flint at the minute 9
This nodule already had some flat spots when I found it. Most nodules have a piece broken off somewhere and that flat surface can be used as a platform. If the nodule has no flat spots, the easiest way to start is to break off a piece with a regular steel hammer or a very hard hammer stone.
nice videos you have personally im no knapper but id love yer pile of waste pieces for bushcraft fire skills best wishes hardy iv subbed you
All that this man is doing Simply crushes the stones.
Excellent video, the technique is incredible. Where does one get a rock pile such as that?
There is material in Mexico too! Hope you find some!
Wicked nice flakes bro, wow sweet, i seen alot that i could make into blades.I love to get a bunch of my flint cut up, Since i cant thin well, slabbing would be good for me i think.this was an awesome video , thanks for sharing Hobbit. Makes me want to go crack open more rock now.
Yeah, slabbing is a good option if you do a lot of pressure work. It really saves a lot of time and material.
looks fun
We do have a volcano called Cerro Prieto about 30 kilometers from my house. I need to take some time to find a place opened to the public, because there is a big geothermal plant.
Strengthening the edge prevents small flakes from detaching when you are trying to detach a large flake. If the edge is weak, you may get a large flake if you are careful but you run the risk of messing up and producing a shower of small flakes instead.
Makes sense.
What you have there is a very nice piece of flint though
Could you explain what strengthening the edge does?
Very nice, got to love that Texas chert! The last nodule that you were spalling was that lighter grey variety and it's probably my favorite to knap. Do you know the name of it.. I thought I heard it called Texas Comanche chert, but I don't know if that's right? Thanks for showing!
Ben
first of all, i just want to say how great your work is. also, do you sell any of your chert?
juuust rediscovered knapping after a long time (about 16 years) of my first hearing about it! i wat 8 at the time! definitely something id find enjoyable to do as a hobby. live in northern Indiana and cant find flint worth a crap! lol
No Indiana Hornstone?
@@KnapperJackCrafty i have noooo idea where i could find that. I remember when i was younger i found hammerstones before but i never really went as far as to like... take it or use them as such. Really cool though to see that theres more to it than just flint and pretty material inside! :)
@@justsomesaltyboi8716 There are several well-known flintknappers in Indiana and at least one knap-in that is open to the public. A knap-in is the beast place to find stone. Someone may even share where to find some for free. www.crawfordcountyindiana.com/attractions/events-festivals/flintknapping-and-primitive-art-fest/
@@justsomesaltyboi8716 facebook.com/Indiana-Flint-Knappers-and-SurvivalPrepping-Skills-167185613302159/
@@KnapperJackCrafty thank you very much for opening this world to me with knapping. Im looking forward to making some beautiful pieces from stone local to me! :)
Have you tried using the base of a moose antler? It's much harder than elk, deer or carabou. Some call it north american ivory. Very hard, takes a good bite and doesn't pit as bad or as fast. Good video, good job.
k1j2f30 Thanks! Yeah, I've got some moose antler (with the skull bone attached) and it works great. I cost me a PRETTY PENNY so I don't use it much.
I live in Westchester NY I have been looking everywhere for Churt have found some hard stone that brakes a spark that's about it. Anyway I can get some good Churt?
For what you do, you can get a 10 inch tile saw from harbor freight, about 600$ Top cut, about 2 hp. Thats all you need.
Good to know.👍
Do you buy all your stone? Or are you able to find any? That's my biggest problem now - trying to source the stone. I'm just getting started and don't wan to dump a lot of cash into something I might suck at and waste it on practice. Any advice for where to look for stone? I've heard of looking in old river beds and ancient seabeds. But I live in north central Indiana - nothing but corn fields as far as the eye can see... :-(
So new to this but excited to learn. Where do I find chert and hammer stones and such?
Most people don't live near a chert source, so you'll probably need to buy some online. You can also practice on glass, if you're careful. I always recommend kentuckyflintworks.com as a source for materials online. You should also try to attend an event called a " knap- in" where flintknappers meet to share their work, materials, and skills. You can find everything you need at a knap-in, including one-on-one instruction or tutoring... usually for free.
I've heard of Comanche chert but I don't know what it is. Maybe chert from Comanche County? Anyway, it's all Edwards Plateau chert. The last node in the video is what they call "Pedernales Chert" because, as far as I know, it came from the Fredricksburg area near the Pedernales river. My stone supplier got it while attending a Fredricksburg knapp-in, I think.
French speaking neanderthals. If that don't beat all. Just kidding. Thanks for the video. I've read the literature. Seeing it done by someone accomplished at it really puts things in proper perspective. I now understand more about platform, and edge prep than ever before. Thanks again.
how do you start that first platform?
do you ever use any of the flakes on the ground by your feet?
Where do you get all this chert?
Most of it came from the sides of dirt roads about 1-1/2 hrs from where I live. I collected some of this but most of was collected by a knapper friend that gave it to me when he moved. If I tell you exactly where I get it, there might not be any left when I go back. :-)
I know nothing of this process except think this is the same as the camping flint and stricker I got from the army store and I can't work it properly lol so satisfying just sitting at your pile and gently beating them. You've mentioned blades a few times is that what it's for. So many questions from over here in New Zealand 😁 #thefinders
Please have a look around my channel. I've got a good mix of different aspects of flint knapping, although I haven't done a video on flint and steel yet...
Yes Im watching you make an arrow head, so beautiful. I couldn't really see how you'd get the shape but I see the line your making to shape. I gift obsidian arrow heads as a protection for that person in the wairoa/spiritual sense. They're fascinating. Thank you again.
@@trippingonrocks1165 you're very welcome.
Man, heaps of those flakes that you're throwing away I would use and cherish- just shows how desperate I am for knapping material lol
here in PA i have found some black flint but it is not very good because it is cracked on the inside.
Wanting to make a spear tip, something that just looks nice, would it be better to use the core and knock down the edges to shape it or try to get lucky with a share that comes off?
Knock down the edges and shape the core. That's the easiest way.
The harder it is to come by, the more friends you will have when you build up your stash... heheh
I'm looking to but some flakes for use with My fire starting. They don't have to be top grade or very large flakes. Do you sell flakes?
Go to a "knap-in". You can pick up flakes for free.