How To Make A Glass Arrowhead With A Beer Bottle - Pressure Flaking on
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Join experimental archaeologist, Dr. James Dilley, for his first UA-cam episode of #KnapTime. He will be explaining and demonstrates the prehistoric technique of flintknapping, by showing you how to knap an glass arrowhead.
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Filmed & Edited by Emma Jones of ELWJ Media - www.elwjmedia.co.uk
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Can't wait for the hand axe episode!
Brilliant, it's simultaneously very precise and delicate, yet requiring a lot of force.
I've managed to complete one. It's so hard but I couldn't stop haha
Very nice trainer.
Like the mention of the "Outre-passe" flakes commonly found on Solutrean points.
An archaeologist can be cut while excavating in a prehistoric site. Obsidian can a nefarious material lurking in the screen waiting for an aunawary hand. Considering flaking tools for pressure, have you tried what's known in the US as an "Ishi stick?" The tool consists of a stick long enough to catch between the upper arm and body. The flaking end is usually a flattened piece of antler bound with sinew and possibly an adhesive to the stick's distal end. Among other things it reduces the strain on your wrist. The muscles employed include torso, and abdominal as well as upper arms and upper chest muscles including the pectorals.
The muscles in your fore arms are significantly more defined than normal. You've been knapping for a long while. Very soothing to view.
Very excited about this channel!
Highly informative. My prior attempts at this resulted in frustration and fatigue in my wrists and forearms as I didn't understand how to apply the necessary force to flake off pieces. I am keen to try again now that you've shared your technique.
Gratefully,
- Martin
Do! Just remember that your hands and wrists only hold the flaker and flake, your legs and abdomen do all the work. And give yourself breaks, I usually make a couple, do something else then come back to another couple arrowheads
Outstanding work. Never thought of glass before. Thank you for sharing. From Texas USA
I've hunted small game with some glass arrow points I've made. Their surprisingly tough to be glass and quite effective.
I Like your channel , I have the very good fortune to have a customer that is a bottle recycler so I have an endless supply of glass. I particularly like the Bombay bottles because 2 of their sides are thick and pressure flake able. I usually flake the concave side first , it leaves more weight on the back to help them travel.
Great !
Best Video I have seen .
Keep comming to watch it again and again
Thanks
You mentioned that items which look like large arrowheads may in fact be actually spear points or knives. Perhaps some of those oddly-sized in-betweeners are atlatl dart points as well!
Best instructional videos ever! Thank you for the work you have put into these!
Yes! I want to learn to knap and the property i live on has a trash pit from the very early 1900s so there are tons of glass bottles...i was going to throw some of them away but now im going to practice knapping on the bottoms
Projectile points that are symmetrical and hafted properly will fly straighter and be less likely to deflect off your target or break on impact. I just found your channel. I’m a big fan of Paleolithic and Neolithic stone work, both knapped and ground.
Nice video I like how well you explain it
One thing tho is that in my experience filling the bottle a bit and hitting it with a mallet results in faster and a cleaner breakage
Filling or filing? Serious question. I want to give this a try. When I used to work glass, we had carbide knives (a file will sometimes work), which we used to score/scratch glass rod, tube, or plate along the line we wanted it to break.
The pro technique I've seen, but didn't master was to score around the circumference of a piece. Then wet the score mark very slightly, and touch it with the molten hot end of another glass rod. The score mark would crack perfectly around the material and meet itself on the other side, and you could just pull it apart. I've seen some glass workers make perfecly square cuts in rod or tube that way.
Absolutely awesome!
Thank you James, I managed to catch this one! Very enjoyable. I will hook out the things I gathered years ago and finally give things a try.
I just used a centre punch as I did not have a nail. Worked very fast.
Just excellent, Dr.! Thank you for stressing that expertise like yours doesn't happen over night. Do you see marked differences between early European knapping and that of North American natives? Many knappers in the US have the mistaken idea that this craft is uniquely North American. What have your studies revealed about the earliest knappers on the planet. I very much appreciate the knowledge you've shared with us. Warm greetings from Indiana, USA.
Basic knapping processes have appeared, disappeared and reappeared around the world at different times depending on availability and quality of the raw material. The oldest evidence of stone working dates to 3.6 million years ago in Central Africa with basic core and flake technology and even in Europe you see the earliest evidence of bifaces around 1.5 million years ago. In comparison the US is a archaeologically speaking, a relative newcomer to the craft. There isn't too much different between European knapping and North American in terms of knapping techniques however there are stylist differences but this is true for many regions around the world.
Glad you enjoyed watching!
But... what’s the green flash at 11:09?
Excellent video.....Thanks
Fantastic video thank you
Very interesting. Also you look like a hybrid between orlando bloom, milo yiannopoulos and joel kinnaman.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason you can work glass like flint is not because both are silica (or at least not JUST because they're both silica), but because both are more or less amorphous (rather than crystalline, although flint is apparently actually "cryptocrystalline", just made of lots of misaligned microscopic crystals) solids an thus both fracture concoidally. Quartz is silica, and there are other crystals with compositions more like more common glass (pure silica glass being one of most expensive and high quality types of glass), but these do not fracture the same way.
Quartz, SiO2, has conchoidal fracture just like glass, obsidian, opal, etc.
Nice that you mentioned not to make "archeological" waste. 👍
Thank you so much for this instructions on making arrowhead ! I am just a little disappointed that you did not have a close shot on your final arrowhead. Cheers !
We learnt a lot from our first ever UA-cam video and we plan on revisiting #KnapTime soon with a new arrowhead video! The arrowhead in the title photo is the finished result but we can appreciate it would have been an appropriate end to this video to show it off properly!
With the large blue bottle, could the sides be made useful as well, or do you reckon they’re too thin to really knap with any consistency?
Did you just go to pressure flaking? Or did you use any precussion from a bopper of sorts after abrading the sides in the beginning
Great stuff, James. Any chance of uploading the previous 3 episodes that went out on Twitter? Pretty please? 😁
We’ve looked into it and will probably refilm them before uploading. The quality should be better which was certainly an issue showing small details.
Have you ever made porcelain points, like from toilet lids (aka Johnstone)? I've seen pics, but never seen it IRL.
I have knapped porcelain before, just not from a toilet lid! I do have a few pieces so perhaps there's scope for a future video 👀
Hello James! I've been trying to make my own arrowhead, but I really struggle with the sides. Somehow the bottom of the bottle always comes off with quite big 'edges' and as I try to get rid of them, the bottom ends up with either thick straight or even round edges. I tried the brute force, abrasion or even using the stone. The first two never seem to work, the latter broke the glass in half... HELP!!!!!
I see you, Fjallraven pants :)
Gotta love them! Fingers crossed for a sponsorship deal 😂
speaking of glass i was thinking... stone..... glass.... what was called in Game of Thrones Dragonglass... so ...Obsidian which actualy did exist in some historical cultures i believe
I just fill the bottles with water and pop the bottoms out by hitting the top with my palm
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Where ever did you learn that nail technique to get the base off your bottle? It's genius.
It's a pretty old technique. ua-cam.com/video/xh7pc2Q6XFI/v-deo.html
*breathes heavily*
No wayyyy.There was no close-up of finished product. So much work - and no climax!! Whyyy? Why would you do this to us? 😂😂
jeez. you are gorgeous.
Twitter is trash anyway