Flint Knapping

SIR Training 2008

Flint Knapping

Flint Knapping

Rocks make great tools. Given enough time, you can do almost anything with a rock. Chop down a tree, grind grain into meal, bring down some wild game…Most rock flakes have at least one sharp edge, and that is all you might need for a primitive cutting tool, but these single-edged tools are very brittle. By working the stone, you can create an edge that is both sharp and strong.

Hence, knapping.

Knapping is based on the principle that banging rocks together will break them, and by changing the type of rock and the place you strike, you can control its shape.

Yes, it sounds simple. But for most people (me included), it’s not.

It’s also not easy to teach on paper, but what I will do is give you some guidelines to follow, after you’ve seen a demonstration and tried it yourself, to help you along.

Ethics

Yeah, we’ve got to start with ethics. Primitive Technology, especially flint knapping, is a diverse field. You have academics and PT enthusiasts who try increase our knowledge of the past. You have craftsmen who use modern tools to knap and are mainly out there to make cool-looking blades. This is perfectly okay. Some people have created beautiful works of art using modern tools and techniques. The trouble comes, however, when people try to pass off their works as something they are not.

I soon realized that people knap for a lot of different reasons, and not all of them good! Some people make arrow points, etc., and try to pass them off as genuine artifacts to sell. This is bad. Others will create points using modern tools and try to pass them off as traditionally-knapped pieces. This also falls into the bad category. Don’t let these things happen on your park.

Site Integrity

Another ethical (and safety) issue you will face is keeping your site clean. When knapping, you create a lot of debotage, small flakes and dust that break off as a by-product of knapping. If not properly dept and disposed of, these can harm your site in the long run because they can disrupt the archaeological record. Take care to place a tarp underneath you when you knap, and have a designated place where you dispose of the waste flakes.

Safety

Knap outside. Not inside. Outside. Why? Because the dust you create when knapping is bad for you to breathe.

Use some kind of padding for your hands and legs.

Eye protection is not a bad idea.

Gloves are not a bad idea.

Primitive peoples did not have eye protection, you say!

No. And they also had very short life spans.

Traditional Knapping

Although modern tools can create some amazing work, traditional techniques apply directly to parks. Every park has a history, and even more so, every park has a pre-history. Stone age peoples dwelt in, fought over, or traveled through practically every corner of the globe (yes, I know globes don’t have corners), and so you can find some excuse to teach primitive technology at any park.

The main problem with teaching primitive technology is, of course, that we weren’t there to see it! Students of primitive technology have to find things out the hard way, by trial and error. Flint knapping is no different: we have to look at the artifacts that the makers left behind and do our best to figure out how they were made. Traditional knappers use only tools that native peoples would have had available to them.

Tools

So, what were the tools? Sticks, rocks, antlers, and bones. Yep, that’s about it. But it’s amazing what you can do with sticks, rocks, antlers, and bones.

Hammerstone: A stone that you can grip comfortably in your hand. Smooth, a river-rock is good. A hammerstone generally needs to be a little softer than the stone you are trying to knap so that it can absorb the impact without breaking.

Pressure Flaker: Made of antler tip or (in some parts of the world) copper. Pressure flakers are generally used for finer work, to produce small detail.

Billet: Made of wood or antler, looks like a small club. Another tool you can use to strike the rock.

Padding: Primitive peoples might have used leather to pad their hands and legs when knapping. We can substitute gloves and towels, because leather is expensive!

Band-aids: Okay, so band-aids were not available to people in the distant past. But it’s a good idea to have some handy, because you will most likely cut yourself somehow.

Guidelines and Keywords

Cone: Everything in knapping is based on concavity. Rock always breaks the same way. It breaks in a cone, approximately 120 degrees from the direction of impact, and the force will continue outward until it is stopped. If you change the direction of impact, you can change the shape of the rock.

Platform: The surface you strike has to be a certain way: not too thick, too thin, or too crumbly. Making a good platform requires good insight, good eyesight, and a lot of patience. When in doubt, make sure that the platform you strike is below the center mass of the rock, and doesn’t have little jagged edges that will crumble. Keep that 120-degree angle in mind every time you prepare to strike. The rock will always follow the path of least resistance, so ridges and bumps in your rock will affect the way it breaks.

Direct Percussion: hitting the rock with another implement

Indirect Percussion or Punch Stroke: putting some kind of pointy tool up against the rock and hitting the tool instead of the rock. To concentrate force and make a precise hit.

Pressure Flaking: squeezing a flake off with an antler tip, sharpened piece of wood, or a copper tool. Usually for very small, precise flakes.

Striking Percussion: striking with the tip of a hammerstone

Slapping Percussion: a slapping motion usually done with a billet

Sliding Percussion: striking with the flat side of a hammerstone

Guidelines

Adopted from Primitive Technology by Errett Callahan.

Step 1: Get your materials. You need to start with a good-sized rock or piece of glass (about the size of your hand is ideal), and whatever tools you think you will need. Make sure the ground is protected by a tarp and that you are protected by padding and safety equipment.

Step 2: Straighten and center the edge. You want your piece to have a continuous edge that roughly follows the center mass of the stone, and you want the angle of that edge to be less than 90 degrees. In this stage you will chip away very thick (obtuse) angles, and you will also trim away edges that are way too thin.

Step 3: Primary Thinning. Work from the outside in to remove large ridges and humps in the center of the rock, in descending order. You will work on taking big flakes that might go all the way across the rock. At the end of this state, you still want a straightened and centered edge, and your piece will be much thinner in cross-section. It will also probably look roughly like a projectile point by now. Work from the outside in to thin the flake. If you try to start from the center and work out, you will break your rock.

Step 4: Secondary Thinning. Continue to refine the shape and thin the piece, but don’t take many flakes past the center line.

Step 5: Shaping. This is where you would probably use a pressure flaker to take off very small, delicate flakes to finish the look and make a sharp, strong edge.

When in doubt, straighten and center the edge. From the first stage to the last, this is always important.

Sources

Callahan, Errett. Primitive Technology: Practical Guidelines for Making Stone Tools, Pottery, Basketry, etc. the Aboriginal Way, 5th Edition. Piltdown Productions, 2006.

McPherson, John and Geri. Primitive Tools: Making and Using Them. Manhattan, KS: Ag Press, 1999.

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