As of yet, I haven't actually attempted knapping, but the thing that comes to mind is the knowledge gained by actually authentically attaching the points to a shaft.
cool points man! really like those 2 "Wade" points. that material reminds me of alot of the stuff here in SW Missouri that i knap...not all of course...but some...Burlington to be exact. anyways...great series of vids once again...thanx for sharing.
"Wade" in quotation marks. Good move. I'm sure someone will find a better match to an existing type. That's the one I found after a quick search. I don't know the types around Mississippi very well...
JackCrafty lol...I don't know the types down there either...so "Wade" sounds good to me...lol!! No disrespect intended or inferred...killer looking points regardless!
You must have a tool box that just does not quit. It would be neat to see a tour of your tools. //////// I should have looked first, LOL I posted then went looking and found several of your tool videos. Thank You, Mark
Such a nice point! Im very paleo minded at this point in my knapping and am studying their techniques and styles. Need more info, books etc. as usual. I left you an IG message too.
Hi Jon! As I was looking over the comments just now I noticed that I missed this message from you. Don't know know why the message notifications don't always work. Anyways, when I get to a computer, I'll look for your IG message. I can't access anything but the comments from my phone.
Haha... little yip-yap dogs... I know. The 20 minute mark would have been a good place to stop but I'm a glutton for punishment (and the viewers like it).
Love the paleo / Clovis point. Can you touch on and give advice on when to flip the piece? I notice at times you take 1 flake and flip to each side, and other times you work from tip top back edge on one side before flipping. Thanks for the great videos!
As always,great work! It is my belief that Clovis,Folsom and all the very distinctive point styles were cultural identifiers. That those styles unified and identified themselves and signal to other groups that they were part of a cultural alliance. In other words,you don't have to make a Clovis in order to hunt ,but you have to make a Clovis to belong to our people or "tribe". Just a thought of mine. What do you believe? Love your stuff. I really appreciate the care that you have taken to make sure we can see exactly what you are doing.
Thanks Paul. I believe that Clovis, and other distinctive styles, were memes. Look at the original definition of "meme". It includes cross-cultural ideas such as the construction of masonry arches, the idea of imprinting or painting pottery with designs, hieroglyphs and writing, bows and arrows, and similar things. Clovis spread quite rapidly and over vast distances in a very short period of time... much shorter than can be achieved through population expansion. In other words, many different cultures utilized Clovis technology. And since flintknapping is such a small part of the overall material culture of each group, I think those cultures were sometimes quite different from each other. I'm not saying that point style do not reflect cultural influences. What I'm saying is that a "good" or "cool" idea spreads. Fluting is not necessary. It's "cool".
No great advantage. Copper works just fine. I switched to aluminum because it's more similar to natural tools of stone and antler. It makes the transition to natural tools easier for me. I work with natural materials from time to time.
Thanks for the response.I would agree that many ideas spread because of the "cool" factor. But ,once an innovation has been adopted that uis rarely why it continues to be used. After a time it becomes more of a case of "we do it this way because that's the way it's done" It becomes passed on from one generation to the next and that is a shared cultural marker. I gave up knapping after becoming disabled. Your use of horizontal indirect has inspired me to consider trying to take it up again. What stone would you recommend for me to try your technique with. Cooked Keokuk and Frisco were favorites of mine,but I really haven't tried a lot of different types of chert. Thanks again Pat
Those stones sound just fine to me. You don't need a lot of force for indirect percussion if you're an experienced knapper and have the hang of it. Dacite is probably a good choice. Any cooked material works great.
Man, I wish. I don't have any large nodules at the moment. I've gotten used to working the small ones, so I end up giving away big nodules. That doesn't help either. The thing with big nodules is you also need big tools to reduce them. But I'll try to find some big stuff for future videos.
I've been watching a lot of your videos & a question came to me, which do you think is best, heat treated rocks or raw? Which lasts longer or is more durable? It seems like the heat treated rocks breaks easier if accidentally dropped than the raw rocks.
Good question. The "best" rock is high quality raw rock that is so good it doesn't need to be heat treated. This is because the most important part of a stone tool is its edge. You can create an extremely good cutting edge, that stays sharp, with good raw stone. It's similar to the concept of using high quality steel for knives. The fact that it doesn't break easily when dropped is not as important as the edge, although it is important as well.
Nope. But many of them attend the knap-in in Llano, TX every year. I saw a bunch of those guys last time I went. I call up Dwight every now and then to buy some rock from him but I haven't done that in over a year.
To me ...the bifaces are a thing of great beauty. I can imagine that at one time in human history that would have been considered miraculous skill, a blessing to humanity.
