14 years later and I am amazed at the level of skill you demonstrate here. Thanks for the vast treasure trove of experimental knowledge you have left here, Jim!
Your videos are among the very best. Your explanations and detailed views are incredibly helpful. You cover more topics than anyone. The people who did a dislike are clearly jealous of your knapping and teaching skills. Absolutely top notch!
Your video has a life of its own. I am watching your videos 13 years later in 2023. EVERYTHING you recommend about the preparation of the nipple before fluting is essential to perform. Using Copper tools allows very precise nipple preparation. In fact TOO precise and using a blunter copper tool tip is better. I learned a very important thing from your video and that is to WELL SUPPORT the tip to drive long flutes. Just poking the tip into your leg to prevent end shock is not enough. The energy of the baton strike will detach the flute flake, but the distance to travel demands the point be well supported. A leather pad is not enough. You used a rock with a thick piece of leather. Like Pressure Flaking, if you want a long flake then support the back edge. Thanks for making this video. Your waaaay ahead of us laggards.
@@paleomanjim Flint Knapping is like a lot of other endeavours where there are a lot of people doing the same thing. A good analogy of this last statement is baseball where many people play the game but only a very few are playing in the Major Leagues and fewer yet at the elite level. Your legacy of flint knapping videos covering blade cores, to eccentrics, to fluted points reveals you also have an inquisitive mind. I first saw your work on the Flint Knappers Calendar a long time ago before UTUBE, that revealed your were at the elite level. You obviously invested a lot of effort to get there.
Okay! Finally I get to see how that’s done. Indirect percussion is something I’ve read about but this is the first time I’ve actually understood it. I never knew about the groove in the punch and I’ve broken a lot of points. Fortunately glass is relatively abundant. Now that I’ve seen the process in action I realize that some people might understand knapping but they’re not adept enough as authors to explain the ideas effectively. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video set is the Library of Alexandria! Ronald Crabtree didn’t explain it this well and his tome was the only reference I had when I first started breaking rocks.
I have seen flint knapping done by a very skilled craftsman at an archery tournament. I was so amazed at his skill that I considered trying it myself. I never did. Now watching your videos, I feel rather compelled at trying it once again. You are a wonderful teacher, and every bit as talented as the man I watched years ago. You would have been of very high regard as a skilled point and tool maker in the stone age days thousands of years ago. People of today would be absolutely lost in surviving the conditions our ancestors were subjected to, but your ability would put you at the top of the list in regards of valuable skills people would need in every day living.
Thanks, truly our ancestors had incredible skills to cope with the harsh conditions of their environment. Even going back 200 years many of our ancestors were a jack or all trades and could repair most anything that needed to be fixed! Not so today....
@paleoman1999 I agree Jim, this seems to be the most plausible answer as to how the Folsom was fluted. It has been my belief that the Folsom people either used a type of jig or indirect percussion to manufacture their points. After watching your video I'm leaning towards indirect percussion. Neat video, thanks for sharing.
Great video. It seems like a much better method than direct percussion. I am going to link it to my website / blog for my book on the Folsom People called Shadows on the Trail.
Hey Jim, Come back, man! The knapping world misses you. Your videos are amazing but with the improvements in camera quality you’d be able to make videos that would be priceless teaching tools. Thank you for the videos you’ve made. Please think about making new videos.
wOW THAT WAS INSANE! Cool lfutes man, and nice piece of Keokuk was heat treated huh? Nice shade of pink, well love your vids keep making them and more often, I always have wait for more! lol thnks I always learn something from your vids mahalo & Aloha
Hi Jim...Theres 2 things sometime Id like to see you cover if you get a chance.One is serrating between the scar patterns like daltons...Also how to actually prepare the fluting nipple
I try to keep the edge retouch at a steep enough angle that it does not intrude into the flute scar. Also try to keep the edge being pressure flaked not pushed into the leather pad too hard or the micro flakes will travel over the ridge and into the flute scar. thanks....jim
Love your videos Jim. I usually do Archaic points from Texas but your Folsom video has encouraged me to give them a try. Question: Do you pressure flake around the flute? Or just above it when you're cleaning up the tip? I would think the pressure flaking would intrude on the flute?
Apparently from or invented by those of the Solutrean cultures existing in what is now the eastern US and Canada and western Europe to catch and eat the then megafauna in those locations. When the critters had been caught and eaten to the extent that the described technology was no longer required to get food, the widgets, techniques all were put aside. Profound, is it not?
Good question. The most difficult stone points made in America were the Clovis and Folsum points. These cultures were nomadic and lived primarily from hunting and gathering, likely always on the move. Their survival depended on successful hunting above all else and there skill in making flint spear or dart points were essential to their survival. As the Mammoth and other big game diminished (possibly because of their success) they had to switch to hunting smaller game and eventually agriculture for some cultures. Along with that they developed other strategies for survival and were no longer specialized. Much of the more recent stone knives and arrowheads are crude by comparison with older stuff, not all, but most. The same could happen in the future, many journeyman level skills of today may be lost with the advent of automation.
