How To Make A Palaeolithic Hand Axe: Flint Knapping with Phil Harding 

Best 25 mins of RU-vid in ages!!!

I’m an American college history professor and am fascinated by this topic. Phil is always a treat to watch…either here or on Time Team. Phil is one of the best human beings ever in my book. Fun story, several years ago, I emailed Phil and he sent a signed photo for my daughter. At 11, she still watches Time Team with me, and that picture still hangs on her wall!

Unfortunately I can only hit the like button once... wish I could hit it 20 times. The reveal at the end with the reconstructed stone was brilliant.

It's going to be a sad day for the history of knapping when Phil Harding passes he knows more about it then anyone in the last 1 thousand years about shaping and using flint . they could do an entire series of him just sitting in a flint field knapping the days away he would love it and I would watch the shit out of it.

I loved the video from the instant the famous hat was placed on the shelf!

I had the good fortune to meet Phil at stonehenge this August Bank holiday and watch him create an hand axe. He was gracious enough to spend a good while after chatting. Top man and a great video.

Listening is right. You can hear where the stone is loosening. Geology taught me how flint breaks along lines, which is why you get those thin flakes. A good knapper, like Dr. Harding, can hear and feel where the stone is starting to go.

I too am in love with the Neolithic age. I am going to give making flint tools a try. Thank you for this thorough explanation!

Phil Harding is a National Treasure!

"Risk assessment?" RFLMAO! Because of wimps who can't put on goggles, I am grateful, for now I can watch this wonderful video and learn a bit of flint-napping from Phil! Thanks so much for sharing the video, and please send love to Phil from the U.S.!

Dear Phil, you have amazed me countless times on Time Team when you talked about your trenches to the point that I learn something new almost every time I re-watch. (I'm in my third go round.) I can't tell you how much I admire you, especially with this video. I confess that I've watched other videos about flint knapping, (I'm not a knapper but I'm curious), but none of them made knapping as clear as you have. I watched your hand axe come into being with the same amazement I experienced when I saw the different colours of earth in your trench and understood what they meant in an earlyish episode of Time Team. I agree with Mr. Ray Roberts, I'm sorry I can't hit the like button more than once. Thank you, Friend Phil, and I sincerely hope you make more videos. ;-)

Beautifully done! I got goosebumps at the end when Phil shows the flint opening up to reveal the completed hand axe. A perfect teaching tool for the legend of how the axe is already in the stone and the knapper is charged with the responsibility to release it! Thank you Phil and Wessex!!!!

Dear Phil, what can I say that the others haven't already. You have a great and fond view of the ancestors and their skills which you have helped carry through to the present, many many thx

Why was I so mesmerized by watching a man make a flint axe? :) Wonderful half an hour.

I have always enjoyed watching you on the Time Team digs. Your enthusiasm for archeology and flint knapping is contagious, and your skills in both are obviously top-notch. But when you showed the nodule reassembled with the hand axe inside, I literally got shivers up my spine... You are one amazing person, Dr. Phil Harding! Thank you for sharing your talents with us!

Just an armchair viewer. You may have lost me a few steps along the way but that is magic! Although when you had the rock puzzle and opened it to reveal the the hand axe, it was a joy to behold! Thank you for putting a smile on my face, again.

HAHAHA When phil shows it put back together i spit my beer out. THAT was impressive.

I think I could learn just about anything from Phil Harding. An effortlessly enthusiastic student and teacher.

What I find fascinating is the sound of airplanes in the background... I mean, the good man is making a palaeolithic hand-axe, while the sounds of a machine that is capable of breaking the sonic barrier echo in the background... Simply fascinating...

Phil, I'm a fan. Your INSANE intuition with every trench or test dig all during the 20 seasons of Time Team showed us you ALWAYS knew where to dig as if geophys is built into your brain or something!!! This flint knapping video is GREAT!!! And to show us at the end that the "axe is already in there" was so brilliant I will never ever forget it. Hope to meet you someday... the pints will be on ME to pay you back for all the amazing entertaining lessons I've learned from you over the years! KEEP DIGGIN!

Phil, you are a great teacher and an inspiration. Don’t ever lose your sense of humor or depth of inquiry.

If only you'd been standing behind my special education students when I taught them to flint knap. They really enjoyed learning and not a single cut finger. I've watched Time Team episodes time and again but just now found this channel. Thank you.

Reminds me when I spent a day with John Lord and Val his wife. He talked of releasing the axe from the stone too. I wore safety glasses, he didn't. Told me he knew when to blink. He also described knapping as a blood sport. He was right! We went over to Brandon where he helped me choose a lovely chunk of flint, which I still possess, but dont have the courage to knap it.

Absolutely magical to watch the process. Phil as a master artisan. The finale of all the bits together was brilliant.

One of the best 26 minutes I’ve ever spent. Thank you!

You can’t beat a bit of flint knapping.

Great video Phil 30min of mesmerising film. In these difficult times I hope you are doing ok Have a beer Cheers

Thank you Phil, it is always a pleasure to see and hear what you have going on each episode, no mater what. 30 minutes well spent!

One of the best videos I have seen and have never seen a flint put back together thanks

When I was a post-grad student in archaeology in Dallas, Texas, back in the 70s, my office mate went as part of a small group to continue an archaeological survey of the Negev desert in Israel. He later showed me photos he took of a site he’d come across, which had a large stone that one could sit on and at its base was a partially worked core, a hammerstone, and - arrayed in a fan shape in front of the stone - a series of unused blades, with debitage scattered around the site. Someone had been in the middle of flint knapping, must have seen something or been called away - and never came back. Based on the type of blades, the site where this guy had been working, never to return, was probably from about 20,000 - 25,000 years ago. Who knows, but the site must have been buried and then exposed again, not too long before my friend spotted the dark colored stone on which the knapper had been sitting, clearly visible above the beige desert floor (where did it come from?), because there was no evidence of blowing sand burnishing the artifacts. A site connecting us with a long ago snapshot in time.

I'm an old timer too. I got into knapping 2 years ago. Only wished I'd have started working rock years ago. I really does help watching your videos. I get frustrated occasionally, mostly from working inferior materials. I've since found a good supply of flint. It's the little differences in angle of strike and amount of force. That's what I see here. Thank You.

Fantastic to see Mr Harding is doing well and knapping away! Hope to see you on the new Time Team gathering! Stay well!

Sheer brilliance,Phil hatched a hand axe before our eyes. I hope all the shards of his knowledge are being collected in a blanket to amaze generations to come,and to spawn future Archaeologists.

Unbelievable skill level here and great teaching style! Dr. Phil Harding never disappoints. Thank you so much!

Great job Phil! Great instruction video resulting in a beautiful stone axe. What a pro!! 👍

fantistic video. The axe just sort of suddenly appears, even though he is working his way through it the whole time. What a great step back into history.

Now, that's entertainment! Phil just has a knack for explaining things.

What a beautiful hand axe!!

My son grew up watching Time Team. Every time Phil spoke, he shushed everyone. Glad to say he's a fine knapper, learning from John Lord, but he'd loved the chance to meet Phil. Here's hoping! Massive thanks for this fab video. It's made our week. It's all chert around us, but we'll be knapping it anyway.

Phil you are a snapping genius, I love this video and despite the warning I am off to try and make one myself!

Phil needs his own RU-vid channel! This is not a request but a demand!

While raking behind her home in Clarkston Michigan in the 1970's, my grandmother uncovered a deer sized atlatl Adena point. I have identified it as having come from the lower, smaller surface portion of the Onondaga formation, quite a distance by foot from her home, and positioned perfectly at a hunting ground "bottle neck". She recently passed, and it now belongs to me. They are known for their beautifully refined beaver tail shape.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Phil!!! Hope you're having a GREAT one!!!❤❤❤❤

Oh Great King Flint Knapper and Archaeologist, Live Forever.

You’re one of the most interesting men I’ve ever watched. Phil Harding the Rock Star! So happy you are still sharing what you know! Love USA fan

This is a true master, a depository of lost knowledge and wisdom. We need more like him.

Aw, thank you for this! I've seen Phil do a little knapping, but not a full axe start-to-finish, so this was fascinating. He's such a good teacher! And of *course* he kept the pieces to glue back together. 😂 It's honestly super-interesting to see exactly how it came apart, exactly where the fracture lines run. I agree that the piece is always hidden, just waiting for the artist to reveal it. And now he gets to reveal it over and over again! Thanks, Phil and Wessex Archaeology. I always love learning from you. 💗 (And my often-sullen, everything-is-boring teenager sat and watched this with me, unbidden, all the way through, so....well done you! Even kept a teen riveted. 😁)

Thank you so much for sharing this. I could watch Uncle Phil knapp all day long. Truely, thanks! Stay safe ya'll.

How about a video of using the scrap flint ...making scrapers, blades, arrow heads, knifes etc.

Thank you Phil...you are always welcome in my house...and I have never seen a piece of flint taken from first knock to the last before...then, suddenly...an axe!!...Amazing...love from Scotland.✨😁💞

This is absolutely fascinating. I’ve always wondered how flint tools were made.

Late to the game (as usual), but what really stood out for me are 1) how a "pro" makes it look easy, and 2) the incongruous noise of jets passing overhead while a human makes a stone-age tool :) Well done!

I was impressed when Phil actually made the hand axe, but when he put it all back together, then revealed the hand axe from the shards, it was amazing. What a brilliant field archaeologist and flint knapper he is.

Fantastic teaching....and watching Phil is an almost zen-like experience

Love u Phil, my Time Team hero for decades :-) x

I envy your access to high quality material Phil. I'm stuck with either buying and shipping raw material or driving hundreds of miles. New Orleans has no natural stones, not even river cobbles. And yes, I try this at home all the time. You've done such great work and brought the past to so many people. Thanks.

That was mesmerizing, Dr.! Greetings and admiration from Indiana, USA 👍

Phil, you are awesome. I've only began watching Time Team and different archaeological programs just recently. My being a pastor and raising kids never let me watch much TV. Thank you for your good heart and spirit and the most interesting things you discover and bring to light! God bless you my friend.

That whole reassembled axe would make such an amazing display piece along with that video, in a museum, or on a tour of museums and classrooms and the like.

Dr. Harding, Thank you so very much. I enjoyed this greatly. I wish I had been able to learn this art. Keep up the great work.

I’ve tried some knapping in the past and had a hard time with it, this video was really informative. The big plus was that it was taught by Phil. Cheers from Colorado USA

I was 12 when I first saw a sketch of a "Faustkeil" as it's called in German, in my history book. It kept me marvelling for a long time how it was made and how it was used. I'm 61 now and even though I have seen Phil Harding working with flint before, this is the first time I see it made from start to finish. Thank you so much, Phil for so many years finding out about skills and everyday life of long lost times. To me it's still as fascinating as it was for that wee girl living in a rural place in the alpine region of Bavaria. A region formed by the melting glaciers of the Ice Age. We are a "mottly crew" around here, a special cocktail of genes. We have remnants of Celtic settlements and the Roman Road passes right where I grew up. As a kid, I always wondered who lived here before them. Our history lessons gave a very general impression of that period (it was the time when we were still told Neanderthals and other humans of that period were dumb, primitive "one-dimensional" creatures). I'm very glad this has changed. It takes a lot of knowledge and skill to produce flint tools and everything else they needed to survive. It's for archeologists like Phil Harding we have a much better understanding of all this, now although there's way to go. So much more to learn.. Thank you so much, Phil. for the many years on Time Team and for all your great work beside and after the series. ❤Best wishes from the Bavarian mountains (to think the famous Amesbury Archer might very well have come from somewhere around here... 😀)

the concept of “releasing the ax from the stone”was similar to Michelangelo approach to all of his marvelous his sculptures. David, Moses and the Pieta… Brovo Phil!

Spectacular!!! I can never tire seeing Phil flint knapping along with his explanations. Thanks, Phil! Birthday coming up...did you ever consider being our age? I didn't. Mine is on the 6th,...and yours is on the 25th? However, you still look good! Archeology does that, right? LOL! Hoping for more videos!

Perfect Mother's Day morning - cup of coffee & Phil making an axe....marvellous ❤

Thank you, Phil! I'm really glad to see you on here and hope you're holding up well during the quarantine. I'm going a little nuts but it's a good time to improve my outdoor skills. I think my home state of Virginia is one place that doesn't have much knappable rock, though!

Doing something that requires such skill and intuition so humbly. Fantastic video and really gives you a glimpse back into history. You can imagine our ancestors doing exactly the same thing.

Fabulous video! Watched it multiple times already and learned so much. The master and his craft are absolutely evident here. Thank you Wessex for sharing this video with all of us and many thanks to Dr Harding for making both the video and the pre- and post-commentary.

thanks for that and for all your hard work Phil ...you will go down in history! ;)

Brilliant job Phil! 👍

I love Phil!!! I love his enthusiasm, his love for what he does and his sense of humor. OH and his smile and laughter.

Thank you Phil Harting, Ive always wondered how that was done. I tried it a couple of times with gravel as the result. I would have never gussed anyone could Could have napped out a flint ax in a 1/2 hour. AWSOME!

I lived near a reservation in New York state that had a flint outcropping. My late son and I enjoyed finding arrowheads, scrapers and knives, doing some flintknapping experiments. The natives were really a sophisticated society!

I absolutely love Phil Harding, favourite member of time team by a country mile. I can even hear him saying the phrase "by a country mile" as I type it 😂

This was absolutely breathtaking especially the end when the axe was enclosed inside the reconstructed flint. I wonder if they really thought that the axe was inside the stone. Food for thought. Brilliant.

Phil, you are a modern extension of our very skilled ancestors of old.. Many thanks and cheers ☆☆☆☆

Excellent Phil! The ax inside at the end was great. I'd be one hungry caveman. My fingers would all be missing or broken.

That was fascinatingly hypnotic. A subtle blend of psychology, and extreme violence. Well done! I don't know much about flint. Can I find it amongst big pebbles on the beach, and how would I recognise it, or is it a region specific commodity? I suppose I've got my homework cut out; any pointers would be appreciated.

Lovely to see you enjoying yourself with the flint Phil. It is so calming to watch you work. Wish we could get all the old Time Teamers together again. It was a brilliant show every time. Love and best wishes from an Aussie fan.

Phil Harding is the only man on this planet whom can make a simple stick and some stone truly fascinating to me. I love watching him work. His passion for this lost art is infectious.

I’ve just found this, my gosh this man’s a treasure, information, inspiration, enthusiasm, thank you Phil !

a ton of skill to do that Phil. I'd have lost 2 fingers and an eye and had a pile of shards in the end. Well done.

He made it look so easy! But that's what 40 or more years of experience can do. Thanks Phil, much admired and appreciated.

Phil, I watched every time team that was shown. When the series finished it was the saddest day. The loss of Mick Aston hurt. You have got to be the best Napper in the world? You know you might be the only one. Never too old .please make more programs . Phil Jones thanks.

That is amazing. I had no idea what I was going to see when I started the video. Thank you for sharing that! Can you imagine how good people got when they did that all day, every day for their 20 or 30 years on the earth.

So cool to watch this in real time and who knows, maybe it'll come in handy one day! Always loved watching Phil learn how to do new things on Time Team and admired how he dove in to give it a try. A true Renaissance Man!

That's brilliant. There's something very satisfying about that.

Brilliant! He's the David Attenborough of archaeology!

Phil you truly are a master craftsman! There isn’t a degree in this world that can make a person a natural craftsperson.. Having left school without a GCSE to my name, I use my hands to prove my skill and intelligence. Thanks for always being inspiring and true! 💪🙂

Absolutely fantastic!

Great demo. I loved the episode when T T was up at that medieval castle near Sunderland and one of the resident historians Robin Bush was explaining the background of the building, and Phil pipes up: "You go back to your books and we'll start diggin." Made my day with chuckles. It certainly showed a contrast in the characters on the show.

fantastic ... picking up a stone, seeing the possible blade inside, and just "freeing" it in ... 20 minutes.

Legend!

Love the personality. Everyone needs an Uncle Phil.

I feel like that's engineering of a sort. My mouth is open in awe as I watch.

What an explicitly professional Philip Harding was then, is now, and ever will be...! 'Crackin'...!

Phil ceremoniously placing his trademark hat on the shelf…❤️❤️❤️

Phil Harding, you are a man of culture.

Wow !. What a brilliant man . I could watch and listen to him all day

Simply amazing, the reveal at the end was something special :) Thank you! Much love to Time Team from the States ❤