How To Thin A Stone | Hammerstones  

It won’t be too long before we all learn more from this man than you would learn in the Boy Scouts.

Range of hammerstones is extreme, was a dominant tool in tech from 2my ago to the end of the Stone Age. Exploring those ranges beyond what soft hammers normally take over for modern knapping is a keystone to most replication. Thanks for bringing attention to this wonderful tool

Great video! You passed on a lot of knowledge. I'm glad you mentioned the use of flat and round percussion stones that's something I kinda learned on my own. I never did enough percussion when I began knapping but as my old hands began bothering me I found myself doing more and improved my abilities with the hammer stone. Y'all go hit some rocks!

Thank you for the simple direct commentary! So many folks I've been watching skip over some of these details causing a lack of clarity. Thank you again!

I'm laying in my bed, stoned like a rock, watching some guy knapping stones. Life is good 🌴🧐 Hope ya'll have a wonderul evening ❤

Sir this was a very informative and awesome video outstanding content I learn from you constantly thank you for sharing this six stars brother

Wonderful video! Awesome job working around that pesky crystal.

I'm in the process of moving from copper to abo. You covered lot of details with good camera angles and clear explanations of the entire process. Great work!

Hey beat video every. You are my favorite RU-vidr keep up the good works

Much appreciated this helps a lot thank you 👍

Very informative! Your ability to simplify the steps and procedures is very helpful.thanks!

I'm really liking your videos more and more lately this one has a lot of good information keep up the great content

Beautifuly done mate 🤙🏽💜

Thank you Mr.Donny! 😮

the final image with the napped stone on the mother stone= epic. great video thank you!

Ok, now you're just showing off.🤣🤣🤣 JK, awesome video!🤙

If a real good hammerstone gets too pitted I slightly grind it & rub the work areas into sand dust. Some basalt ones have lasted & worked for 30 years. They make me feel a sacred connection to the Earth. Thank you for a great informative video, and all the knowledge you share thru your research.

Hi Donnie, you have great timing ! I’ve been trying to Knapp more now that the snow is gone. That’s the problem I’ve been dealing with, I don’t know when to switch stones, or techniques, Thanks Donnie !

Really like your video 👍👍👍

Great commentary. Hammerstone is all I had early on. Not to mention junk stone. Yes hammerstone alone would get most of the reduction to a piece that can work. Maybe not pretty. But functional none the less. Oh my the lousy rock I have smashed and managed a point or two I could shoot. All hammerstone. I use a very dense pointed rock to get tiny flakes. It works on a lot of junk rock that is half rust at times

Nice hammerstone work & explanation. Very cool how you use the flat stone to strike & drag it transferring energy to remove such thin flakes. Well done! 👍

Thank you again for such an in depth video filled with information communicated effectively

Hey Donny! That green cowboy hat that you always wear, who makes it?! Thanks for the incredible videos, full of fantastic teachings my friend!

Another great one Donny. I really like the fact that you explain why/when you transition from one type of hammerstone to another, strike vs slap through and then possible transition to pressure flaking. Also enjoy the bits of history that you throw in, very interesting. After watching some of your videos I have been playing w/ different sizes and shapes of hammerstones (best part is they're free!) and do feel like I am learning more about knapping than just jumping to copper. Abo style just seems to add more meaning to the point for me.

Excellent advice! Thanks! I even have a couple marble size "hammerstones" that I prefer to use sometimes over antler.

That's a beautiful arrowhead you made, I have a bunch of arrowheads that I found in my garden, I find 3 to 8 every year after tilling the garden.

This video has helped me immensely!!!! Thanks!

Definitely need to go poach some stones when I next pass a decent river. Guess it's a bit like using your axe more when carving rather than switching to the knife early. It's nice to watch people make things while you make things, whittling yet another catapult.

Professional asf. I was confused on how you were targeting specific parts of the rock but then you demonstrated how you strike through it and basically slap it off. Loving your videos right now. I want to make an axe to avenge my father with.

This was exactly the video I needed to see right now. Thanks.

Outstanding video!

I'm really enjoying you sharing more about the process ...the different methods & tools, etc.😊 ...& of course I enjoy your short videos & seeing you go from idea💥 to AWESOME & FUNCTIONAL end result⚡ in a FLASH, too!👍 Hmmm🤔...guess I went the LONG way around 👀😄 to get to this- *THANK YOU* for sharing!🤗💖

Your skill level is at Legendary, always a good learning opportunity for me. Thanks for your hard work, and I look forward to the next video.

Perfect time to get off of work to see your video, so excited! Your content is awesome and you radiate such positive energy through the screen. Keep doing you Donny!

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this video is amazing. i use copper or whatever really. However i really do prefer thinning with a hammerstone. larger flakes, feel like more control. Please make more knapping videos!

Great vid. Please explain why you abraid before striking with a hammer stone. ? ? ? Thanks.

Great job . I'm a beginner. Watching you I am learning so much . I'm in novaculite country . Everone says I have to heat treat my rock . I'm not sure the difference between chert and novaculite. Some clain there is chert here to . Eastern Ouachitas . There are ancient rock mines here , national park land so getting those rocks are forbidden. But possible down stream , I can find some . I watched a vidio on your knife . You said you did not heat treat , that it weakens the rock . Makes scence . So I will start cold knapping . Then see for myself . But I do appreciate your wisdom and love learning ✨

Man I learned more from your video then I have in the 7 years I've been learning this skill, thank you. Are you in the midwest? I'd like to learn more from you if you do knapp ins. Anyhow I subscribed so I'll be watching for more from you. All the best, Kenny

Could you do a video on the various antler tools and their uses?

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Hello -your videos - I am following -i don't have english- I am Turkish-Turkish-subtitle-Thank you

so much skill it just looks like a magic trick :)

Do you know what I just realized? I possibly have a grinding stone. It's an obviously rounded, flatish, oval with some wear on 3 edges, just right for fitting 2 hands. Some look like striking marks of a hammer stone on the 2 short ends, but that might have been from smashing bones or other material, it has to be too big for a hammer stone and it's not hammer stone material. But as I looked at it, one long edge is absolutely ground down, the other side not at all, zero wear. I was trying to remember if it's from the beach or the farm stone pile and after looking at it, it has soil stains, so definitely from the farm stone pile and I don't take pieces that large from the beach. I'm amazed lol. I never paid attention before. It's very comfortable fitting in my hands, and I held it like you would for grinding something and wow, it's form fitting and it works when I simulated grinding. Now I want to go back to the farm pile and really take a good look with an eye towards hammer stones and grinding stones and workable stone. The edges are obviously worn around the stone, except the "back" side of it. Id say it looks workable bc of the material, it fits the criteria. No flakes out of it. I was going to use it for my hardscape in my fishtank, lol. I had these stones from the farm to laser etch on the machine, mostly to make memorial stones and there's only certain types of stone that take the laser really well. So, amazingly it fits both ancient and modern criteria as a useable stone. Sorry this ismso long, but I have a bucket list of finding points, or even just flakes of Native ancient peoples. This stone was so obviously used. Holy Moly. I found something.

Establish a foundation of understanding hammerstone technique, and you will graduate to billets. My knapping teacher made it an emphasis for me to know the ins and outs of hammer-stones because it is the most widely available tool. If you have ever tried to make a billet without a hack saw and file it’s not easy at all. 😢

Hello great videos 👍🏼😁 i want to start with knapping can you recomend some stones to look for and which ones are good as hammer stones?

Donny, at what age (in the eras) did they start using antler along with hammer stones? That seems like a big step forward in stone working technology.

🙂🙂🙂🙃🙃

Was just out practicing watching this. I ended up with pebbles😅 got some weird shaped rocks. Cant wait to get better. Gunna give it 30 min a day

Bro great voice and looks

Where do you get your stone from.

I seen a short of yours the other day of you barefoot in all of the flit knap scraps how do your feet not get cut up???

I’ve been trying to do flintknaping and I was wondering how you make your pine pich glue

First I guess

I have nothing but copper billets and a steel spalling hammer. How can I thin a stone with those?

Can you Knap quartz?

I am having such a hard time getting my flakes to travel far enough to thin it and not have it stay thick in the middle.

Can you do that with any stone

:)

Requires more skill or more luck

🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🤝🤝🤝👍👍👍🥃

Can I guess your age?… 46?

Wow

Thanks.

I don't know a lot about flintknapping, but when do you use an antler?

Bro great voice and looks