Make A Basalt Axe Head - Flintknapping Nightmares  

Archeologists are going to discover your site 500 years from now and be confused. Hahaha. Keep up the great content, devil dog. I'm hooked

"Cheese grater of hate and discontent" is my new go-to phrase now. I love to imagine that we can see the thought process of an individual pecking idly at rocks 2-3 million years ago while his community derides him for screwing around when good bone and wood working time could be had. Thanks for this wonderful video!

Because of your content I am starting my journey with knapping. The primitive tools our ancestors used truly makes me realize how much we take for granted. I genuinely love your content and I hope you are doing well brother

Donny, you are the FKNG real deal man. Thank you for the videos. Me and my 10yo and 6yo watch all of your vids and absolutely love them! I feel like you are one of the most genuine Ppl on RU-vid. I’m gonna keep saying so you don’t forget, anytime you ever come to IL, bbq and brews are on me and mine. Thanks for the vid brother. Appreciate all you do! We’ve already pre ordered Wild Wisdom! Aug can’t come soon enough! Wife and I are telling all our family and friends about it too. Keep on keeping on!

"can you make a tool out of bad quality rock" "yeah"

Donny is one of the few youtubers who i actively wait for new videos from and watch them all the way through. Truly one of the best youtubers making this type of content. Keep up the amazing work dude, you're an inspiration to me. Hadn't even considered basalt usable for knapping.

You did all that, without needing a bandaid.😂😂😂🤙🏼

Love you videos. I wasn't having a great day at work. As soon as i saw the you posted a video i smiled and knew my day would get better.

The Orange Yellow Basalt is called Palaganite. This is basalt that has interacted with water when it was hot. It may become more dense asr the gases that create the vesicles in basalt are expelled. A denser form of basalt is ocean bottom basalt that gets subducted into the crust and upper mantle, compressed, remelted and then returned to the surface in violent uplift. This is Serpentinite and if from greater pressure and heating, Nephrite or sometimes mislabled jadeite. This last is very workable.

11:26 Never really thought about just how *strong* Donny has to be until I saw him casually holding that massive rock (that looks like it's got to be +10kg to me) up to the camera with one hand!

Am in Albuquerque new mexico. I enjoy your work

As usual, great video. It's a pleasure to see the master at work. 👍👍👍

Bassalt is also prevalent in the farthest north reaches , never really knapped, worked but not knapped. The artifacts i am aware of as you mentioned mostly large "axes" ( I think they are more like war clubs ) and sometimes anchor stones or net weights. Projectile tend to more often be Bone or even ivory.

"trying to carve out this peanut butter" 😂

I have been reading about Basalt knives and I have been wondering how to work it, Thank you Donny!!! always a pleasure to watch the master work!

Well sir I see that this stuff is very hard to work with but in a pinch it's workable thanks for sharing your knowledge it's much appreciated six stars brother

Many of those smaller flakes would make useable wood working tools, ie scrapers for tillering a bow stave or stripping bark for cordage etc .

Your awesome man! Appreciate your content and experience so much! Thanks for all the knowledge and demos you share, I absolutely love your channel!

Sir, you are proving that the " cave people " was not so primitive after all! Like with flint... a knife and fire starter all in one... thank you!

I think maybe you should make an Indian lance along with the rabbit stick

Thank you Donnie for exhibiting the difficulty working Basalt. Have you watched Coyote arrowheads channel in the Baja region? They find alot of Basalt artifacts and most are red in color indicating to me it was heat treated?

Finally lol Everything around my house is columnar basalt. Thanks Mt Rainier :) I've been hoping for something like this. Ok, note to self..Bigger rocks and break them at the river lol

Always have totally dug your channel!

Very inspiring. This weekend I will go search for some basalt stones and try this.

I have lots of it where I am. Not the best kind but I’ve seen points made from it. I use it for improvised hand axes and stuff. I prefer andesite for axes but I have made one celt from basalt and it worked pretty well.

"A cheese grater of hate and discontent" might be the best description I've ever heard.

O wow man thanks for this treat ❤

Your take on basalt is maybe a little biased. Basalts vary a lot in quality. In California, some archaeological cultures appear to have deliberately based their technology on basalt. Specifically, you want to look at the Martis, and also some of the Central Valley "Middle Horizon". The matrix in proper basalt is, in fact, glass. What makes it hard to work is the degree of phenocryst development. In the Sierra, north of Lake Tahoe several specific basalt flows were preferred sources for knappable stone. Of the stones used for chipped stone tools, the igneous/volcanic materials that are best, are all materials that cooled with abundant glass in the matrix. The top of the list are rhyolitic obsidians, which has the same chemistry as granite. Ignimbrites can also be used, though they are chancy. Welded tuffs, and hard rhyolites also can be good tool material, depending on purpose.

My Dad and I used to bow hunt the Sandia mountains from the early 70s to 90s .we covered top to bottom to the sun set canyon. Times of the past and memories. I Miss my Dad but everything he taught me about the woods and native American beliefs and all of it saved my life.I always find my way home to the memories around the fire.. I love you dad.. your spirit rides the crisp fall breeze and above the golden trees Aspen.. my dad Charlie pk

It’s so hard to get right just like quartzite, a phrase that I’ve heard when it comes to knapping basalt, quartzite or agates, is stop all your ahead hahaha. Great video definitely shows a different side of stone tools (functional doesn’t mean pretty)

awesome to see a video on basalt, there isn't much flint easily accessible near where I live in southern california and seeing the characteristics of these rocks in this video reminds me of my own struggles as I've learned about all of this. It's extremely insightful to see you work this stone. I like how your videos are often in environments similar to where I live, I find that makes them very applicable to me personally, great work man

Impressed in your lack of verbal frustration, especially as you did it to yourself

Great channel. 😊

Another stone thats not so good but works is granite. I've made some basic hand axes from it and its pretty good stuff. Sharp edge that lasts a while and when its done you just make another. Gonna try to make some arrowheads from it too. Basalt is crazy hard stuff I'm suprised that you could get it done. Much respect👍

Another great videos 😁

Gnarly - Great work bro

Thanks Donny, always a pleasure watching you work

Basalt. A flintknapper’s worst nightmare. And a axe maker’s dream that he/she forgot about when they woke up in the morning.

I'm recently new to following this channel and I really enjoy it love learning about ancient civilizations and weapons. So I have a question. You're stuck in the middle of Florida what are the first tools add weapons you will try to find/make no modern stuff you have to use the environment around you so I'm curious as to what you'll say seeing as I'm a Floridian I'd like to know.

Really amazing ❤️

I consider it priceless!

Super important to know!

Hello Mr Donny! Thank you for another entertaining & informative video! I love the challenge of trying new material & its very satisfying to get a usable tool from it!

Interesting, never knew that. Good video and educational.

get yourself some knife river flint.. best stuff iv ever worked. i love it. and i pay out the butt for for it too. great video brother

Thanks man, in my region we have a ton of basalt and silificade basalt

this vid was so cool, and the way ur able to work the stone tht fast even as gnarly as it was !!! also ur metate kinda looks like an asteroid chunk i thought tht was pretty cool

this makes me want to make giant stone weapons for fun > - < great video i love makin stuff!

Heyo brother it's not my first time napping with basalt and I found out the best napping quality can best be described as salt butter think like black butter dacite either way I wish you the best luck

Thank you, Donny, I have lots of artifacts of rhyolites the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks ( east) . Great Video

안녕하세요 😮🤙🤙👍

I didn’t know that I’ve been knapping a lot of basalt this whole time. I did most of my initial experimentation knapping with it because I didn’t care that I just made gravel out of it. I was pretty shocked how much easier normal material was.

In my area we have a type of sandstone that can't be knapped but is ideal for peck/grind working, when you break it it has an almost gem like look and it's extremely hard but it doesn't flake, it kind of crumbles so you more or less have to work it like basalt.

“a cheese grater of hate and discontent”- basalt

From my own experience I really don't find basalt as good knapping stone but like you said if it's your only option, work with it it'll get the job done. Me personally I live in area where there are no good knapping stones so I work with bones, grinding them down and working them till they're good enough to throw on atlal or arrow shaft, great video, All the best

Hey, that’s my stomping grounds! Except I’m in a wheelchair so not stomping much anymore. I’ve found fair basalt over by Los Lunas Hill.

Brother you good with all the weather we are getting

Love your hability as usual Donny, you worked that basalt like it was flint or obsidian, amazing 🤩 My question is: you are very precise when you hit those rocks with a huge power... so, have you ever hit your hand instead of rocks? It must be very painful my friend..

I have ground a nice hand ax out of basalt. Lots of work, but it works.

Would love to see more desperate primitive tools like limestone, slate ect. Looking at indigenous Alaskan and Northern Canadian first people shows some interesting examples Would also show people that tools are everywhere and knowledge is power

I'm almost like working with a piece of wood with tons of knots in it

Well now we need a video of how to polish a turd. Reminder of why stuff like steel kinves and hatchet's where such effective and highly regarded trade items.

We have some fine grained basalt here in Arizona that's fairly decent to work, at least by basalt standards😂

There is one question that has plauged me off and on. People that knap alot and slab in the wild....is there any thought given to "poluting the record?" So to speak. Creating debris fields that are anachronistic and could possibly confuse future artifact sites ?

ooh where did you film this? It looks like Central Oregon where I grew up!

it would possibly be better with wooden tools. looks like quartzite which over here in virginia is really common.

Love your videos! Ps, love your sweater? Where’s it from??

I much prefer it sped up as opposed to the cuts.

Awesome video! Also just curious what are the pants you are wearing while you are sitting outside, they look very comfortable and I wanted to look them up.

Cool, I did not know basalt was nappable at all.

Haven't knapped in a few months, starting to get the itch, thanks man

Have you tried knapping quartzite? I know that its a popular hammerstone material but Ive heard that it can be knapped.

I found a1000yearold basalt tool outside of pugitSound outside of Seattle it 14years of beach combing to find it!

So far what i found that was waxy glassy smooth wasnt featureless it was freeze cracked almost every few mm in 3 dimensions.

Day 2 asking Donny to make a star shaped mace

Hey Donny Dust I Have A Question About Your New Book That Will Release On August 6 So Does It Teach What To Eat When You Get Lost In The Wild Like Eat Wild Plants Or Animals I Am Very Interested In Your Book And I Would Like To Know. I Hope You See This Comment Donny Dust Have A Good Day!

Silly question: Are crystals knappable? If there was a singular crystal (let's say, a crystal of salt or quartz) big enough, would it knap like obsidian or would it be a total rubbish? 🤙

👍

Thought that was an ancient ratchet for a second

Now can you take a iffy stone and keep it in a fire pit for days or weeks and improve it's knapping quality

Is it magnetic?

What kinds of stone cannot be worked at all in a sensible way ?

what rocks are good for “Celt” (Celt as in pronounced selt) style peck and grind axe heads

Thanks so much for sharing your process working with less desirable materials. Kinda funny to hear your consistent tone of disappointment 😂😂😂 while seeking out the good material hidden deep in the rock

I have a question for you. I live in the northeast, specifically rhode island. I learned that the indigenous peoples in my area used quartz for making arrowheads. Is this possible today or is the skill necessary to make them lost to history? Thank you for taking time to read this and have a great day!

Wonder if I can do something with dolamite

how long have u been doing this?alltogetger

video testing weapons?please

Ça ressemble vraiment a un cauchemar ! Est tu masochiste ? 😂

Ok, so if knapping basalt is crap, why do it? Wouldn't it be more useful and interesting to show how to craft historical basalt objects in a reasonable, efficient way?

See Men in Women

Many of those smaller flakes would make useable wood working tools, ie scrapers for tillering a bow stave or stripping bark for cordage etc .