Making A Stone Knife From Start To Finish 

I would like to take a moment to say thank you to all of you that have watched, liked and taken the time to comment and show me your appreciation for this video, it’s been an education to me in the type of content you enjoy watching which in turn gives me guidance for future videos that I can and plan to produce. Thanks guys

It’s always satisfying to watch a true craftsman work his craft.

I am showing this to my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class. We are studying neolithic, mesolithic and paleolithic tools and how they evolved from 1 era to the next. So a huge Thank You, from Holy Trinity Academy

I thought I'd have 5 mins of watching flint napping, and then stopped for the whole video. This was fascinating. Thank you.

I'd rather spend an hour watching you, than 5 minutes. Turned out really nice Will. Cheers from Australia

I live near Flint Ridge in Ohio, USA. It is one of the world's largest outcrops of flint. I watched many people work the flint into arrow heads, or spear points, but your method looks very intricate and well performed. Very cool dagger you made. I watched the entire video, it was relaxing to see a master of the craft.

Now THIS is a TRUE SURVIVAL skill….No leatherman, no paracord, no manmade tools of any kind. Total respect sir!

It feels like I’m witnessing some ancient man who was sent to the future and adapted to tech but is living by and showing off the methods of his time

Best spent 50 minutes of my life ever on an electronic device. Presenting subject matter like this to the world was the original intent of the internet and glad to see so many others like yourself using the technology of today to show the technology of the past and how we have evolved from that to the push button world of today,where instinct,adversity,necessity,ingenuity and our ability to innovate,invent,and improve our lives comes full circle

I am fortunate to have the time to experience this entire journey with you. Well done. Your skill and knowledge in this is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

I can't add much to what's been said already except your dedication to keeping a stone age art alive is commendable.

I have severe adhd and struggle with the high sensory overload type of videos, sitting and knocking out a dagger was so awesome to watch and learn about the things you were talking about. Thank you so much for getting me out for an hour. I bet you would be cool to hang with. Cheers from Canada

Astonishing! Not just the fact that you’re a master of your craft: I kept watching and watching and at some point I found myself completely captivated by the tension that built up during the process of creating the dagger - and at same time - relaxing whilst watching you knapping your way through the flint. What an exceptional combination of feelings cast by this video!

This is one of the coolest videos I have watched in a long time. Your passion for the craft and the people that perfected it before you is obvious and contagious.

Absolutely fascinating. You could go back 10000 years and still be a valuable member of the community.

Hi Will. As a Time Team fan, Phil Harding was the first and only person I had seen working with Flint. I did try it myself 50 odd years ago when I was at school, but I never had the nack for it. My woodwork and practical technologies teacher got so frustrated with me that he told me to look for something else to do. So, I chose metal work. I left school with the right exams under my belt to start an apprenticeship at MSE, which was an engineering firm in West Sussex making airplane parts. Within 11 years, i had successfully completed three apprenticeships. I was now a qualified metal fabricator, welder in all types of welding apparatuses and techniques, and all-around workshop machinest. Now, I own three workshops. Two in the vehicle bodywork and chassis industry and the other, my first workshop which is now a factory, machining parts for the MOD building tanks and and similar vehicles. I also have a contract making parts for missiles, but I can't go into that. Then, at lunchtime today, my mate, who subscribes to your channel, suggested that as im so interested in ancient trades and techniques that i should watch your channel. So, here i am just having watched you make a dagger from start to finish in 50 minutes. I have to be honest with you. After watching Phil make arrow heads, axes, and scrapers, I thought he was the bees knees but he has nothing on your skill. I appreciate Phil Harding being an archaeologist who has only experimented with Flint napping, making nick nacks for TV, but with lots of practice and dedication comes experience. Watching you chip away at a massive piece of flint the size of a giant hornets nest to finally end up with a beautiful practical tool made from 95 million year old compressed coral from the cretaceous period is utterly brilliant. And breath... I'm not one for leaving comments, but I will subscribe to your channel and watch every video you have. I may not leave comments, so just warning you, but if I feel I can contribute in any way, doubtful, 😂 or have a question, then I'll leave you a comment. I'm not one for social media. I don't use Twitter or Facebook. I just watch RU-vid for entertainment purposes as I'm not that interested with what's on TV these days, other than the news and even then, its not that great either. Great job Will, great job.⚒️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Don't know how many times i've watched this, but i'm not traumatized, i'm in awe over the pure craftmanship and skill shown here.

I have also noticed the same that the Pheasants respond when I knapp here in Sweden. Seems like a universal trait 🤣

I'm 70 years young and always wanted to know exactly how this was done. I'm very hard to impress. I'm very impressed. Thank you.

It's kind of ironic, making a stone dagger as a jet aircraft flies overhead. Enjoying the presentation so far as the halfway mark.

I loved travelling this journey with you. For me, at least, your discussion as to why you were doing the moves you were about to undertake - the reasons and hopes associated - were the best part. You gave a 0ne-on-one tutorial, making it feel as though were sitting in the hovel with you. Many, many thanks. You're a, excellent teacher, and quite personable to sit with as well.

Yrs of practice and dedication to a skill that was used thousands of years ago by hunters and people for survival. Amazing and truly remarkable. 👍

Mr Lord, this is so flippin' theraputic, it's almost hypnotic, and to see such love, care, skill, and technical feeling between the knapper, the stone, and the tools used. Incredible...!

As a tradesman, I definitely watch the whole video. I found it totally fascinating to watch an ancient craft being demonstrated, resulting in an amazing looking knife and sheath. Great job 🙂

Just found your channel. My wife is an archaeologist here in Australia and sees a lot of Indigenous stone middens. She's going to loose her mind watching this. Awesome stuff Will. Kudos to you!

This guy is clearly wearing the skins of his vanquished enemies .

I love to imagine people getting really really good at this thousands of years ago. How valuable they were in their community and how they must have been supported so they could spend their time doing this.

Watching how early humans went from tool using to tool making is fascinating. IMHO the transition from using tools like clubs to kill something to using clubs to make other tools like a knife blade for skinning and a dagger from one piece of stone is what really separates home sapiens from other mammals. As I said, fascinating to watch the skill set involved in the entire process. Thanks for the time it took to make the video.

I just wanted to say how much I love your content. It's very educational and the way you present the knowledge. It's almost as if the person is sitting right next to you while you're doing it. Just talking and showing little bricks and I just wanted to say. How much I appreciate teachers and mentors like you. It takes me back when I was an apprentice. And being mentored by a gentleman by the name of Gunther Kirk's and he was originally from Norway. And he came to the US and taught me his trade And helped me become a blacksmith ..❤.. However I'm also partially Native American. The northern area of New York as well as up into Canada. My ancestors are Mohawk And they used a lot of stone and antler style bulls as well as Flint and other things And watching your Content here on RU-vid really takes me back and allows me to be able to walk a mile in my ancestor's shoes and understand more about how their way. Of living truly was so for that I wanted to say. Thank you very much for your teachings and I also apologize for a lot of the misspelling and typos. Idea with a dyslexia so I just talk all of my messages directly to my phone. And since it's an android sadly and it doesn't have voice recognition and well. It's to say this phone's kind of finicky so it likes to either misspel things or add unnecessary sentences where it shouldn't belong. But anyways. I hope you have a beautiful day.❤

The video was long but we need to be reminded of the true time it takes to create with stone rather than a short video that leaves a lot out in the name of time. It's a shame that peoples attention spam has shortened over time.

A a mechanical engineer I see this as one of those crafts that would take half a lifetime to get to your quality of workmanship. You have to conatantly adjust your approach and know when and where to do so. A true art!

Gave us quite an insight to the labor and highly skilled talent of our human ancestors thousands of years ago. Imagine how many failures were needed to finally succeed. Amazing!

This is my first video. I must say- you are a pleasure to watch. I found this to be very educational as well as inspiring. Thank you!

Today, the algorithm offered a worthy video. Being a fan of the work of Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont, this is like watching a flesh and blood Imass at work 🤩

I was not traumatised watching you my friend I was transfixed with every slither that fell away from that dagger watching from start to finish was truly amazing. Watching 👀 it taking shape from a humble piece of flint. Keep up the good work that's one hell of a talent you have. 👏

Very nice job, Will! Your ancestors are very proud, I'm sure!

It’s easy to imagine when you talk about the smaller flakes being more practical as a knife that a Stone Age person would have a larger lump by their front door and in the same way we sharpen a kitchen knife they would go knock a nice new flake off

I enjoyed watching this. I’ve never knapped flint but I’ve broken and shaped a lot of rocks because I’m a geologist so a lot of what you were doing made sense to me.

Demonstrating an art that can only be handed down by experience. Beautiful!!

I watched the whole thing and would've liked to see more, especially how you made the handle. I live in California and we have a lot of obsidian up here in the north. When I was younger I learned how to knap, so I know how difficult it can be to get a finished blade of the size you made here. It's all too easy to end up with a far smaller point than you had wanted in the beginning. Great work man.

Tried this once at university years ago and slammed the hammerstone down onto my thumb. Have several flakes in a box to show children. I was studying stone tools at the time and this was a practical session in a sand pit.

Watching this made me finally relax from a long day playing the plastic piano, staring into artificial light. Your craft is beautiful. And so is the wisdom that is transported.

It's remarkable how skillful you are. It's fun to watch you create something worthwhile.

Mate this is fantastic, the dressing of the platforms and the level of patience abraiding really paid off. Good work mate 👍🏼

The casual ability to "read" and anticipate what the stone will do is much appreciated by me with my own limited abilities at craft If anyone could gift me the priceless ability to know when and where to stop it would save me a lot of heartache

You are very informative. My 6yo son wants to see blade making because of you. We're going to Texas to visit family and he's most looking forward to finding points and nodules to practice on. We envy your huge nodules of flint Mr. Lord.

The first I’ve ever seen of flint knapping, outside of finished museum pieces. You’re right, it really is a very cool sort of window to the past. Fantastic work, sir.

I can watch for houts...simply mesmerizing. Thank God there are people like you who help humanity hold on to its vital past. Humanity owes it to our ancestors to respect and preserve these skills. Without them we would likely not be here today. We never know when they may be needed again. The sheath, by the way, is itself an awesome work of art. Much respect. I subscribed.

This was my first time seeing how this is done. I like stone age history. I imagined I was watching someone from the past.

I find it ironic and poetic that (I don’t know how often) the blade you craft for yourself to cut meat and flesh cuts you first, gives the flint kind of a sentience and personality in a sense. That was a really pleasant watch btw, I’m really happy it was unedited and I could witness the whole process. I’m a big fan.

Will lord dang thats what you call a big lump of flint exellent job your a wizard of flint working your magic in it but has you ever cut yourself working it hope you keep first aid handy im always knicking myself flicking flint flake off leg i now use a old paint brush 👍🇬🇧🐾🦊

amazing video, i really missed these long edits of the entire process also thanks for getting me into flint knapping years ago, i still can't manage anything other than arrowheads with very makeshift tools but it's a great activity to meditate and connect to our past

Just started napping a vew weeks ago. Cut my finger horribly jesterday... tought about quitting the hobby all together, but seeing you working made me think again. I think i will be starting again as soon as my finger is totally healed (maybe with gloves for the beginning 😅).

2000 year old skills are more important than coding in my opinion. Very awesome brother, very awesome.

Bro, I am only five mins into the video, and I am subscribed. Excellent work brother. Keep this going man. Coolest video RU-vid has suggested for me in forever.

Obsidian is also very good for small blades since it is incredibly sharp, sharper than steel which is why a lot of surgeons use it for scalpels, unfortunately it is far more brittle than steel since it is a type of glass so the length of the blade is limited, flint is not nearly as sharp but it is stronger so it will hold an edge longer and you can have a longer blade length.

I was with you all the way through and really connected when you got the little bleed. I was a full time spoon carver for 25 years and did many demonstrations at craft shows. More than once there was blood on a piece at the end but it never stopped me and seemed to make the journey from a split block of wood to a carved spoon more real to those watching. The videos I look for now are those with almost no edits - much more authentic and makes me trust the person so much more. Thank you for this.

First vid I've seen from you, and I have never felt so soothed watching someone handle potentially dangerous tools

You are amazing to watch and listen to. I hope you change your mind about doing longer video's. I think they are fantastic! I've been going back in time watching your videos and they are absolutely fantastic! The ones with the stories are just awesome. You're very talented and it shows in your work. Have a blessed day. 😊

It's always a pleasure to watch someone displaying his master experience through any craft. Spent 50 minutes watching this video, but felt like 5. The sound of stone flaking contrasting with jets flying in the background only highlight the real and pure love for the craft.

I watched mountain men Tom fashioned a flint rock to a skinning knife and he said that it was better than steel in that respect. He said that it would not cut the meat but would skin better than steel!

Amazing. It’s important to see our history as mankind. Sheath is beautiful as well.

A WHOLE HOUR I SAT AND COULD NOT TEAR off MY ayes from your work. Thank you.

Its the long format that really makes these work, Will. I hope you do more!

I am a woodworker who absolutely loves the tactile contact with wood. Your videos give me a taste of what the same vibe would be regarding stone. Knapping is such a beautiful craft. Cheers, friend.

I homeschooled myself and he absolutely loved your video. Thank you so much.

Time is indeed precious, but I considered every minute of this journey very pleasant. I could feel with you the anxiety before every strike, and the relief when the pieces flaked off. Concentration and dedication so intense that you didn't mind cutting yourself, you just kept going. It is amazing how someone can master this craft like you do, and still feel nervous when doing it, almost like there is no ceiling to this skill. Thank you for this experience.

Wanted to say thanks for doing what you do. After watching just a few of your videos and following your tips specifically, my knapping has advanced from relying solely on pressure flaking already thin flakes, to being able to thin a piece into great preforms with just hard and soft hammer techniques.

I tried to learn the skill of snapping back in my jr. high to high school days, as a scout and Order of the Arrow member. That was about sixty years ago. I never could master it, and my lack of success certainly has nagged at me.. As I watch you demonstrate the craft, I can see that the biggest problem that I had was in the proper selection of stone! Thank you!

I like watching you do all this flint napping. Teaching us out here how it's done. You should also tell more stories, most are interesting. Thank you keep filming.

Your control over the flint just blows me away. I've never actually seen the entire process until now. I gotta get myself a huge slab and give it a try.

That was amazing, Will. I see how easily one wrong blow could spell disaster. What a great and unique skill you have, connecting with our ancient ancestors. I like that you hear the pheasants calling in alarm in the woods. Were there pheasants in Britain 10,000 years ago? I guess not, and the sound of your knapping is new to their ears! Thanks, and I look forward to watching more of your RU-vid posts. Nick.

Simply amazing, a true lost art in out supposed “high tech” age. I am glad I found your channel.

Honestly I'm a bit sad the video is over.. I am new to this art and new to your channel and by far the best I've seen. Much respect sir.

Mr. Lord, just as you said that you had recently gotten a lot of new followers I was clicking the subscribe button. Thanks for your work. Can't wait to watch more of your content.

I watched the whole video from start to finish. I'm totally impressed with your talent. Thanks for all your work. I'm originally from Lichfield Staffs but currently live in Salem Oregon.

I must say I really enjoyed watching you deal with a somewhat troublesome peace of stone. Beautiful work, a Chief would be proud to have it. Thank you for sharing your journey. PS the more I watch I'm beginning to anticipate your next move.

I started working on teaching myself knapping in highschool. After a few significant cuts I decided to take a break from it, and only just recently decided to start again.

It’s a testament to your talent, patience, and dedication. A proverbial tip of the hat to you sir, bloody brilliant.

Toda una vida practicando, para hacer arte, felicidades por su esfuerzo y perfección.

From the start this went so well and came out so beautiful. I realize that you make it look easy, and it's so enjoyable watching you work a stone this size!

These tutorials are truly precious. Cementing an almost lost technology and skill that was so instrumental in our success as a species. Thank you mate

Beautiful work. The ancients are coming through your hands my friend.

You clearly know what you’re doing, and I can learn a lot just by watching the angle and type of strike (though I can’t tell how much power you put into it. It’s important to document this kind of thing for future generations. When I was a kid all we had were books on the subject and I never found enough flint to get any good at it. Now with stuff like this anyone could try.

First time watching and it was time well spent. Watching a craftsman always amazed me, someone who is able to looking at a raw material, stone, wood, or something else, and hone out a piece of art. Thank you for your videos, Fabian.

I personally love unedited videos like this I like to see the good bad and ugly so keep up the good work and thank you for taking your time to share this with us 🎉🎉

I can't belive how absolutely captivating this video was. Well done!

I really enjoyed this, and meeting you in person at the Bushcraft Show a few weeks back, Will. A beautiful craft, and you make it look so easy. Good vibes brother.

This was super relaxing to watch :)) Normally my attention span is so short that I mostly watch YT Shorts but I watched the whole video. I loved how you turned my attention to the fact that the rock was increasing in pitch as you went on, and that the risk of breaking was greater as you went on. You really took me on the ride with you. The finished piece looks beautiful. I also love your personality. Thank you!

As you say time is precious, but watching you work the materials is a good use of time Will. Not a waste of time.

watched entire video. i'm in my 60's. remember hunting for arrowheads on Grandpa's farm after plowing. i was about 8yrs old. remarkable painstaking job!

Definitely a lost art. Thank you for such a phenomenal job and your videos

Watched the whole video, Will. Not boring at all. Loved it. As usual, brilliant work. Cheers!

you're a remarkable individual Mr Lord, i saw you a while ago with Ed Stafford in a survival and bushcraft showcase and was inspired. would be great to see you collaborate on e.g. the BBC with archaeologists like Alice Roberts et al. the combined knowledge and skill would unearth (no pun!) really perceptive details on our ancestors.

Finally. *Finally* . I cannot thank you enough for giving me a channel to binge watch since ancient technology got hundreds of millions of views then stopped doing videos for years lol. Yours is the first I’ve actually been able to sit and enjoy thoroughly. Thank you

Such an amazing process from an amazing craftsman 👏 Personally I loved that you didn't cut the process down and showed us the whole thing. Great work mate!

A very enjoyable video Will and certainly not to long. It was as it needed to be. If anything you could have made it longer for me by giving more in-depth explanation to what and why you are undertaking actions. I am 61 now and from the age of about 10 I have wanted to give "proper knapping" a go. However I have always been limited by access to good flint. Keep up the good work and pass your heritage and history on to the generation to follow. Nobody else will ever get the chance to run wild at Grimes Graves again. All the best John Stott

I made bronze swords with this guy! Absolute legend.

Thanks for not editing the video, it's good to watch something that isn't overstimulating!

This is the first video of yours I've seen. Wow! I knew flintknapping required a lot of skill but hearing your thought process and watching your approach is amazing. I might try some of my own this summer.