Something about the intensity of that process, totally wrapped for half an hour, I was actually leaning in! what was lovely was I felt like I was literally sitting at your feet learning from the master, and hanging out with me old mate. Bloody miss you fella. All the best.
Absolutely loved it , with the bird song , your chatting and flaking the obsidion it's almost hypnotic... I've only one question ..why Copper .. is it because it is a soft metal
Thank you for this video, Will. Ten years ago, I bought a bag of obsidian preforms and tried to make arrowheads from them. I could never get rid of all the ground portions in the center of the point. After watching your video, I saw what I did wrong, so I pulled out one of the old preforms and managed to knap a beautiful point, doing what you showed us to do. Great! I just started knapping again a year ago after retiring, and am having a lot of fun working with flint, chert and obsidian. I prefer working obsidian since I am now 73 and not as strong as you are, ha ha. Love your videos and am going to make a few arrows with my points.
I like to watch others work this stone. The bad part is people who work obsidian tend to bleed and disposal of the every flake needs to be done. Never knap this crap indoors!
Holy smokes your narration of this made so many things make sense to me what a good teacher thank you I've been having the worst trouble with hinges and when you said a flake has nothing to run into that made so much sense thank you sir
Absolutely fascinating. The amount of skill you have is mind boggling. I love how you talk about going on a journey with the materials and flakes "swimming" across the surface it really breaths life into the objects. 🤘
"Making sure each flake has a smooth journey across the stone." It seems my flakes never have a smooth journey. lol More like a stiff spring lorry on a washboard road. 😄
Really grateful to you Will for taking the trouble of making this wonderful video. I'm a few weeks into learning this wonderful craft and I have picked up some awesome new techniques to go away and work on. Thanks so much for sharing your skills, and for the beautiful sound of Blackbird calls that took me home to southern Australia for a moment. 💞 From your student Down Under. Cheers mate!
I think that each piece of stone you work on is a masterpiece after its finished. Your work is absolutely amazing and I really enjoyed watching you work on this one. Thanks again for another great video my friend.
I know this video is two years old, but I stated leaning to knap about a year ago, so I'm still learning. When you shot that flake all the way across, instead of re-doing both whole edges, why not just redo the base, to bring it closer to that flaw, then use the flaw as the place to put the notches? Is there a reason that wouldn't work, or wouldn't be suggested? Cosmetically, the notches would hide the flaw, but I'm wondering if it creates a weak point or something, or if the point style being made has to be a certain length. I'm making mine for hunting, so historic accuracy isn't as important to me as function, so this is kinda important for me to figure out.
Been binge watching to learn this skill and this is the best video I've come across. I tried following your video guide on a slab of obsidian and failed a tad but now I think I have a new strategy and will give it another go! I'll also do similar camera angles as I need to be able to use a similar grip and position to you. It's too tough to do it on a table out in front of your body.
I just spent all of my spare money for the month on an assortment of American flints. Five to ten pounds each, of ten common flints from Texas, the Midwest, and East Coast, flints, hornstones and cherts. Enough to last me for years. Someday, I hope to get some nice English flint, but nobody sells it here in the US. Too bad, but probably because of shipping costs. On my visits to England and France, I saw that there was so much flint available that you make walls and houses out of it. I envy you! I should have put a chunk of English flint in my suitcase! We only have obsidians here in California. Love your videos!
I’m new to all this. Anyone know did the American Indians use copper tools or did they even have that to push flakes? Please forgive me if I have asked something wrong I really want to learn about the history of it?
The snake river obcidian ( idaho) has a much darker look to it. Has a few of those craters way inside. It's knapps all wild and is much softer than regular glass.
14:14 The obsidian object in the background moved in between takes... Just casually having one at hand, without ever mentioning it, or drawing attention to it, says volumes. Myself and The great State of Texas approve of the message.
you know Will if you take a hammer and an anvil of some kind and hammer that pressure flaker to a square point it will work harden the copper a bit and make it last longer plus whenever you need to resharpen the tip you can hammer it back to a square point and only touch it a bit with the file to finish the resharpening
Fascinating will, thank you. I have a thick buttoned jar In a cobalt blue I'm going to use to give this a try. Just one question , where do you get your copper rod from? I can't find any down here in Devon so I use brass screws drove in and the heads cut off. Thanks.
Informative info, saw some of the flint vids, and wondered if you'd done Obsidian. That's what I've got to work with here in Northern Cal. Good to see your technique for knapping past the flat saw surface. And how to keep copper tip in order. Like the descriptive terms from flint vids like- flake scar etc. All sorts of Obsidian; Mahogany, Rainbow, Snowflake, Striped, but that flint looks awesome! Yes, the obsidian is demanding and easy to break. Got a small stack of similar sawn pieces- may be now can do them right. 🤞
Beautiful Work Will! However, there is an old Zen Buddhist saying I think you should enjoy, "To insure that which is being creative maintains the breath of life, one must know to stop just short of going far enough". Of course the irony is that the only way to know when it is just short of going far enough is to have gone too far. LOL
also if you make your own copper flakers you can put it in a vise and twist it either by hand or a power drill and that will also toughen up the copper for longer use.
