Prehistoric Experiences: Making and Hafting a Neolithic Flint Axe 

2:40 The black cat in the background was not ready xD

Have just spent 34 minutes watching a man hitting two stones together to produce something quite remarkable and practical, with minimal effort ( especially the drill ..lol ) and not once did I feel bored or skip through the video...very interesting and very educating. Excellent. All the best Alan.

I don't know why, but the sight and sound of knapping is just very relaxing.

That's a mighty ferocious sabre tooth tiger you've got there.

Sharing your knowledge with us all is a gift, and for that, I thank you!

i like listening to your videos while flintknapping, not sure why, but it makes it so much more enjoyable

Will is so very very good. I tried flintknapping with him without too much success. I was a bit too heavy handed.

Beautiful craftsmanship. Thanks for sharing.

Cave men are never bored!

Enjoyed it immensely! I, for one, like to learn and especially from someone who can express themselves as well as you. Thanks!

Kinda reminds me of the cartoon where the character grabs a tree trunk to lathe a tooth-pick.

Thank you! I have never seen this done before. Looking forward to watching more of your videos 👍👍

Absolutely INCREDIBLE! You chipped that ax head out fast! I imagine that the handle would much more of a challenge without the helpers. Forming the hole to fit with just the hand drill and Flint knife had to be a chore. It shows me that for all the modern education that is touted....a man that had none of it was still a genius to craft the necessities of life and survive! I just put meeting you and learning about such a special time on my bucket list. I AM IMPRESSED!

"if you watch all the way to the end" With this I skipped to the end to see if it didn't break on you, then downloaded. It then goes amongst 5,000 other golden files and it's anyone's guess when it'll come round in shuffle. You have your own folder though, and that's reserved for the better stuff, so, well played.

Haha, I guess you are doing several things right! Because not only did I watch it thoroughly, but I highly enjoyed every minute and I commented on it, hit the thumbs up, and subscribed! You my friend are an Amazing craftsman! That has no doubt in my mind, have taken advantage of many years to perfect your fantastic skills! Thank you for being You!

Fantastic demonstration, Will! Really enjoyed seeing that beautiful axe take shape! The flint head came out really nice as well!......Ben

Once again another bloody brilliant video.

I absolutely LOVE watching your knapping videos. And yes. I did watch it till the end. Brilliant!

Thanks Will for the little tips and tricks and explaining how you get to the finished product. Get video as always, so informative and I always pick up something new

Spot on that Will

Hello man, watching this video I went out to my garage, grabbed a huge chunk of Euro flint and started with my hammer stone. Set it up to knock one of the bulbs off and it split in 4 chunks, lol square chunks, from a good strike, for any good piece of flint. The flint i get here are from my beaches in Eastern Canada. We have Euro flint that was dumped here from the ships that came over many years ago. It has laid on the ocean for 100's of years, so it is freeze cracked and cracked from beating around the bottom of a boat as it made its way to our shores. It is sad that it is rare to find one that is knappable, but makes one heck of a flint for the fire and steel method :) Thanks man for this video and once again love your work.

Thanks Will for the master class

I can see it now...go to the doctor, he sees huge bruises all over my leg.....asks if someone has been beating on me....!! LOL!! Love these videos!

Nice work

An excellent video. Thank you!

Thank you for the awesome video. I for one quite enjoy your longer instructional and informational videos.

That was a killer experience! You sir are brilliant

That's fantastic work

Very beautiful to watch thanks for the tips

Thank you William Lord for the further lesson Ojibwe

Kitty!

seeing it in use was the natural end that such a nice job asked for

That was fantastic it was like magic wow...

A rather intellectual pursuit it would seem. With a very relaxing calming rhythm to it. I really enjoyed this, thank you so much.

Thanks my Teather!

Really enjoyed this one Will. Thank you so much for making it. It's really appriciated. There is such few vids or resources on making stoneage tools. This is a gem.

that is an awesome piece very informational video thank you so much God bless

Great work!

That was one of the best video I've seen on RU-vid, simply genius, watching you create the axe ,was definitely a amazing watch, excellent stuff.

watched it all the way to the end👍👍👍love your work thank you for sharing 🍻

That's some really nice flint! Nice work!!

so cleaver....true craftsman

Very nice axe. Thanks for the knapping lesson.

Great video Will i'm here in the states an trying to get back in to primitive skills ,your videos are a great help thanks !

well done there

Love how you read the stone, and now where to make your next strike

I did it right to the end.. good shit bro

You are so good at this!

Awesome you made that look so easy ,and I know it's not I tried cut my hands all up,well done my friend!👍

Cool show man

Very nice work Will! We are archaeologists and avid knappers. We are headed out right now to make some obsidian knife blades and haft them to wooden handles using conifer resin. Looks like we have a lot in common!

Pretty damn Awesome. Great vids...You tha Caveman!

glad to see more flintknapping, see you in June

a lost art for sure. great video. I take classes on smithing and woodwork at a local school. knapping would be great as well.

Great video, great channel :)

love your videos, thanks to zed outdoors I found your brilliant channel 😊

is there a video where can i see you testing the axe?? and the dagger you made out of Danish flint? it is obvious you are a master of making flint tools, but i would really love to see them in use!

One SWEET EDC.

1:28 KITTY

I wonder how a neolithic person would view the traffic...and you knapping flint in all that noise....? I think perhaps the familiarity of the flint would somewhat assuage the fear that would be inspired by those strange 'creatures' on the road.... Your workshop is NOT messy! You haven't seen mine....it's well over due for a good muck-out... 😀

So, there is a Man under all that make up at the May meet in Egeton. Nice to have met you Will. Nice Vid... Best Wishes, The Burger Man.

Amazing channel, thank you for sharing you knowledge. Subbed ATB Del

There is some kind of wild animal in the background at 1:42...you can see its tail.

This is so cool! Aren't you afraid of getting stone shards in your eyes though? Or do you strike the flint in such a way that it won't send shards flying upwards like that? What do you do with all the excess flint shards, use them for firemaking tools or similar?

ah fluff it!!! I had to go and search "flint knapping" didn't I. and look what's happened! I'm going to have to sub now!!!

thanks

Good skills, I really enjoyed watching you work and puss cat x 2 is an added bonus :)

wrap with wet leather, drying shrinks it more snuq. great project!

Amazing skills! Wish I could find flint here in Norway, but it's extremely hard to find here.

Excellent work hairy could watch you making things like this all day

Cool pants

You know at 26:13, you also try using hot coals to drill the hole, plus it also strengthens the wood.

Well... I guess it's road trip time. My area is completely made of granite, and smaller amounts of other large-grain rocks. So far (about a week) I've been using glass from bottles and pieces discarded from glass shelving projects (untempered, nearly a centimeter thick).

Love your projects. Didn't appreciate the road noise

So did it work Will ? Looks beautiful ...

great work good luck with chopping that tree down

where do you source your antler from for the large soft hammers? can't find any suppliers with large pieces like that in the UK

Will! Why use a stone drill when you could burn out the hole (well most of it) with a red hot ember ?

great video..keep on hacking...iloveit greetings from Germany

Wizardry!

What type of flint is that you are working ? Looks like good material for hunting points .

Can you make a more detailed tutorial or guide on how to process flint?

If you put it on wet then when it drys it will tighten

Have you used these axes much? I'm wondering how long they stay sharp when in use. If they have to be touched up etc.For cutting down large trees possibly? Thnks

How do you find flint in the wild man?Is it buried or just laying there. It would be great to know.

I would've left the bottom of the handle a bit thicker, so as to avoid it slipping out've the hand.

You mentioned a thermal crack...did you heat the stone? I understand that is a common practice.

Do you have any videos of all your tools and what and how you use them? I know in most of your vids you kinda explain the tool when you use it but I was just wondering if you have one just for the tools you use.

Your videos are realy nice👍 but Im watching your videos not verry long, so you had this idea mabey before but if not, here is my idea 😁Do you thougth about to build a small bow out of the small yew staves, I build a few out of yew sticks 4 cm thick and 1m long, theywere verry powerfull if you want to hunt small birds and rabbits, big bows were a bit difficult to handle if you go threw bushes and tall gras, so i think... but its hard to build small bowl, they are verry difficult to build, but i think you can build these easily.

wanna see the tree falling,,,, joke realy good work!

How long will that axe last,how many trees can it take down after which a new axe is needed?

How hard is it to find flint of that size? Amazing vid, really enjoyed it!

Why no more effort to shape the ha dle further? Seems like it could taper more at least. Curious

You should have used a hot ember to make the hole.

You look like a mesolithic eastern hunter gatherer! Btw, where can I get pants like yours?? They seem like they have a different material around the knees

One would think that he would use a bow and string to spin the wood shaft and rock for drilling into the wood, vastly more effective than trying to use your hands to spin it.

Where do you put all of your flint

Wish I had easy access to some flint like that, I live in Cornwall and it's all (mostly) granite down here, I don't suppose you could give me a price for a chunk of flint like that shipped to Penzance could you?

Do you have a close up of your necklace and bracelet

My biggest problem is material. I live in Missouri in the USA and have Chert, but not the same as the flint in Europe.