Primitive Flintknapping Tools, Techniques, & Strategy 

Thanks very much

How many tools can you make in a day if you work 12 hours?

Lol

Happens to me alot at work during my lunch breaks

😂😃

How many stone tools can you make in a day if you worked 14 hours?

If I recall correctly, he recommends starting out with copper tools as it can be quite difficult to start out with abo tools. Don't take my word for it as I'm not even a flintknapper and I'm not sure if he was the one who said it.

@@survivinggamer2598 Ya I remember him saying that, I just wouldn't be able to buy both sets so was wondering if it would be a REAL bad idea if I started with abo. Thanks for the reply though.

​@@harleygaddis832 No problem. In my opinion, if people from the past were able to do something, then nearly anyone should be able to do the same as long as they keep learning to get better at it. It probably won't be a deal breaker, just a steeper learning curve with using more primitive tools. The best of luck to you!

@Harley Gaddis I’d suggest you make your own tools for sure. Preferably with modern materials. Knapping is “easier” with metal, but it is still the same process as knapping with abo tools. The only difference is the amount of effort and elbow grease required when limited to abo tools. And what you can get away with is limited as well. I bought a kit from hunt primitive when I started and the tools all worked fine, but after a month or two they were worn down too small to use and my indirect stick had blown apart at the tip. So I’ve slowly replaced all my wood handle pressure flakers with the plastic handles. I bought one that has set screws and you tighten your piece of copper into it But then I bought 3’ pieces of UHMW plastic to make my own. In 1” and 1.25” and a 3/4” but that one the jury is still out on. It is a little thin but I have thin wire in it and it works ok as a fine indirect stick With those plastic handles, and 15’ - 25’ rolls of bare copper from Lowe’s - in 8,6,4 gauge. You will have pressure flaker/ indirect stick material for the life of your hobby. Find a drill bit slightly smaller than the wire and drill a few inches into the center of the UHMW plastic, hammer the piece into it, don’t glue it so that you can easily switch it out when the piece wears out. Or you can put on set screws etc which would be real helpful but unnecessary. My most used bopper is a 1.5” diameter solid piece of aluminum - 4” long. It was maybe $10 and will likely last me a decade. I have many odd shaped hammer stones that I use when I feel like it, as well as antler tines I’ve collected. As a human I will use the best tools available to me at the time of my existence to do whatever it is I want to do. People who only knap abo tools are ok by me, but are limiting themselves for no reason. Even in an apocalyptic scenario there would be so much metal around to make weapons from, and to use as tools for flint knapping that we’d never be stuck to just abo tools. Not for a few thousand years anyway. And by then humans would naturally be making the switch as metal became rarer. Leave the all abo tools for a specific point or blade, occasionally, to see how our ancestors did it.

Use both the each has it merits

There's well documented history you can find in the Fort Morgan museum of General Morgan enlisting help from the Comanche Indians to track game to feed the army in this desolate country of northeastern Colorado. The hunters used stone Owl points as they called them because they were made to release from the shaft after entry into a deer to bleed out the animal quickly as the animal ran off after being shot. They reused the arrow shafts over and over and would replace the "Owl points" many times during a hunt. Most plains Indians made arrowheads that were tied on a shaft via knocks permanently. But not the Owl points.

Yup