Quartzite seems to varry. Some has grains that are so strong in being connected that they rarely break thru the grain. Those seem to fracture around the grain. When too loosely bound they crumble because they are sandstone. It appears the ideal material will fracture thru the grain. When I studied with Jack Cresson archeologist he indicated that hard wood billets perform best after being dried & chared then burnished against other hard wood. He felt that this helps when percussing to transfer energy more slowly breaking thru the grain that holds quartzites together. He believes that this reduces stepping & transfers energy further. He is a Master when working metasediments & tough stone. Great video, beautiful stone. Thank you.
For finishing percussion work the billets need to get more compressed and refined for sure. The sweet spots are hard to manage as the edge gets lean. Sometimes an edge that’s perfect gets polished by the strikes and the billet despite modification gets malformed on tough rock. I think some smaller diameter punches with support may mitigate this in the later stage. Just a thought. Thanks for the comment Jim.
As an "EXPERT" flintknapper LOL I can clearly see that the issue is you're not submitting enough videos to RU-vid!!! On a serious note, it's interesting to see the color of the quartzite in your area vs the quartzite in my area (SW OK) which is much lighter and more tan in color. You can't hesitate when driving a flake or you'll hinge every time. To me it's kind of like playing golf, you have to know how hard to hit the material to drive a clean flake. While clearly you're working it raw, does heat treating it make it any easier to work?? Marty, keep up the great videos, it really makes my day to see when you post a new one!!!!
I don’t think heating this would benefit it, especially this coarser variety Robin. I’ll throw some flakes in next time I do some heating and get back to you!
His careful massed delivery to the outside of the leg and support is really effective. I think with percussion he mitigates a lot of breaks that would happen working like I am here with more rigid flat support, though on this tighter grained q it works well. I look forward to working some of those harder, wider grained eastern quartzites. Wish there were videos of jack so people could see.
Mike we really should get some video of Jack and Steve to throw up on here so people can see. @flintknappingtips Great job the wood work, hope there is more to come.
You're definitely not talking about the Jack I'm thinking of. Mr Aluminum bouncy billet. The know it all of knapping. Whatever you do, don't ask him a question or disagree with him!
What is your name? Sir. I love watching 👀 your videos! You're right, Jack Ceafty is really good! I like watching 👀 videos that show how to use natural material like big rock, small rocks, wood billets & make wonderful spearheads, & arrowheads. Thank you Mr??
I think that material is just beautiful and you make such nice points from it, but next time you're on camera with it, grab a flake and cut some leather with it. I'm curious how sharp it is and how well it holds its edge.
I’ll do that and send you results. A friend of mine used several cherts and hixton (albeit) I think that’s a silicified sandstone but he said the hixton performed the best which seemed surprising to me
I like to work most raw to get the right look on most reproductions. In this case this rock won’t take heat. Maybe thin flakes could be lightly heated. Rest will blow up.
"Smooshy support" for your wood. Is that the technical term? Seems like the kind of thing they should make a pill for as you age. At any rate, I can't not call it smooshy support now...
