Adventures in Flintknapping

My Adventures in Flintknapping

A few weeks ago I was looking over Wilderness Outfitter's online phase two topics noticed that one of the study areas was knapping.  As usual their articles and videos rekindled my interest in yet another bushcraft skill.  I have always had an interest in learning to make primitive and stone tools.  Flintknaping is also one of the bushcraft skills that can be learned and practiced just about anywhere.

I milled about for a couple of weeks doing internet searches for learning material, trying to see what free resources were available.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a thriving community of knappers online.  Like any other hobby knapping has it's own set of terminology, tools and skills to be learned and mastered.  Thankfully there are several books, hundreds of articles to read, and thousands of videos to learn from, covering he entire spectrum of the hobby.  I felt that I would like to share what I find as I go along to both hel others looking for the same information and to help solidify my personal understanding.

After a couple of weeks of getting acquainted with the very basics, I decided that I would like to actually make an investment and learn to do it.  The next decision to make was if I would try to make my own tools or just purchase them.  Knapping is a great hobby in that if you live in the right place, the tools and materials can be entirely free.  Stone tool making was accomplished for hundreds of thousands of years by gathering materials that are literally just laying around in nature.   Knapping tools and materials are readily available online and it is possible to locally gather all of the supplies you will need, even in an urban environment.

Tools

The basic tools of knapping are the percussion device,  pressure flaker, abrading stone, and personal protective equipment.  Modern knappers have a choice of two categories of those basic tools.  Traditional tools are what our ancestors used and can be as simple as a well chosen stone for a percussion device called a hammerstone.  Traditional pressure flakers are made from animal antlers or bone hafted into a wooden handle.  Abrading stones can be found as pieces from sandsone or sometimes granite.  Modern tools are mostly made from copper.

Finding traditional tools in the urban environment can be tricky but not impossible.  Your best option is to find another experienced knapper and ask them where to find tools.  Natural hammerstones and abrading stones can be found in some garden centers and landscaping supply houses.  Antlers for pressure flaking can be bit more difficult to find.  Hunters, taxidermists and leather craft stores are the best local sources.

Modern tools can be manufactured relatively easily but do require access to some tools.  All of the base materials to construct modern knapping tools can be found at home improvement stores.  Percussion tools called copper boppers can be made from lead, copper plumbing caps, dowel rods and epoxy glue.  Pressure flakers can be made from hardened copper electrical grounding wire and dowel rods.  Low grit grinding wheels make for near perfect abrading stones.  You need to have access to a power drill, bits, propane torch, hammer, a vice or anvil and something hard and round to pound the copper caps into shape. Unless you have many of these materials and tools on hand, I found that initially it is not very cost effective to build your first set of modern knapping tools.

Materials to Knapp

If you live in the city the options for free knapping materials are different but are still abundant.  One of the most readily available materials to the modern knapper is bottle glass.  Using this material is often called bottle knapping and the techniques are the same as with obsidian.

Natural knapping materials can be found in nature, but is not readily available for those of us living in the city.  Our easiest source of non glass material to knapp is from the internet.

Time to order

After searching around I finally decided to order my tools and stone from Goknapping.com.  I researched and found thier prices to be very competitive.  They have all of the gear you would need as a beginner, and are a one stop shop.  The shipping and handling (rocks are heavy) was the least costly I could find.

After placing my order I went back to looking for more learning material while I wait for the shipment to arrive.