Adventures in Flintknapping - Part 5 - More Improvement

I wasn't able to make as much time as I would have liked to practice this week.  I still managed to make some progress.  I'm getting more accurate with percussion and worked through some blisters with pressure flaking. I did manage to make some points I'm not ashamed to show.

This one is a medium deer point.

I'm still not getting notching down quite right but I do like the asthetic that I salvaged on this one.  My primary focus is to be able to make pieces for jewelry and display but this one could be serviceable with some sharpening.  

A 'larger' preform

A so far this is a totally percussion piece preform that I had very few mis-strikes.  I'm not certain if this is a result of improving skill or aggravated tenacity.  You get a really great feeling when you take that nice palm sized rock and don't completely turn it to chips for the debitage pile.  I'm still having a bit of difficulty seeing the finished piece in the raw rock but I'm getting closer.

 A mostly full collection of my points so far

The above photo is missing a couple of points. I have one on a necklace, and one is still soaking in bleach to get the gore off from it.  I had a small hooked shard in my finger that I didn't notice for a while that was bleeding on the stone.  As I've said before; knapp for a while and you will see your own blood.  The cuts are usually very small and nearly painless but can bleed a surprising amount. While it is both unsanitary and a bit gory, the liquid impedes pressure flaking and makes it even more dangerous by sticking the tiny sharp bits in direct contact with your fingers and tools. Keep band aids and your preferred antiseptic cleaner close at hand.

 My first obsidian points

I'm not liking obsidian very much right now.  I'm having difficulty keeping it from stepping alot or developing deep gouges.  I think the adjustment will come but for now small bird points are the best I can do.  I think I need to work some glass bottles before trying obsidian much more.

 A few of the points I have been given

These are some very nice points that have been given to me by other knappers.  The two on the left came from the folks at Goknapping.com.

 Some necklaces for Christmas presents

I purchased some points to make Christmas presents.  I tried to use as many natural and somewhat period appropriate materials as possible with no plastic.  I used bone, copper or glass beads, cotton cordage, horn hair pipe and copper clasps and fittings.

Bone neck piece

I also made a bone neck piece with natural bone beads.  I did use artificial sinew and I hand carved and drilled the wooden spacer bars.  If I do another I think I would stain the spacers a dark color but I like this one as it has a more true to artifact feeling to me.