Flint Knapping -how to be a flint knapper
By woodlandstv
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http://www.woodlands.co.uk Flint Knapping. How to be a flint knapper. What is flint knapping. Allan Course demonstrates how a neolithic arrowhead was made. This is the art of flint knapping and the tools he uses come from the antlers of a red deer. The piece of flint is hit by direct percussion - in other words Allan hits the antler bone on top of the flint to get a flake of flint from the side to produce the arrowhead. Flint knapping takes a lot of practice but once you are skilled at it you can get repeatable good results.
The flake of flint is then shaped to produce in this case a leaf shaped arrowhead. This style of arrowhead was in use in Britain between 4000BC to 1500 BC.
The tools for this part are also very simple - a piece of leather to protect the hand, and another small piece of antler bone. By putting the piece of antler on the edge of the flint and pushing down tiny pieces of flint are chippped off. The tip of the arrowhead has to be very sharp to penetrate flesh effectively. Having worked on the tip , the sides are then trimmed to be sharp and reasonably straight.
The process takes about 3 minutes and tells us something about our ancestors in prehistory. We can be pretty sure they had specialist flint knappers, so an expert could turn out about 20 arrowheads in an hour . Although the process was quick it required a high degree of skill to be so productive which is why they specialised. The rest of the arrow is the other way around. It doesn't take much skill to take a piece of hazel wood, take the bark off, smooth it and add feathers to it, but it does take a lot of time. So archaeologists will look at these crafts in two ways. The flint arrowhead is high skill, low labour, whereas the reat of the arrow is relatively low skill, and high labour. In Britain in say 3000BC there would have been no need for everybody to become an expert flint knapper because the amount of time they would have to spend on it to become good, compared to the time that they actually needed to use that skill just doesn't make it an efficient process. So we're certain flint knappers were specialists. We're also pretty sure that one flint knapper on a part time basis, because he had his own farm and livestock to look after, could have serviced a community of two hundred people. so flint knappers were specialists.
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Discussion
Interesting–thanks for posting.
Here are my problems with this video, 1) The "crunching noise" is not a good thing, thats crushing stone. Crushing the edge of the flake actually dulls the edge by thickening it, crude arrowheads work, actual artifacts weren't always perfect in symmetry, but on the business end they were lethal. That IMHO was a piss poor point, that anyone could make on their first day knapping.
2) Arrows are alot harder to make than he lets on, harder than even knapping flint or chert. You have to select the material to make the shaft and foreshafts in the case of cane arrows, have to spine the weight correctly by feel after experience/mechanical gauges, true the bends in the wood or cane by heat, fletching the arrow for true flight. The "arrow" he held up wasn't straight, or spined. It would have either been highly inaccurate, or could cause injury when shot.
Not to mention that fletching job appeared to have been done by a three year old. If you are wanting to learn these skills, please do better research than the gentalman in this video.
actually, having just returned from an experimental archaeology course in which we flint knapped, I disagree entirely. Yes, it is true that you can use crude arrowheads, broken off from striking blades off a large nodule, but the presence of symmetry and angles in flint are a must if you want something that is going to work properly. An arrowhead with balance and symmetry will work far better than one which is ill balanced. I think you need to think before you make a bold statement like that.
I think you need to go re-read what I said. You have flintknapped in an experimental archaeology course. I knapp points that I use for hunting and points I trade off in my tribe for other materials that they use for hunting as well. If you look at true artifacts, the main features are the tip is in centerline with the base, the tip and base are thinner than the middle of the point,a sturdy cross section of where flakes intersect in the middle, and the edges come down to a thin edge.
You get a thin sharp edge by pressure flaking off thin long flakes. Not grinding off small gravel chips like he was doing, that will make a thick dull edge. He was crushing the edge into a powder which makes a thick, dull, ineffective edge. You do this to prepare a platform for a thinning flake or shaping flake, which this joker never done and called it a finished point.
Also, before you tell me I need to think before I make a bold statement, you need to learn who you are talking to. I am 28 years old and I have been knapping since I was 7, a bowyer since I was 13. I am a Native American, and my family have kept close with our traditions and passed them down. I recently took a 215 lb black bear with a 65 lb black locust bow, a twisted gut string, and an arrow with a stone point. I got a complete pass through at 15 yards. I know what works, and what doesn't.
quite frankly, I don't give a damn, since we learned from probably one of the best flint-knappers in the world, who also teaches survival skills, bushcraft and hunting. I'd sooner take his word and advice over someone who is quite clearly making up a load of contrived bullcrap.
Very well executed arrowhead and very informative video. Thanks
JOE GARZA
November 13, 2010