#flint knapping

[thesilicontribesman]

Prehistoric Hunter Gatherer Tools: Flintknapped Arrow Heads And Bone Awls In A Recreated Leather Pouch, Stockport Museum, 4000 to 2000BCE

[memories-of-ancients]

How to make an Otzi the Iceman Flint Dagger

from Shawn Woods

[thestonedknifeman]

Put some stone blades in a folding knife

[srlgemstone]

Stick Agate Pair- Minecraft Style

[rhysintherain]

@blackjackkent mentioned they had to look up what flint knapping was from an earlier post today, so this seems like a good time to post a gallery or things I made by knocking rocks together.

These are projectile points made from decorator glass:

This is a denticulate knife made of dacite:

I made these dacite points for one of my students in a field school gift exchange:

And I made these ones for our community day when 400 4th graders showed up to learn about archaeology and we wanted some 'artefacts' the kids could pick up that weren't actually 10,000 years old:

Anyway, that's one of the things I do for fun in warm weather season. Making them usually involves using a tough cobble hammer stone to knock flakes off glass like tool stone, then pressing a sharpened antler tine (or iron nail for industrial glass) into the edge to take off very small flakes to shape and sharpen it.

This is the technique stone age cultures used to make the arrowheads and other artefacts we find at archaeological sites. It's tons of fun and less work than you'd think, and also has the fun side effect of semi-regularly cutting yourself on sharp stone flakes.

[theflintwarlock]

Flint knapping and practical magic

Now that we have discussed the basics of history and properties of flint, how can flint knapping be used in practical magic?

First, a few disclaimers:

1. Please do not try this indoors, without proper protective equipment

2. You will need some thick gloves- leather or gardening gloves that are designed to prevent cuts.

3. Protective eye gear is essential, especially when you're learning (which I'll admit I still am)

4. A thick towel on your lap will help prevent you bruising your legs as you work (I have done that before)

5. I am not an expert, this is just me sharing why I think more people should learn about flint knapping and magic. Please watch more detailed tutorials before attempting anything. It evolves sharp edges and the possibility to accidentally start a fire if you do it wrong.

That being said, hopefully I haven't scared too many people off. I am not a dextrous person myself and I have managed to do some rudimentary knapping, I even created a flint crow statuette. The tools that you can make can be extremely useful for Witchcraft, a handaxe for example can be used as an alternative to a ceremonial dagger. I use my flint tools for wood carving, simple stuff like creating touchwoods and small things. Another use if you're an artist is as a charmed pencil sharpener, to add some intention and protection from your ancestors into your work. But I am getting ahead of myself

How to find flint

Finding flint depends on your geographical location. For me, i collect flint from my family home in the east of England. East anglia is rich in flint and chalk as well as clay, anywhere you go you will find big chunks of flint on the ground. Look up your local area's geological background and this will help determine where you can find flint- in volcanic areas you are more likely to find obsidian than flint! Which is very cool, I'm jealous of you. The beach, however, is generally the best place to start wherever you are:

Look for large grey or white stones, flint generally has a coating of sedimentary rock.

It is especially fun to look for rocks with cracks down the middle that go all the way around- as they often have deposits inside. If you're not sure if it's flint, you can hit it with another rock on the beach (another HARD one, using chalk or sedimentary rocks will just break the chalk open.) And if it is flint it will shatter into pieces. Again please be careful. I like to chuck them a good deal away to open them up, and let gravity do the work when it hits other stones. A newly opened egde will look something like this:

The usual shine of flint tends to mattify on a fresh edge, but it still very smooth. When flint is being used as a brick to build a wall, this is as far as knapping goes. But for someone trying to make tools, you need to break it up again into smaller pieces.

For me, I just like breaking stones apart. I find it very therapeutic apart from the magickal elements. There is, however, something unquestionably magical about sitting outside and breaking open a stone, slowly learning with the gentle and rusty hand that a child in the stone age might have had. When I first did this, after watching an episode of digging for Britain, I had the genuine feeling that the people of the past were guiding my hands, teaching me how to work. It is an excellent, practical way to get closer to your ancestors during ancestor work.

I don't tend to worship my ancestors, but I do certainly lean on some of them for advice and guidance in times of strife.

Anyway, when you have a piece like this

On the further edge you can see that there are jagged edges where it has been knapped unevenly. This is a good way to get a sharp edge: you tap with another rock that is roughly the shape of your hand several times and eventually the flint will give. Here it broke into three pieces:

The iron deposits make this rock a slightly unusual one, but the principal applies for any piece of flint. Here it is especially important to be careful and wear gloves (in the picture I'm not wearing gloves because I'm a dumb dumb who cut my hand after this).

This piece is essentially a knife. You can see the slightly transparent edge, serrated. Generally an antler or bone would be used to shape this piece further. (I used chewed up antlers from the family dog)

You can see on the picture to the left there are cracks running down the larger piece. You can carefully remove a smaller piece from the larger by hitting it a few times with the same rounded stone, acting as your hammer. Here a piece came off that could be easily shaped into an arrowhead.

Laver flakes are created by hitting a larger piece precisely until a small, sharp flake falls off. These are difficult to do for beginners. Most of these sharp pieces shown are now on my altar, to add protection to the space and connection to my ancestors. Razor sharp small flakes have a tenancy to fall off, I collect these in a jar and use them for spell bags and jars. It is important to not leave them on the floor anywhere where pets walk, as they will cut into their feet. (And yours if you have a habit of walking barefoot in your garden/outside).

The best part about flint knapping in magical practice is that it's entirely free. Like I've said before, some of the best magical tools come not from commercialised stores but through your own practice and historical techniques that never required buying materials. Go forth and Forage, my flintlings.

For more information and a more detailed guide on things I can't do, check out this website:

https://exarc.net/issue-2016-3/at/recycled-flint-cores-teaching-tools-flintknapping-archaeological-open-air-museums

This YouTube video is also helpful:

Wessex archaeology flint knapping basics

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

Very beautiful arrowhead. Mierzanowice culture, the first bronze age culture in Poland, so aroind 2200 BC.

[a-life-lived-outdoors]

Making rock into tools

[chronivore]

[slo-phi]

[thesilicontribesman]

Prehistoric Arrowhead, Newport Museum and Galleries, Wales

[archeom]

Look at this thing!

This guy decided to knapp the biggest point I've ever seen. Impressive!

[thestonedknifeman]

Got a good knap in this morning

[rhysintherain]

I made a thing:

It's not particularly meaningful archaeologically, but it turned out pretty.

Made of colored decorator glass from the dollar store. Rough work done with a smallish quartzite (?) hammer stone. Pressure flaked and notched with modern steel nails.

Cheating, I know, but I figure it hardly matters given the material...

Also it turns out modern industrial glass is incredibly difficult to flake with antler tools. It's no surprise that the people who flaked bottle glass preferred iron pressure flaking tools.

Anyway, toolstone costs a lot and decorative sea glass costs 1.50$ a bag at the dollar store, so I figured I'd do some practice and make pretty colored points.

(and the bases of drinking glasses I broke over the winter cost nothing, so stay tuned to see if I can make anything interesting out of those...)

[fangs-torment]

just finished up a gift

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

chocolate flint uwu

there is like 60 flakes in this pile but I can fit them all in my hand, they're so tiny

i started working on these in my spare time (u nrelated to my thesis)