Main Discussion Area > Flintknapping
uuugh... what the heck am i doing wrong???
Hardawaypoints:
It's all about desire, you gotta want to learn. Like you, I thought, How hard can it be? Turns out ancient man was a great craftsman who used what material he had available to survive is some harsh conditions.
Just to echo the rest of the replies here, it is all about learning how to get the rock to break the way you want it to. You have to learn to accept failure at this game and grow from it. Patience is a key. Remember that NOBODY was born knowing how to do this stuff and EVERYBODY had to start at square one. You will not get good at knapping overnight, so don't expect to. Lessons from an experienced knapper or going to a knap-in and asking questions are the best and fastest way to understand this obsession. Just like climbing a ladder, it takes one rung at a time to get to where you want to be.
First, you need to learn how to get rock to flake. Starting with glass is a great idea because it is plentiful & available anywhere. Make sure you are wearing safety glasses & gloves with glass and keep a supply of band-aids handy. I started by learning pressure flaking and the billet work came more easily after that. Obsidian is a good material to move to from there because it behaves a lot like glass, but comes in rock form (unless you buy slabs). Once you get familiar with how it works, move on to harder materials. Good knapping books and videos are tangible help when there isn't somebody at hand to ask. Go with inexpensive material to start with. Destroying good rock serves no purpose.
You will make points that are about as fat as they are wide at first. Make sure you save some of your early points to serve as something to measure your progress along the journey. In my experience, a good set of billets, either antler or copper (or both)will help because you will get better leverage than with a hammerstone. You will also need to realize that it takes striking the rock exactly where you want at the correct angle, to get flakes to detach where you want them to. Since your are already good with your hands, your Eureka! moment should come quicker than some. Keep after it. There are no shortcuts, practice is the only way to get better.
Even as long as I have been knapping, I'm still nowhere near as good at it as I'd like to be & am constantly learning from others. That is the best part of being in this rock-breaking tribe, there is a shared understanding of this passion for making stone tools the way the ancient ones did.
I don't know if that helped, but I hope it did. Good luck & good chippin'.
Jim
Otoe Bow:
Exactly what Jim said. Sometimes I got my game on. Sometimes not. Here lately it's been mostly Not, and thats because I've been too busy to really work at it. I do feel that I'm learning, because my earlier point were as fat as they were wide. Now I get them so thin I break them, usually when I just....want....to.....take....one more...arrrgggggggg flake. :'(.
Have fun and post up.
Mike
stickbender:
Shooter, I am in the same boat. But I have made six decent points. Not exactly how I wanted to, but they will do the job, and don't look too bad. I still can't seem to make a decent spall, but like they said, I just keep at it trying different angles, and methods, and different power levels in my strokes with my bopper. I don't have really good material to work with, but I think that is a good thing, because, if I can make a decent point out of not so good stone, then I should be able to do a lot better with the good stuff. I have a mix of some good stuff, and some that is not quite what you would want to try to make a point out of, but I use it anyway, because I learn from it. I am lucky in that I can occasionally go to Eddie's, and then we go to Claude Van Order's house, and I get to watch him. Eddie gave me a couple of buckets of stuff, that is like I said, a mixture of decent, and good, and what the hell? But it has really helped me. I didn't have anything to practice on. Just keep at it. You're gonna get cut, bashed, and sore hands, and inner thighs, from this addiction, but just keep at it. I get really frustrated at times, when I get a really nice piece of obsidian that Eddie gave me, and I start getting a nice point going, and then @#@$$#@!!!! it breaks in half! Or, I take too big of a flake, or chunk out, and now I have this piece of stone, that is now going back into the bucket, for later. I still can't seem to get them thin as I would like, but occasionally, I do. I still can't get consistent long flakes, but occasionally, I get more of them than previously. So I am making progress, but not like I would like to. I see the beautiful stuff on here, and I think, Man, if I could just do that......Well some day. I am aiming for that goal, to be able to put something on here, that is close to what has been shown on here. I don't think it will be any time soon. I still have to get with a friend of mine who doesn't live too far from Eddie, and Claude. He knows where there is some stone we could use. I need to get a lot of it, because, I need to keep on practicing, and I want to give a bunch to Eddie. He has really helped me a lot with what he has given me. He is a lot better than he gives himself credit for. But like the others have said, just keep at it, and If you can find someone in your area that knapps, all the better. I would doubt that they would refuse to help you. Instead I would think they would be eager to show you what they know, and help you to develop your skill. I think it just goes with the type of person who is into knapping. You just automatically want to share your knowledge, and spread the addiction......
Wayne
toms22:
Stickbender, I liked your reply, I am just getting started and have been trying about 6 months. My hands got real sore, there are still sore but I am able to knap some. I have made a lot of points and I think that I am getting the hang on it. I bought some videos and I have found out that the ishi stick makes the flakes go futher. I bought some preforms and have been able to break them up to make some nice points. I would like to post some pictures of the points that I have made but do not now how to post them. This knapping is real habit form and I love to sit and make the points. I hope to make a knap in next year. I live in NC. Where will a knap in be close to NC.
JackCrafty:
Lot's of good advice here....not sure I can add too much.
I'm still learning too, and I'm no expert, but I've helped my kids make a few arrowheads (that they think are really cool) by using a simple plan:
Make uniface arrowheads from thin flakes. (uniface means that one side of the flake is basically untouched)
Use percussion to brake off thin flakes from the core stone and finish up with pressure flaking.
Choose a simple shape (that is not long and narrow) and with no notches.
The picture below shows a real arrowhead of this type. Not all arrowheads had a fancy, pretty flake pattern on both sides. Just make sure the arrowhead ends up with a taper towards the tip (so it will be sharp) and also towards the base (so it can be hafted easily).
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