Author Topic: Wood Billets  (Read 11197 times)

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Offline newknapper

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Wood Billets
« on: March 09, 2009, 12:29:42 pm »
High fellers, I had a few question about wood billets. Are the only good to use on Ryolite and such or can nthey be used on other materials effectivly also. I just made several Perssimon billets and was just courious.

Offline xin

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2009, 12:52:46 pm »
I don't know the answer, but I'm just as curious as you are.  I haven't tried it yet , but it seems like a good dense wood like Osage would make a really good bopper.  Somehow I've got a suspicion  the NA used them  on more than just rhyolite.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2009, 01:47:14 pm by xin »

Offline Pat B

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2009, 01:00:36 pm »
I don't knap but I've seen lots of the guys use dogwood and live oak billets on rhyolite. Persimmon would probably work well too. I think osage is too brittle for a billet.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline Hillbilly

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2009, 01:22:20 pm »
I've tried osage before, it isn't nearly tough and impact-resistant enough for a good billet. Dogwood, persimmon, and live oak are the only woods I've tried that worked really well.. Robustus has some European boxwood billets that work good. I only use them on the toughest stuff like quartzite, rhyolite, raw novaculite, silicious limestone, etc. I like antler a lot better for normal cherts and other stuff. Some people use them on obsidian, but I never had much luck with it. They work much better than anything else on the tough stuff, though.
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Offline xin

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2009, 01:49:18 pm »
Hillbilly, thanks for the input, got plenty of dogwood and persimmon around.

Offline billy

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2009, 02:43:25 pm »
HEy Xin,

Yeah, I've used hardwood billets and they work great on tough stone like rhyolite and quartzite.  I have an osage billet, but I know James Parker (robustus) likes dogwood.  I watched him blast some beautiful, long flakes off some tough rhyolite at a knap-in a few years ago, and he was using a big dogwood billet.  I also talked to a friend who's into experimental archaeology and he's been on digs where the indians left behind huge quartzite percussion flakes that looked like potato chips.  The only way my friend could get flakes like that was by using a hardwood billet made of live oak.  He told me that with tough stone you need to finesse it more, and use a softer hammer.  Intuition would lead you to believe a harder hammer is best, but it actually isn't.  I saw some of the points my friend made, and they were out of the toughest, grainiest quartzite I had ever seen.  And they were BEAUTIFUL. 

  I always used to wonder how the indians here in Georgia made such beautiful points out of such tough materials like grainy quartzite, so I tried it with antler but the stone wouldn't cooperate.  But as soon as I started using an osage billet, the stone magically started working better than it ever had before.  My flake removals were clean, whereas with harder hammers I was having a lot of step fractures and crushed edges.  The key to hardwood billets is that they must be considerably larger than a comparable antler billet.  Because the weight of the billet is key, you will need a much larger wooden billet to attain that weight.  Woods like hickory and dogwood are probably better than osage, but my osage billet works, though it's a bit small and light.  I plan on making some larger ones in the future.

Good luck with it and let's see some pictures of your finished work.

   
Marietta, Georgia

Offline newknapper

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2009, 04:51:00 pm »
I will post some work, but me billets need to season. There kinda wet right now

Offline Hillbilly

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2009, 04:57:29 pm »
Yeah, they need to be good and dry. And you have to really whack the rock, too-hit it like you're trying to kill a snake. :) The dogwood billet I use the most is about the diameter of my forearm. I think the reason that the softer billets work on tough rock is beacause they grab the edge and initiate a long, slow start of fracture. Same thing with hammerstones-soft ones work a lot better on tough rock than a hard hammerstone.
Smoky Mountains, NC

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Progress might have been all right once but it's gone on for far too long.

Offline mullet

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2009, 09:14:08 pm »
 I've watched Steve and James(robustus) work some tough looking rock with those billets. I think it works great if you want to do it the way the natives did it. But I've seen the same or tougher rock worked easier and thinner with nothing more than a 1 1/4" copper cap on a piece of oak.
Lakeland, Florida
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Offline billy

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #9 on: March 09, 2009, 10:06:22 pm »
hey knapper, here's a pic of a quartz point I made today.  I used the hardwood billet and it came out pretty good, although there are some step fractures in it.  Oh well, it happens.  This was a tough piece of quartz, but the wooden billet really handled it well.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Marietta, Georgia

Offline newknapper

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #10 on: March 09, 2009, 11:18:36 pm »
Really nice point

Dave Dellinger

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #11 on: March 10, 2009, 11:17:30 pm »
Could you guys post some pics of your wood billets alongside a ruler or measuring device? I have some dead dogwood trees to remove, and I would like to use the wood for something.

Offline Coo-wah-chobee

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2009, 11:34:59 pm »
Here ya go.

[attachment deleted by admin]

Offline newknapper

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #13 on: March 11, 2009, 05:11:33 pm »
I have let my billets dry for about 3 days now and I am inpressed, I wacked on a piec of novaculite today with the largest one and I was romoving some pretty good material. I noticed that it doesnt need much grinding though. My billets split while drying, hope that doenst hurt them in the longrun.

Offline billy

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Re: Wood Billets
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2009, 08:47:04 pm »
I don't think it will, unless the splits are REALLY big.  Even if they are, just turn the billet so you're not striking where the split is and you should be fine.
Marietta, Georgia