Biface reduction pictures

[DanaM]

are your platforms where it comes to a point on the edge?  im pretty sure i understand, but im not sure!

Yuppers

[mullet]

 Very nice, Shannon. I'm going to pin it to the top.

[cowboy]

That's cool Shannon! Looks like the way I'd do it. I attempted to run a series like that several times but always snapped em after they were thin .

[Saw Filer]

Here's some more pictures of a little problem I had to solve with that blade.
  The first picture shows an abraded area running from the edge out to an island near the center of the blade. That heavily abraded are was a stack.  I abraded the heck out of it to remove some of the mass of it and allow the flake to hopefully travel under it far enough to get rid of it.  I also abraded the top of the ridge that ran out to it.  It seems that flakes travel farther along smooth ridges that irregular ones.
   In the second picture you can see the two steps and remains of the stack I want to get rid of.  You can also see that I abraded my platform fairly heavy, but relieved it on both sides with a flake on the other side of the point.  Relieving the platform allows the flake to detach easier, putting less stress on the piece and more energy into the flake allowing it to travel farther.
 The penclied in arrow is the ridge I want my flake to travel and the direction I want to hit it.

 The last picture is the blade after I smacked it.  Both steps and the stack are gone.

[sailordad]

ive got a couple nice pieces of that coral and some other rocks that i want to biface
but i think i will wait untill after vacation and i go to the cryo knapp
maybe someone there can help with the reduction so i dont fudge them to bad

[jamie]

found the same thing shannon. i like to relieve the platform edges and grind the stack before i remove it. either that or i just make the stack bigger and punch it off later. the method i use the most though is just getting pissed and smashing the point against the ground. 

[cowboy]

Jamie: My favorite method is to fling the two pieces as far as I can across the yard - that seems to calm me down a little . Actually: along with grinding the platform AND the back side along with the ridge the flake will travel is a technique I've seen some very good knappers use..

[Saw Filer]

I've done that Jamie. I've also held a piece on one end and started "dicing" it with a bopper all the way to the other end.  If it ain't gonna do what I want it too, than ByGolly it ain't doing anything!
 Paul, that works good too. But if one of those pieces is at least 2" long I ain't throwing it away! I might need that rock.

[Outbackbob48]

Shannon, not only are you a great knapper but your explaination an diagram just solved one of my knapping problems, man your a hellva teacher also. Cowboy, I guess I was't throwing my pcs hard enough.    Thanks to both of you for clearing a few things.  Bob

[mullet]

  Paul, We were digging an artifact site one day and one of the guy's dug up  half of a paper thin, heat treated coral Hillsborough. About two weeks later we dug up the other half about a hundred feet away. You reckon it got pitched the same way 3500 years ago?

[cowboy]

Sounds good to me but of course ya gotta consider eons of errosion, glaciers, and maybe that Trex just fell that far away .

[mullet]

 Nothing but sand and flat ground , no Glaciers either. Could have been flood water, though. Man! you're just a mood dampener, lately

[ricktrojanowski]

Shannon those last pics were a huge help.  Thanks for posting these pics. and tips they are worth a thousand words.  I'm an expert at creating stacks and steps, now I know how to attempt to remove them. 

[jamie]

rick if that dont work i'll show you how to use the concrete floor at the club. it removes stacks in an instant. 

[aero86]

you abraded your platform from underneath?  i guess im confused..