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info needed please

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Kenny H:
I'm on an adventure to learn to flint knapp. I read many books and was on this site for a long time before I ever tried making a bow ( 2 years). With that said once I started I found out I should have been working on a bow the whole time.( I learn more from doing than reading). Where's the best place to start and what's the best starter kit with instructions I can find to get some rocks falling on the dirt? I know absolutely nothing about knapping or stones. Your advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you

JW_Halverson:
1) What part of the country are you in?  Sending you to find agatized coral in North Dakota would be problematic, even as sending you out to find obsidian in Florida would be. 

2) Pick any two rocks and start hammering while you wait for more information!

Kenny H:
I live in Ohio.
I've got lots of concrete here but it just crumbles.     ;D

AncientTech:
Kenny,

The first question that should be clarified is exactly what type of goal or goals do you have, in wanting to learn to knap?  Do you want to reach the goal of making an arrowpoint?  Do you want to copy ancient artifacts?  Do you want to learn about ancient technologies?  Do you want to make tools to hunt with?  Are you interested in the aesthetic aspects of chipped stone, as a form of artwork?

Different people are interested in flintknapping for completely different reasons.  In my own case, my interest and reasons for flintknapping have drastically changed, three or four times, since the mid-1980's.  As a result, my flintknapping has drastically changed three or four times, over the years. 

In the 1980's, I only engaged in spalling, and pressure flaking.  I also made glass tipped arrows, which I shot through bales of Arizona hay.  After getting a tip from a local Pima indian, I learned to harvest "arrow weed" from along canal banks.  And, I scavenged feathers from redtail hawk remains, found in the desert.  I was eventually inspired by meeting an old indian knapper named "Jim Fire Eagle", who traveled to pow wows, to sell arrowheads. 

Then, in the mid-1990's, I was introduced to the antler "baton", and practiced with it, while selling wire wrapped points to the Cherokee Nation gift shop, in Talehqua, Oklahoma.  A Cherokee indian named Noel Grayson taught me how to use the baton.  He is a great bowyer.

Then, in 2010, I realized that there are irreconcilable discrepancies in how American prehistoric flintknapping has been presented, in textbooks.  And, all of my attention has been on making sense out of unstudied data, since 2010, in order to resolve these discrepancies. 

In every phase, my flintknapping has been completely different, because I have had completely different goals in sight.  I am now on my third flintknapping "life", which is worlds apart from the last two.  I say all of this to explain that a person's interest will dramatically affect his goals, in flintknapping.   

Anyway, if you have some idea as to what is driving your interest in flintknapping, then I would suggest starting with videos, rather than books.  As much as I love books, the problem with books - at least when it comes to flintknapping - is that you do not always get the dynamic sense of the process. 

Because flintknapping is very dynamic, there is a certain "monkey see monkey do" element, to it.  On the internet - particularly Youtube - there are plenty of good videos, which should be easy to learn from.  Possibly, the only time that books hold an advantage over videos is when you are looking for really obscure flintknapping data, that no one alive has seen.  But, for the most part, if you are interested in simple, artistic flintknapping, today's processes are probably going to be easier to learn, and to carry out, than the old stuff.  And, I would imagine that the modern techniques have been fully documented in online videos, such as those found on Youtube.

Also, while you are climbing the "learning curve", don't ever let anyone cause you to think that something you made is not worth showing.             

Chippintuff:
I suggest checking out You-tube videos first. There are hundreds or even thousands covering every aspect of flintknapping. They will give you a chance to decide what you might like to start with. If you want to start with something that will give quick results that you can be proud of, try pressure flaking glass. It is a cheap/free and abundant material.

WA

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