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Beginner knapping questions
Chippintuff:
I started out on glass and obsidian doing pressure flaking. My thought was that I could begin producing reasonable looking work in minimum time doing pressure flaking while occasionally picking up a bigger piece of rock and trying percussion. In pretty short order I was doing OK (not great, but OK) with pressure flaking on glass and obsidian. It took longer to have much success with percussion, but I could produce something that I liked with pressure flaking every day. That kept me from getting frustrated.
I was doing fair percussion within a few months using only maybe a 100 lbs of stone. At that point I was using pressure flaking on every flake that was workable, so nothing went to waste.
The approach I had was to learn one technique, then new techniques one at a time. It worked pretty well for me.
WA
_Hiller_:
--- Quote from: Chippintuff on November 12, 2018, 03:04:01 pm ---I started out on glass and obsidian doing pressure flaking. My thought was that I could begin producing reasonable looking work in minimum time doing pressure flaking while occasionally picking up a bigger piece of rock and trying percussion. In pretty short order I was doing OK (not great, but OK) with pressure flaking on glass and obsidian. It took longer to have much success with percussion, but I could produce something that I liked with pressure flaking every day. That kept me from getting frustrated.
I was doing fair percussion within a few months using only maybe a 100 lbs of stone. At that point I was using pressure flaking on every flake that was workable, so nothing went to waste.
The approach I had was to learn one technique, then new techniques one at a time. It worked pretty well for me.
WA
--- End quote ---
I think this is the route I’m gonna take. Thanks JEB for pointing me towards Kentucky Flintworks. Looks like they’v got a better selection of slabs than Neolithics, so I think I’ll go ahead and pick up an Ishi Stick and a bunch of slabs and just do pressure flaking till I become confident in my ability to get something decent out of it. Then after that I can switch to raw rock and work on percussion.
Hawkdancer:
Maybe this thread is a good place to review the safest way to get bottle bottoms! I haven't had much luck, but haven't tried real hard either. Got a bunch of bottles bottom on!
Hawkdancer
JEB:
Hawk: you tube that question on bottle bottoms. It is real easy. Take a 16 penny nail and drop it in the bottle and shake it up and down real hard about 4 times and the bottom will drop out of the bottle. But, you tube will show you how. It is a female knapper that demonstrates this process.
RickB:
I've used a tile saw before to cut off bottle bottoms and bottoms off cobalt blue coffee mugs I find in thrift stores or yard sales.
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