Main Discussion Area > Flintknapping

tried but failed

<< < (3/4) > >>

Tradslinger:
I guess it is the combination of poor eye sight and a poor sense of feel now. i am right handed and can't tell if I have a good grip or maybe even have it. so I tend to drop a lot of things. not good when trying to unzip in a hurry LOL.

Parnell:
Ha!  Do you have trouble using an Ishi stick?  That is mostly powered with your legs...

Tradslinger:

--- Quote from: Parnell on January 17, 2021, 10:07:34 am ---Ha!  Do you have trouble using an Ishi stick?  That is mostly powered with your legs...

--- End quote ---
don't know what that is but I am crippled in my right foot so balance can be challenging. I am still in process of finding stuff from a recent move. also trying to get my limited space in the garage to where I can set up a better work table. I have an 8 inch magnifier with light on a stand or arm that I will be abe to use then. a good pair of leather gloves right now LOL

ssrhythm:
I am a newbie, but I have always been able to pick up and do new things fairly quickly.  I decided to whitewater kayak, and I was styling class 5 first descents within 1.5 years; I decided that I was not going to suck at golf anymore, and I broke 80 within 1.5 years (still sucks but better than the 120s I was stuck on); I decided I wanted to play guitar, and I was in a decent band making people dance in short order.  I started knapping some last year, and I will tell you that this is the most difficult, mind-warping, frustrating thing with the steepest learning curve I've ever done. EVER...BY FAR!  Maybe its because I'm 53 and not 23, but still...its difficult, and it is most definitely an art.  I figured out in short order that I would need to find my own rock, or getting decent was going to cost me a fortune.  I'm barely better than when I started, but I have found that I can make some decent and servicible blades starting with pre-shaped slabs...sometimes.  That said, I have not ruined nearly enough rock to actually get good.  If anyone gets good at this without ruining a small mountain of stone, then they have to be a freak of nature with a God given gift for it. 

I say this, because it might not be as much the physical limitations you mention, though that will certainly make it more challenging, but it might just be that you need to ruin a ton more rock in search of what techniques will allow you to best overcome those limitations.  I have also found that having different sized (the metal) indirect percussion sticks with copper and aluminum and using indirect percussion with a belt to hold the stick (the way Jack Crafty's does it in his videos) helps a ton, because you can get the "feel" of the tool against the platforms, keep it where you want it (helps as we get older and hand eye coordination fades), and get more precise hits.  When a strike does not result in what you were aiming for, there seem to be less variables to assess and tweak in trying to fix what didn't go right.

As far as holding onto the piece and not dropping it and not having it move on you when you strike it, look at some of Ryan Gill's videos...he uses direct percussion a lot, but he does most of his work holding the piece against his thigh, and he can whip out a point entirely by lap-knapping.  Maybe try a combo of lap-indirect-percussion knapping.  Heck, I figure I'm going to try everything I can think of or see someone else doing and in evey combination of all those techniques possible until I can figure out what works best for me in various situations...but in order to find out what works best, I know I'm going to have to ruin a lot more rock...a lot more than I already have. 

Good luck, and post back on here when you figure out what is working, because you will figure it out.

Tradslinger:
the word feel is an important one too, too many hard falls and strokes in the past has left me with fairly numb feeling in my hands, my right hand the worst. This is where and why I am looking at working the thick glass. I can if I look around hard enough, find a lot of it easier than the stone I need. I know that there has to be a lot of the stone around here in these mountains but I can't walk very well anymore. I have seen the proof in the sheer areas of old worked stone plus the worked stones (arrowheads and tools etc) that I have found over the years. I kick myself for having given away most of what I have found to others or have been relieved of them. Most all of these spots where the working of stone (flakes and broken pieces) are always near a water source, most likely a camping place for the Native Americans. I have found arrow heads in nearly all colors here from white to deep black blue, to red, to gray, to brown and almost a green color. So they used quite a variety of stone here. yes, some may have been traded for if not all. But right now, I prefer to ruin glass to learn with then go to stone if I have it. yeah, I made myself sick several times. Have watched Jack and Gill a lot and made the tools like they use other than the moose antler. Heck, I'm sure that there were totally blind people that could knap awesome work but they could at least feel and control everything. Jerry

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page