Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: flecha on March 16, 2009, 02:44:31 pm

Title: How Old Were You?
Post by: flecha on March 16, 2009, 02:44:31 pm: My five year old son is getting pretty good at "crunching" obsidian flakes with an antler pressure flaker. ;D He likes to make exaggerated serrations and tell me he is making them "poky" so that he can kill an animal and make blood. :o

Thus far I haven't done much "formal" instruction, mainly just allowed him to borrow some of my tools while I work and he mimics what I'm doing. If I break a tip he loves to "fix" it for me. I learned pressure flaking first, when I was about his age, and since that worked for me I am trying to repeat the process for him. If this keeps going, I can't wait until he is truly addicted (like the rest of us) and I can have hours long conversations with him about knapping.

I was wondering how old each of you were when you started and who started you. Did you start with pressure of percussion?
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: DanaM on March 16, 2009, 02:49:23 pm: I started at 47 now I'm 48 and mostly I just bleed a lot while making gravel :)
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: flecha on March 16, 2009, 02:54:06 pm: DanaM,

Thank you for responding. What got you interested in trying to knap?
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: billy on March 16, 2009, 03:54:32 pm: I first got into flintknapping when I was around 14 I think (1988 or '89). Found a broken quartz arrowhead in Virginia while deer hunting with my dad, then later that year he took me to an arrowhead show in Marietta, GA. I was absolutely fascinated with the ability of ancient people to make tools out of rocks. After the show I went into the parking lot looking for rocks I could chip into arrowheads.. didn't find much there!!

My dad saw my interest was serious and bought me D.C. Waldorf's book The Art of Flintknapping. I read it so many times the damn book fell apart. It took a while to find the right kind of stone (my dad and I spent many weekends on wild goose chases looking for stone but coming home empty-handed). But we finally found some tough black north Georgia flint and I had something to practice on. That was it. I've been knapping now for close to 20 years and I still look at the case of arrowheads I've made before I go to bed. I know...I'm sick and need help...but I don't want any! Now get outta my way cause I've got some flint that's laughing at me and it needs a spanking!! :)
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: JackCrafty on March 16, 2009, 04:53:13 pm: Started about 3 years ago....because I became seriously interested in making Native American stuff. Still can't make long, thin flakes....except on glass. Don't like glass though. Too many small children walking around. ;)

My Dad took me to see a man who made flint arrrowheads when I was 8 years old. I thought it was pretty cool, so when I got home I grabbed the closest thing I could find (slate) and made some crude arrowheads. It was fun until some of the neighborhood kids stole my stash of slate.
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: cracker on March 16, 2009, 04:56:56 pm: I just started here lately. The bug got put in my head from watching Paul Wolf, James Parker,Eddie Parker and some of the other guys and the 11th classic.Ronnie
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: xin on March 16, 2009, 06:44:00 pm: 56 years ago I found a uniface novaculite knife and a large thrusting spear pt not one ft apart at the base of a tomato plant in my grandfather's vergetable garden. About two weeks later I found an atlatl pt in his cotton field about a hundred yds from the other two pts. Been hooked ever since. I'm 66 now.
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: flecha on March 16, 2009, 06:48:48 pm: Have any of you ever taught someone else to knapp? How would you go about teaching a youngster to knapp?
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: david w. on March 16, 2009, 08:42:11 pm: I started when I was 14. I do it off and on. SOmetimes all I do is break rock and sometimes I won't touch it far a while.

I order from neolithics about a month ago and nothing has came yet. I am getting really anxious
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: DanaM on March 16, 2009, 08:42:31 pm: I got interested as a natural progression, or is that regression, from making bows, first a bow, then a arrow then a point :)
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: hawkbow on March 16, 2009, 09:04:25 pm: I started knapping as a teen.. but never got the hang of it until i met Joe York..( Wolf Watcher).. he has been knapping for fifty years and is a true master knapper.. although he would never admit it,through his teaching I learned the basics..now I hope to someday be able to make a point that is usable ;D ;D Hawk
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: Staver on March 16, 2009, 09:32:55 pm: I used to find arrowheads, knives, scrapers, etc as a kid growing up in southeastern Wyoming. I've always wanted to know the story behind how it was done. I started flintknapping 2 years ago when I was only 42 years old! I mostly just get sore hands, but every now and then, I surprise myself!

Joe H
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: mullet on March 16, 2009, 10:15:37 pm: I'm kinda like Dana. Made my first bow, didn't feel right listening to Aluminum arrows bang off it. Made my first primitive arrow, then needed a point. Started chipping about20 years ago. mostly busting rock till I met Claude Van Order, and he cut the learning curve. Used to have to drive about 60 miles to see him, now he lives 10 minutes from the house. Still not good at percussion, I use that saw too much, saves rock ;).
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: Timo on March 16, 2009, 10:19:12 pm: Started probly 7 yrs ago on my own. Always have hunted artifacts and always wondered how?

Finally got some teachings at knappins and it has snowballed form there.

As for teaching? Nothing works better than hands on.(SAFETY FIRST) For youngsters,gloves,plenty leather pads,and safety glasses. Try to percussion a biface and explain every move and why you are making it. Use a marker on the stone to show them where the flake should travel and why.Platfoms,ridges and grinding.

Takes a lot of time the teach and more time to learn.As long as there is some instruction,there will always be progress. They will have to hit alot of rock,have failures,but hopfully learn from them.
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: sailordad on March 16, 2009, 10:33:16 pm: i started a littler over a month ago.i am 43,so i guess 43 when i started lol
surprised my self in that time too,i actually made a few that anyone would recognize as arrow heads
for the same reasons as Dana too,bow first,then arrow then head
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: jreb on March 17, 2009, 08:22:53 pm: I started about a year and a half ago im 33 now , I started finding points and really got into hunting for them and was facinated how they were made i bought a knapping kit online and ive been addicted ever since!
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: stickbender on March 17, 2009, 11:37:20 pm: Hi . My name is Wayne, and I'm a Flake aholic. ;)

I got hooked, when I found my first arrowhead, on my uncle's Dairy Farm in Spooner, Wisconsin. I was about 13 or 14 then. Then a friend of mine showed me where an old Indian village used to be near Lake Osbourne, and showed me some old points he found, and we found some broken pieces, and flakes, and then he showed me where he found some old posts in a circle, about three feet down or so. there were others also, but unfortunately it was in a housing development, and they built a house on it. I tried to do some knapping about 20 yrs. ago, and didn't have a clue about what I was doing, so quit. Started again about 3 or 4 yrs. ago, but same story. I have Waldorf's book, but at the moment I don't have clue where it is. Then I met Eddie Parker, ( Mullet ) last year, and he took me to meet Claude Van Order, and then Eddie gave me a bucket of practice rock, and after a lot of blood, and cussing, rubble piles, and one decent point, and a second bucket of good rock, I actually made a couple usuable points. Still need to get consistent with the long flakes, and learn how to get decent spalls, and how to percussion flake. So thanks to Eddie, and Claude I am a Flake Addict! Always been interested in the Indian culture, history, and artifacts, even as a very young boy, and I will be 61 in June. Glad to see you are passing it on. 8)

Wayne
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: knap_123 on March 18, 2009, 12:33:04 am: 5 yrs ago and i'mm 33 but not a flakeaholic till 2 yrs ago. always was a rock hound and point hunter and i love to look for flint!!
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: leapingbare on March 18, 2009, 06:54:26 am: I started when i was 16 or so.. i am 25 now. so i reckon i been at it about 9 years. wow did not know i been knappin so long.
I have had some good teachers over the years. You know your hooked when you have more than a grand worth of rock..l

Quote
I order from neolithics about a month ago and nothing has came yet. I am getting really anxious
David, Crag is slow at shipping internet orders.. he dose allot of knappins and when he ant at a knappin he is out getting rock.. but your get your order I'm sure,, he is old and slow but he is honest.
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: Bone pile on March 18, 2009, 09:09:34 am: My dad gave me a point 50 years ago that he found at work.spent my first 17 years in NE Ohio farm country.Found points in the feilds and always loved anything related to Indian lore.Made a couple real crude points out of little chunks of flint I'd find in the feilds.About 3 yrs ago I watched a fellow pressure flacking at a Pow wow and that was it for me,he sold me some rock gave me a quick lesson ,so every time I see Dave I blame it all on him.Went to my first Knapp-in in Dade two years ago and met Claude and others ,grabbed more rock some tools and been making little ones out of big ones every chance I can
Bone pile
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: Staver on March 18, 2009, 07:34:58 pm: Quote
Hi . My name is Wayne, and I'm a Flake aholic.

Hi Wayne ;D
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: brian melton on March 18, 2009, 08:41:52 pm: About 11-12 yrs ago. I think it is quite relaxing. I am able to set my normal day aside and think about nothing more the the rock in my hand. Makes me happy ;D
Title: Re: How Old Were You?
Post by: Hardawaypoints on March 19, 2009, 12:47:53 am: I started in '85 and didn't have a clue what I was doing. I worked off & on without much improvement. It has only been in the last 6 years or so that my skills have expanded. I also had to learn a new way to hold the piece I was working because I had limited feeling in the fingers in my left hand. As I heal, I hope to get back to where I was a couple of years ago. I'm now 48.

Jim