Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: newknapper on March 09, 2009, 12:29:42 pm
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High fellers, I had a few question about wood billets. Are the only good to use on Ryolite and such or can nthey be used on other materials effectivly also. I just made several Perssimon billets and was just courious.
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I don't know the answer, but I'm just as curious as you are. I haven't tried it yet , but it seems like a good dense wood like Osage would make a really good bopper. Somehow I've got a suspicion the NA used them on more than just rhyolite.
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I don't knap but I've seen lots of the guys use dogwood and live oak billets on rhyolite. Persimmon would probably work well too. I think osage is too brittle for a billet.
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I've tried osage before, it isn't nearly tough and impact-resistant enough for a good billet. Dogwood, persimmon, and live oak are the only woods I've tried that worked really well.. Robustus has some European boxwood billets that work good. I only use them on the toughest stuff like quartzite, rhyolite, raw novaculite, silicious limestone, etc. I like antler a lot better for normal cherts and other stuff. Some people use them on obsidian, but I never had much luck with it. They work much better than anything else on the tough stuff, though.
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Hillbilly, thanks for the input, got plenty of dogwood and persimmon around.
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HEy Xin,
Yeah, I've used hardwood billets and they work great on tough stone like rhyolite and quartzite. I have an osage billet, but I know James Parker (robustus) likes dogwood. I watched him blast some beautiful, long flakes off some tough rhyolite at a knap-in a few years ago, and he was using a big dogwood billet. I also talked to a friend who's into experimental archaeology and he's been on digs where the indians left behind huge quartzite percussion flakes that looked like potato chips. The only way my friend could get flakes like that was by using a hardwood billet made of live oak. He told me that with tough stone you need to finesse it more, and use a softer hammer. Intuition would lead you to believe a harder hammer is best, but it actually isn't. I saw some of the points my friend made, and they were out of the toughest, grainiest quartzite I had ever seen. And they were BEAUTIFUL.
I always used to wonder how the indians here in Georgia made such beautiful points out of such tough materials like grainy quartzite, so I tried it with antler but the stone wouldn't cooperate. But as soon as I started using an osage billet, the stone magically started working better than it ever had before. My flake removals were clean, whereas with harder hammers I was having a lot of step fractures and crushed edges. The key to hardwood billets is that they must be considerably larger than a comparable antler billet. Because the weight of the billet is key, you will need a much larger wooden billet to attain that weight. Woods like hickory and dogwood are probably better than osage, but my osage billet works, though it's a bit small and light. I plan on making some larger ones in the future.
Good luck with it and let's see some pictures of your finished work.
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I will post some work, but me billets need to season. There kinda wet right now
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Yeah, they need to be good and dry. And you have to really whack the rock, too-hit it like you're trying to kill a snake. :) The dogwood billet I use the most is about the diameter of my forearm. I think the reason that the softer billets work on tough rock is beacause they grab the edge and initiate a long, slow start of fracture. Same thing with hammerstones-soft ones work a lot better on tough rock than a hard hammerstone.
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I've watched Steve and James(robustus) work some tough looking rock with those billets. I think it works great if you want to do it the way the natives did it. But I've seen the same or tougher rock worked easier and thinner with nothing more than a 1 1/4" copper cap on a piece of oak.
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hey knapper, here's a pic of a quartz point I made today. I used the hardwood billet and it came out pretty good, although there are some step fractures in it. Oh well, it happens. This was a tough piece of quartz, but the wooden billet really handled it well.
[attachment deleted by admin]
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Really nice point
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Could you guys post some pics of your wood billets alongside a ruler or measuring device? I have some dead dogwood trees to remove, and I would like to use the wood for something.
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Here ya go.
[attachment deleted by admin]
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I have let my billets dry for about 3 days now and I am inpressed, I wacked on a piec of novaculite today with the largest one and I was romoving some pretty good material. I noticed that it doesnt need much grinding though. My billets split while drying, hope that doenst hurt them in the longrun.
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I don't think it will, unless the splits are REALLY big. Even if they are, just turn the billet so you're not striking where the split is and you should be fine.
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awesome bill. this just opened up a whole new supply of stone for me. connecticut is all quartz. ive gotten a few decent points from it. but now im inspired to give it another go with the dogwood billet i have
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HEy Jamie,
I hope ya get some good points out of that Conneticut quartz. Here's another tip: I've noticed that on some quartz, you actually get bigger, better flakes if you work your edge so it is ABOVE centerline rather than below it. Because quartz is so brittle and grainy, if you make your platform below centerline you don't have enough mass to support the blow and your edges can crush. Edges that are above centerline work better because there's more strength underneath the impact point. OF course it depends a lot on the quality and type of quartz you have. You'll just have to experiment with it... try edges above and below centerline to see what works best. Good luck dude, and post some of your pics when you've made a few points...I'd love to see 'em.
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thanks again. im teaching this weekend and while everybody is workin on their project ill try some quartz
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Any other woods beside flowing dogwood that will work for billets?
That don't grow up here but lots of Lilac which is a tight grained dense wood.
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Besides dogwood, persimmon, live oak and boxwood are good. Other hard woods will work , just not as good.
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None of them grow up here :( I have a chunk of lilac somewhere, if I can find it I will see about making a billet
and will bring it to the Classic so you can try it Steve :) Ok another question with the quartz how big of a piece
do you need and you must have to pressure flake to some extent right? Up along lake Superior I can get quartz but
most pieces will be fist sized and rounded from erosion, ya think it will work?
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Sometimes you can bipolar percussion those round cobbles into good spalls. It's better to find big chunks to spall if you can get them. Paul (Ehkahk) gave me some quartzite once that he found somewhere on the shore of one of the Great Lakes-it was killer stuff.
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I was at the water Creek knappin a couple years ago and Marty Rooter(sp, Great abo knapper) was useing some billets from some south american wood.can't remember what he called them but they were hard!
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I will try and get some of the Lake Superior quartz before the Classic, if the snow melts by then ::)