what did you learn on?

[JustinNC]

Just what the subject asks.

I refuse to learn on but our good wonderful, buttery smooth rhyolite .

I think it's going to be the death of me. I just can seem to get those critical ridges when it matters to take a major end thinning flake and seem to end up whittling it down before it gets thin enough. Them hill folk Parker cuzins could probably finish my "bifaces" but not I.

...make no mistake about it...it may take me longer to catch on, but I will learn on green, hard, nawth cackalaki rhyolite or not learn at all.

[Bevan R.]

What little I have done has been obsidian, glass, cooked nov.

Bevan

[sailordad]

my very first points were dacite(about 10 lbs,3 bird points)
then i got a hold of a bunch of obsidion slabs (about 50)
also used you tube to learn
it helped alot
if you do search on you tube you may even find a vid on knapping that stuff

ive tried that rhyolite
hate that crap,and i like hard materials
but the stuff i got is miserable to work
i cant hit it hard enough to get a clean flake with out it stepping out on me

id rather knapp the sidewalk out front 

[jamie]

quartz, basalt and concrete. then i bought some obsidian and started bleeding bad. definetly prefer the tough stuff

[Tower]

Edwards plateau from the Texas hill country.Also a local chert in Lampasas county. It's white creamy & doesn't need any heat.I found an old native quarry on a friends ranch. I haven't found a rancher yet that wont let me go & pick up some rocks from his property. I've been told son if your going to get one load you might as well get two.

[mullet]

 i've made a lot of gravel out of coral.

[JustinNC]

I'm going to learn on this rhyolite one way or the other, if I have to drive up to hill, set a few pieces out by Jame's knappin pit for bait, you know, kind of like luring a skirl into a trap with peanuts, and hide in the bushes and watch and see how it's really done.

It'll be working fine, and then all of a sudden I'll get a big flake to roll out or step out on me and then I'll spend the rest of my rock up trying to set it up to take that stack out and before I know it, I went from something with a reasonable width/thickness ratio to a cucumber shaped "biface".

[JackCrafty]

I learned on agate from Arizona and Georgetown flint.  It was available at my local landscaper supply yard.  I also tried tempered glass, beer bottle glass, and plate glass.  I used steel/copper boppers and steel/copper pressure flakers.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have used the highest quality flint, hammer stones, and antler.  Period.  My flintkanpping was going nowhere until I switched to highest quality Georgetown, cooked Edwards chert, soft stone abraiders, hammerstones, and the best antler I could get.  After a year of using antler, I switched back to copper and steel and the light went on.  DAMN!  SO THIS IS WHAT THEY CALL THE "KNAPPERS HIGH".  It was like the feeling you get when jogging actually feels good, finally.

If you insist on using a very hard material, then here's my advice.  This is just one opinion. 
Use the hardest tools you can get your hands on:  hard steel (not mild steel), hard hammerstones, grinding wheel abraiders, and diamond files.  You also need to minimize your pressure flaking and get good at percussion  - direct and indirect.  You can get thin flakes from Ryolite if you use very soft boppers, but you will break those flakes when you start to shape them.

It may surprise you that many real artifacts have step fractures.  Sometimes, the real points look rather crude but they worked for their intended purpose.

There are a few goals you should be concerned with:

Is it the right shape?
Is it the right size?
Is it the right thickness?
Is it SHARP?

Do not be concerned with:

Will someone want to buy this?
Is it purdy?
Is it cute?
Is it beautiful, lovely, etc. etc...

Ryolite is miserable stuff for someone who wants to produce points that are razor thin and look like a million bucks.  It's not going to happen.

Ryolite is awesome stuff for someone who likes a material that will stand up to a lot of abuse. 

[jamie]

exactly what pat said............or hit it harder, use a lot of padding, expect bruises

[JustinNC]

I have several rhyolite artifacts, all but one have step fractures on them. I'm getting better, I have yet to go from flake/spall to a point yet. I suppose if I messed with bird points more and just shaped up some of the flakes Ive knocked off Id have a few points, and if push comes to shove, in order to hunt with stone, I will, but right now Im shooting for points with flake scars on both sides, not a thin flake that has been shaped into a triangle. I seem to start out well when I have ample room to prepare a platform, but as I whittle it down, I choke and inevidably have to thin from the sides and run out of width before it's thin enough.......or take a stupid hit with a hammerstone that knocks out a flake that's got a big bulb on it.

I've got one dogwood billet, about 12" long and a little bigger than a golfball, and an array of every changing, soft cortexed, sandstone? hammerstones. A small/med whitetail billet that doesnt have enough mass to be effective on anything I'm working right now.

I've got a persimmon limb that should just about be ready to turn into billets. One thats about as big around as  my forearm and about as long is getting ready to come out of it. I just hate when Im trying to be careful and not hit too deep and miss and hit myself on the leg.

Jame I'm about 5 different shades of black, purple and blue this morning on my left thigh! A swing and a miss with a wood billet HURTS

[JackCrafty]

Cool.  If you've got some real artifacts, you can learn a lot from them.

As for thinning, you can thin from the ends as well as from the sides, as long as you use a hard hammer.  A soft hammer will grab the end and snap the point.

When the point gets smaller, and you don't have much material for a platform, try clamping the point in a vise, make a smaller platform, and knock off a flake using indirect percussion.  Try using a masonry nail and a hammer to knock off the flakes.

[JustinNC]

Cool.  If you've got some real artifacts, you can learn a lot from them.

As for thinning, you can thin from the ends as well as from the sides, as long as you use a hard hammer.  A soft hammer will grab the end and snap the point.

When the point gets smaller, and you don't have much material for a platform, try clamping the point in a vise, make a smaller platform, and knock off a flake using indirect percussion.  Try using a masonry nail and a hammer to knock off the flakes.

I'd probably try several different things if I werent trying to stay all abo with it lol. I'm not trying to be smart I promise lol. Just trying to keep it to what they locals would have had on hand. I do use indrect occasionally, well sort of. If I get a step fracture and the flake doesnt break, I'll lay it back in there where it was and whack it again to try and sheer the fracture off. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Good little tip in one of those books I read.

End thinning is something Id like to see in person. Ive watched it on youtube, and done it occasionally, for some reason, this is where platform preparation really falls off for me. I can't wrap my mind around what I need to do unless there is a nice clear ridge running from the end, into the flake.

[JackCrafty]

Check out this video.  Look at the indirect percussion methods.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMDDcIdgsEA

[jamie]

do a search for "rocker punch knapping"

[cowboy]

All this advice is good! I learned on raw pedernales stuff and the occasional root beer that I found. Tonnage, then I learned the art of cooking the rock and worked with that  - tonnage till I started picking up on it. Looked at books, vid's, utube. Best thing I ever did was get with somebody that could show me in person..