penetration with stone points

[mullet]

David,I know when I switch to my little edge work tools I'm at the stage I'm not pulling flakes.Hillbilly can back me up on how small the points on my small tools are.When I get to the point of sharpening I'm really breaking a very small edge off,not running a flake.I have tools made of ground to a needle point,steel screw driver and very sharp copper nails.I've not been able to get bone or antler sharpened to as small a point as metal.David, read the thread Billy started about stone points and check out the info on the web sites on obsidian.Basically obsidian can't get any sharper than a fresh flake.

[Justin Snyder]

David, when I get to the stage of sharpening the edge, I am using that little tiny needle sharp point of the tool that Mullet is talking about. All of the thinning and running of flakes is done by now. It is straight down pressure, not back into the point.  The flake that comes off is so small you can hardly see it.  It rarely goes more than 1/16" back onto the point.  Justin

[Hillbilly]

I usually do the same thing with final sharpening-either a little tiny copper nail or a horseshoe nail filed to a tiny point, and make little micro-serrations down the edge. I pressure flake with antler quite often, and I find it harder to get a really fine sharp edge with, mainly because like Eddie said, you can't get the tip as sharp. The only thing that I can get noticibly sharper with antler is quartz/quartzite-it just doesn't seem to like copper at all at any stage in the process.

[D. Tiller]

Hmm! Maybe I should get a bunch of dentil tools then.    Just seems I, personaly, get better flakes at the end with the deer antler instead of using copper. May just be me then?!? 

David T

[Justin Snyder]

If you are after BIG flakes that run across the point, the antler is great.  Justin

[D. Tiller]

Nah! Its the short sharpenning flakes. I always seem to dull the edges when I make them with copper. Maybe I'm just using too large of a point on my copper tools?

[mullet]

  David,one way I make mine smaller is by beating them flat.I use copper gound wire.You can harden it by twisting it or beating it on a flat metal surface.You can feel the heat in the copper after pounding it.Any way ,I flatten it and then file it to a fine edge.Or sharpen it to a very fine point.I think steel works better for this.