Letting it settle

[Marc St Louis]

I find that when I am trying to do something I benefit from taking a break from it for awhile and then coming back to it.  Seems to give my mind time to process what I have learned.  I don't do a lot of knapping but the process of stopping and letting what I have learned sink in has helped me, especially in not getting too frustrated. 

I started to do some knapping again a few weeks ago after a break of several months.  My points were not too bad before but I have improved my technique a bit and my points are quite a bit better.  One of the things I learned over the last week or so is making my points extremely sharp.  The pressure flaking method I am using for this is to flick the tip of my flaker upwards gently at the point I am going to take a flake off before I remove a flake.  This seems to remove any loose little bits that can give me problems.  I don't know if anyone else does this but it works quite well for me.

[JackCrafty]

I find that when I am trying to do something I benefit from taking a break from it for awhile and then coming back to it.

That's my excuse too.

[Josh B]

Marc, I often do the same thing in lieu of abrading.  I'm self taught for the most part and didn't know there was such a thing as abrading or what the benefit of abrading was.  Now I "backscratch" out of habit more than any other reason.  Josh

[gstoneberg]

Good deal Marc.  Seems like the only time I take a break from knapping is to work on a bow.  Even so, things seem to work better when I get back to it.  I definitely need to improve my sharpening.

George

[Marc St Louis]

And you are sticking to it Patrick? 

Josh, I had done this "backscratching" before but this time I was much more careful when I did it with much better end results.  I still abraid as well

[aaron]

yes on both counts!
Whatever i am working at too obsessively, it helps to put it down  or take some time to think.
And also "backscratching" . I do it (without abrading) when making the final passes on a point i want really sharp.

[criveraville]

Marc that's a great plan.. When I write I always benifit from taking a break and then going back to it. But with other "projects" not so much

Cipriano

[JackCrafty]