While I agree about copper, I don't believe that fits with my goals. I use a solid soft brass bopper during reduction a lot, if for no other reason, than to conserve hammerstones. Available tools is the thing, and while there are small copper deposits in this area, and one about ten miles from my land and cabin, I don't think that meets the available standard very well. I think that fits more with a large permanent camp, and trade, than it does the available tools idea.
I have been having good luck with antler, but working raw Burlington, the antlers are very much consumables. Swinging an antler tine about 8 inches long, backwards, heavy end out, knocks very good flakes off the raw, and in the beginning, are rounded so that you can hit specific things. As they wear, the contact area gets wider, and hitting specifics gets harder to do, like with worn hammerstones. Swung the other way, small tip out, you can do some very nice shaping work, while getting pretty much the same flakes you would get with pressure. You can shape a spall or cut that stalled edge on down quickly, but that end wears also. The wear actually keeps it in good shape for pressure work, but how many 8 inch tines do you have laying around? We are back to the available tools thing again.
I have not investigated bone yet.
I watched some of the wood indirect with interest. I watched him just raining flakes off the side of a big plate of Burlington in the video, and my first thought was that he had a different Burlington than any I had seen. I have now handled such material, and very much intend to experiment with wood indirect. That doesn't answer for small careful detail work, but it might make for a more controlled reduction/biface stage. Or so I hope.
I have a wooden dowel with a long piece of brass pin stock glued in. As it wears, I use a razor knife to whittle the wood back to expose more tip. I do not yet have a long pressure flaking tool, but I have a one inch dowel leaned against the wall to make a couple of them. They won't fit the available tools either, but should make working this stuff raw easier.
I had a flat blade of opaque, but very good quality material, that was about 1/4 inch on one edge, broken square, and about half that on the other, with a nice edge bevel on the skinny edge, making it look very much like a piece of a broken sword that was sharpened on one side only, about two inches wide, and six long. Material flakes like a dream. I studied and I finally drew what I wanted to do on the piece. I was going to use it as a uniface knife blade, with a uniface flake pattern edge, but with the actual edge ground sharp, by hand. The idea was to make a knife that could actually be used for a long period of time.
I carefully took the few flakes needed to straighten it. I rounded the end into the shape of a rounded Tanto, reproducing the angle of the rest of the edge. I was already thinking about how to best remove the red staining from the flat perfect sides, and had already decided to clamp it and drill the handle, making a modern style stone bladed knife. I needed one more flake to make the tip correct.
I don't have a blade to show you today. I now have an odd shaped triangular piece that may make a point. I am learning.
When the snow melts, I am going to try again, but the newspaper website says it is minus 5, and the ruler says there is 15 inches of the white stuff on top of where those pieces are. I believe there is at least one other piece that is already close out there, because one of the chunks was pretty much tabbed inside before I touched it. It came apart into tabs much like slabs.
Anyway, it is nice talking to you. I have enjoyed it, but few have discussed the actual working of Burlington in the thread.
