Maybe I can speak for some of us older guys! When I started in the 50s there were no videos, no internet, no information about techniques or tools. Where I lived on a ranch in Wyoming there were lots of chipping grounds from the Sheepeaters. They made gem quality points and tools. They would spall rocks where they found them and carry them back to some camp site where they would make their points. I could pick thru the spalls left behind and they are what I had to learn with. I used elk, moose, and deer horns and some stones to chip with. Thru a UA Journal I finally found a fellow named J B Sollberger from Dallas. He was an authority for the time and I sent him lots of horns. He used to send me his notes and to be honest I had no idea what he was talking about. In the early sixties I had two college professors from Ft. Collins come to the ranch and we made a tape which was to be used in schools to demonstrate flint knapping. I dressed up in my Indian gear and spent a couple of days making points and tools. They sent me a funny shaped tape cassette of the results and seventy five dollars. I still have that tape and have never been able to watch it. I hunted arrow heads and used them as models for making all kinds of tools. Over the years I started to go around the country attending knap ins and learned a lot of new to me techniques. One knapin I attended was in Arkansas where I met Waldorf and his tribe. I found them to be very hard to get to know and learned very little from them, but did start receiving his publication. It was those knap ins where I first learned about modern copper tools. I was hunting big game on the ranch with stone points and the copper just turned me loose making hunting points and skinning knives. When I moved to Oregon and found new materials, agates, jaspers, and obsidian my knapping took another turn and I met Larry Schumacher. He was the very best knapper I ever had the pleasure of watching and learning from. Took my skills to a new level and started a new phase of my knapping life. Now that I am old and have become a philosopher, I would suggest that each of you will go through stages like I have and the knapper you are today may not even resemble the knapper you will become over the years. There are lots of us old guys around the country that are without the ability to make videos to show others their skills. It seems now a days that people learn to knap with copper as it is much easier where us old guys learned what is now called ABO. The best a fellow can do is to pass on his techniques to the next generation! Thanks for reading. Joe
