Video: Obsidian HATCHET manufacture using Hammerstone

[AncientTech]

https://youtu.be/MKMnkWeiy-Y

This guy might actually be faster with a hammerstone than Marty Rueter.

By the way, some evidence suggests that flintknappers used to kneel, and lay the biface on top of their knee, on a pad.  Today, since we use chairs, we are more accustomed to sitting upright, in an elevated position. There might be more possibilities, with the knee pad method... 

[caveman2533]

He is not thinning it much.

[Hummingbird Point]

I would have to agree with caveman.  It looks like he is stuck in what Callahan termed learning Phase B, which he summed up as "the biface would become narrow at about the same rate as it would become thin" while most knappers are trying to get rapidly to Learning Phase C, where "the biface would become thin at a more rapid rate than it would become narrow."

But, not judging the man based on one short video clip, and he beats me in that doing work on obsidian with no protection, I would have been on my way to the hospital at the 33 second mark.

Keith

[nclonghunter]

Lol...now I know I am in phase B.....sort of like having a sickness and not knowing what it is called.

[AncientTech]

He is not thinning it much.

He is making a hatchet.   

[AncientTech]

I would have to agree with caveman.  It looks like he is stuck in what Callahan termed learning Phase B, which he summed up as "the biface would become narrow at about the same rate as it would become thin" while most knappers are trying to get rapidly to Learning Phase C, where "the biface would become thin at a more rapid rate than it would become narrow."

But, not judging the man based on one short video clip, and he beats me in that doing work on obsidian with no protection, I would have been on my way to the hospital at the 33 second mark.

Keith

It is a type of hatchet that they sell in tourist shops.  It is not a biface.

[caveman2533]

That's fine in which case he did a fine job. It's also in Spanish so it's not apparent until near the end that he is making a hatchet. I would like to see what he can really do.

[nclonghunter]

Sharp enough to skin a fish with, seen it right off.

[AncientTech]

Notes on hatchet manufacture:

:32 - explains that you cannot only chip one side - the joke is that you have to thin both sides, otherwise you create a turtleback
1:01 - he does not recommend using a hammerstone that is neither too hard, nor too soft
4:12 - explains making a platform on the opposite side of a thick area, to remove the thick area
7:32 - He explains that the price of the hatchet would cost about 12 pesos, which is about .80 cents US.  But, if it is more detailed, it would cost more.  This piece is considered "rustic", but maybe a knife could be more expensive and have better detail
8:32 - If I detail this really good with a piece of deerhorn, the cost could double.  I would need to use a piece of deerhorn or copper to remove smaller flakes