Ben,
Janka hardness...yeah that makes sense. I used a piece of bitternut hickory, but in looking it up I see it is not as hard as I thought. I may try dogwood. If anyone is interested in this, you can find specs on about any kind of wood at:
http://www.wood-database.com/
I have some long, flat pieces of Catoctin greenstone (metabasalt) which I have tried as strikers. They are okay, but I like the antler better. It may just be a "feel" thing. Still, something to experiment more with.
Explain the anvil thing a bit more. You mean instead of using your hand on the side opposite the flaker, you use an anvil? So it's like a bipolar type of effect? Wood, antler, or stone? I am having trouble picturing it, do you have a photo by any chance? Ever way I imagine it seems awkward.
Keith
In lighter, finer flaking antler on antler flaking is good. Antler on antler produces a great deal of shock, which produces fast flying flakes. But, if you get into heavier flaking, you may find that whitetail antler lacks mass. In Aboriginal American flintknapping, the knappers used antler knapping hammers, as well as stone mauls. With the hammer they could produce greater swinging speeds coupled with greater mass.
But, if you want to get into even heavier flaking, then you may need to use stone on wood flaking. If you do, then the wood will need time to compress, during impact. During that time frame, the support cannot give, and you may have to hit really, really hard. At a certain point, the process could involve forces that are too strong for handheld support. If so, you can cut a notch in a block of wood, and lay the point on leather, on top of the cut notch. The notch is the equivalent of the modern day "Bradley block". Only, notched/hollowed supports were used by native knappers, in indirect percussion flaking, as well as in pressure flaking. If you do this, you will probably need to hold the point down under foot. And, if you hold the point under foot, then you may need to wrap it in leather.
I have worked with many different strikers, in many different situations. So, I am familiar with the effects of antler on antler, stone on antler, wood on antler, stone on wood, wood on stone, etc.
Wood on stone is actually interesting, because if you hold the stone flaker lightly, a short distance from the platform, you can pop it with the wooden striker, and the sheer speed of the stone flaker movement is good for detaching long, large, bladelike spalls.
On the other hand, you can use a stone striker on wood, to create a heavy blow that causes the wood to compress, during impact. Since this compression time is long, there is a lag between the blow, and detachment. And, when sufficient force is reached, the blade will detach with almost pressure like attributes.
One could say that one could use an indirect percussion process, to create a direct percussion blow - or a blow that is pressure like, in nature. And, this is one of the reasons why indirect percussion can lead to a broad range of effects. But, indirect percussion can also be combined with other processes, in order to create additional forces, that cannot be directly created. And, when these additional forces act upon the break, it has unusual effects. But, hey, what do I know. I only studied a couple thousand archaeological publications, tried to get people to look at the flakers people used to use, and got banned. Lol. So, hey, what do I know.
Do you see this flake? Do you know why it looks long, and "bladelike"? It is because there is a third flintknapping process that is affecting the break. And, the process creating the blade-like effect is not pressure, or indirect percussion, even though those processes affect other parts of the break.
If a person goes back through Clovis literature, the same thing that caused this flake to run long also can cause other effects, that have already been described in Clovis literature. But, it is not pressure, nor is it indirect percussion. There is a clue right there in the trajectory, and in some cases, in something that is more than just the trajectory. And, if anyone bothers to look at Clovis research, they will find the same telltale signs, there.
But, there is something beyond that. See how the break curves at a right angle (outrepasse), prior to reaching the opposite side? That happens because the third flintknapping process incorporated into the overall process creates one additional force that cannot be directly created. That force is partly the result of the three flintknapping processes being combined. And, the outrepasse effect is to some degree controllable, so long as the other three processes are carefully combined. And, this all relates to the trajectory that I just described.
I figured this out in my head, from looking at thousands of records, and finally realizing that it was to some degree blueprinted in what was left to us - the records of flintknapping processes. So, here is a little more banned Native American flintknapping, in honor of all the decent, good hearted people who ever studied the subject, and gave us the records that we now have:
Again, the blade-like qualities are inescapable.
