Author Topic: A few I've made lately  (Read 3916 times)

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Offline 1442

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Re: A few I've made lately
« Reply #15 on: March 02, 2017, 08:56:11 am »
here's the other side before I started. you can make out the ugly on that third one.
Nclonghunter, I used to try to split some gravel bipolar. I got a couple to work half good but there are so many shallow cracks under the cortex that I would usually just crumble the ends  or only remove a portion of one side. I try to pick pieces with a flatter profile nowadays like these here that are too thin to bipolar anyway. I think they're too thin anyway, I never was able to get it to work on thicker stuff and wouldn't even consider it on thinner pieces like these.
Citronele gravel seems to be more solid just under the cortex and it is more bipolarable. I've found many pieces of citronele that the natives bipolared nice thinnish slabs and I always wondered how they did it and would comment to people that they had some way of breaking gravel into thin slabs. Then one day after I started knapping, I learned about bipolar reduction and realized that was how they was doing it.
I have a rock saw now too so if I get a piece with good material and thick enough, I just saw it in two

Offline Patches

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Re: A few I've made lately
« Reply #16 on: March 02, 2017, 09:14:58 am »
How do you thin them?  I guess when I knap I hit at the wrong angle.  Do you hit the platform at a really shallow angle to reduce thickness without losing width? 

Those are beautiful points!

Neal 
"You are never a complete failure as long as you can be used as a bad example..."

Offline 1442

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Re: A few I've made lately
« Reply #17 on: March 03, 2017, 08:47:45 am »
Patches,
I try to create short steep angles that will let me get overshot flakes or almost overshots and I thin real aggressively early in the process. I don't try to make picture perfect platforms, I just get an angle that will work and take some relief flakes if needed, then work off that angle until I've removed the most material I can.
The most importantthing that took me forever to realize is to get rid of any lip created by previous flakes. That lip can cause the energy to go off in other directions and always puts it diving into the rock too deep to get a clean termination.
I really can't hit very accurate , so I don't try to make small platforms. Ijust get the angles close, grind it good then hit hard. I use a large bopper too. My friend Freezecracked calls it heavy slow percussion.

I can't expain it too good. I will try to take some pics of how I set up an angle to use as a platform and the sequence to work that angle to max effect. I even got me a smart phone recently and might could take some video. I reckon that would be the best method for me to convey what I want to.
As a piece gets smaller and thinner, swing accuracy gets more important and misstrikes cause more trouble then. That's where I start to struggle the most because my accuracy just aint good enough to hit right where I want to half the time.
It's supposed to rain this weekend, and I will make it a point to shoot some video. I always want to help the best I can but my lack of literary skills makes it impossible to get across any understanding of what I try to say.
I gotta run for now, working on a brick chimney way up in the air and need to finish before the rain comes.
I'LL BE BACK!!!