supportt, vibration dampening and pain

[GlisGlis]

I am starting to grasp the advantages of a good support in many situations
from spalling to more refined stone hammer works
unfortunately the more protection I wear the less effective the support seems to be
result is I often I have to skip knapping days to restore from thigh or fingers pain
is it supposed to get better as I progress?
I've seen many videos where big rocks where knapped directly on the thigh and I cant imagine how to avoid short term pain and long term damages

[Dakota Kid]

I found it got less painful when I started resting the rock on the out side of my thigh. That way the force of the impact runs along side my leg instead of down into it.

Most knapping materials don't require a ton of force to get your flake. If your getting bruises from knapping obsidian your hitting it too hard. Unless of course you bruise easily.

[paulc]

I quit knapping on my thigh...too many ugly bruises. My wife actually suggested I might be engaging in some kind of weird self-hurting thing. She's a threapist....

P

[Hawkdancer]

Sure glad someone else started this thread!  We must all be some sort of masochist to put up with the agony of a break ruining a piece of work, regardless of the material .   I have been wanting to ask about how much force to apply to obsidian to get a flake.  I do expect to make a lot of small pieces before I get it right, but a reference point would help.  Enough pressure to break a pencil or an arrow shaft?  Experiment with glass to get a feel?  I might have a piece of heavy desk cover glass (amazing what can flit across my mind, just remembered that it is on the deck, I think).  I am still in the recovery stage, "If it hurts, don't do that".   I am allergic to pain, so I heed that caveat pretty closely.   At the same time, somebody has to provide therapist with clients 😂
Hawkdancer

[YosemiteBen]

Man o man! is this hard to explain! Once I was told - if you miss at least you did not take too much! I had a nasty bruise! Practice! Use a pen of any kind that puts a mark in your mind! Aim small miss small! draw it all out before you swing! make sure it goes where you think it will!

[Parnell]

One thing I switched while pressure flaking is holding the flaker with my whole fist.  For a long time I was using my pointer finger pressing on the flaker and I see a lot of that with newer people.  There is less power and it hurt my joints.

Last couple months I've been thinking about my posture, etc.  Concentrating on sitting up more, keeping my head up, etc.  Not doing the cave man hunch.  I've been standing up every few minutes to relieve my lower back, which used to get real tight, that was the worst for me.  But, I've started a stretching (yoga) regiment and it's gone.

I don't get leg pain from percussion but most of my percussion is freehand.

[aaron]

flintknapping is so hard to describe in words.... but when it comes to heavy percussion on the leg , it doesn't have to be painful (unless you miss). Most of the energy should go into the biface. The billet may hit your leg a little, but it's important to use only enough force to get the flake and to hit accurately. the biface should be held on the outside of the left leg for  a right handed knapper. press it firmly into the leg and have it positioned so that the billet does not contact the leg at the moment of impact. The billet may hit the leg on follow-through, but most of it's energy is taken by detaching the falke and by moving the biface. This biface movement is minimized by pressing it firmly into the leg. Nodules over the size of a basketball can be worked on the ground , in a shallow hole.

[GlisGlis]

Use a pen of any kind that puts a mark in your mind! Aim small miss small! draw it all out before you swing!

I get it but when I miss usually my brain goes in auto hit berserk mode.
It's something in between Parkinson disease and killing frenzy and that's usually when I make the biggest damages

[Dakota Kid]

Sounds like you need to chop some firewood or till the garden before you start knapping for the evening and get that berserker stuff out of your system ahead of time. Nothing causes failures faster than losing your temper.