Getting started on a chunk

[Papa Matt]

Brothers,

 I am new to flintknapping and am trying to get set up right. I have several fist-sized chunks of flint. My question is, to break smaller pieces of of these, can I use a thick whitetail antler base about 8 inches long? I know most people use a copper bopper but I don't have any and I know there must be a way without copper because the natives didn't always have copper. But my chunks are pretty thick and I wonder if a thick piece of antler will work to break off smaller chunks. Any advice?

-Matt

[Otoe Bow]

Just about any thing that is solid and dense, yet have a soft enough surface to "grab" the platform ever so slightly will work.  Hammer stones such as rounded river cobbles, antler or even clubs made of wood such as dogwood all work.  I currently use copper, but have used hammer stones.  The reason I use copper is most of the rock in my area is sandstone and too soft.  They make good abraders but that's about it. 

Good luck and post results. 

Mike

[Hillbilly]

If you're trying to thin the chunks down into a preform, the antler is the way to go. You don't need that unholy copper anyway, antler is better. If you're trying to knock spalls off the chunk to make small points from, a hammerstone is what you want, a big moose antler is good for spalling, but deer antler usually lacks the weight to knock off big spalls. Find a rounded hammerstone a little smaller than fist-sized, preferably a gritty river-smoothed stone that's hard enough to take the impact, but soft and gritty enough to "grab" the edge. Find an edge of your flint that's strong, but less than a 90 degree angle, and strike a glancing blow with the hammerstone, aiming for just a bit in from the edge. Let your swing follow through. You don't want to strike straight in, the glancing blow will take off a good spall if you get the angle right.

[Otoe Bow]

Dang Steve, I learned something from that as well, like your utter comtempt for copper.     .

Mike

[Papa Matt]

Right on, Thanks Atoe and Hillbilly, that's just what I was asking and needing to hear.

Killer illustration Hillbilly, very much appreciated! You guys are great!


-Matt

[Hillbilly]

Mike, not an utter contempt, i just consider it to be a wretched, evil material spawned of the dev-ill.     Naw, I got no problem with copper-swatters.   I just never got the feel for it myself, I learned with wood, stone, and antler and they feel better to me than copper. If you look closely, you might even find some of the unholy substance contaminating the tips of some of my pressure flakers.  

[Justin Snyder]

Hey Steve, I can go down to the abandoned copper mine and get you some big green rocks so you can make your own copper tips so it is more primitive. 

[Hillbilly]

Justin- I've actually seen a copper pressure flaker that was dug out a Mississippian mound near here during one of the archaological digs.

[Justin Snyder]

With all the copper jewlery they made I wouldn't believe it if someone said they didn't use some for knapping. I picked up a couple of baseball sized rocks that have a heavy concentration of copper in them.  I have been trying to figure out how to melt them into billets/bars.  Ill bet they will spall just like they are.

[Hillbilly]

Justin, I'd guess that the main reason it wasn't used more was because of it's value- would be kinda like one of us making a knapping billet out of a gold ingot.

[mullet]

  Copper knapping tools have been found in Florida in the mound sites.They were believed to have been traded from the Hopewellian sites in the north. There is also a lot of copper jewelry found in burials.