Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: iowabow on December 16, 2010, 09:54:45 pm
-
I have many different types of flint in the creek how do i know which pieces are high quality or not. Should I use the rocks in the creek or should i dig into the bank for rocks that have not frozen in the past. I live in the burlington Iowa area.
-
Take a good hammerstone or a nice big copper bopper along with you and hit that rock and knock a flake off the end, you'll be able to tell the qaulity right quick. ' Frank
-
ok i can knock a flake from almost every rock down there but some have grain and some small holes... ok I will snap a picture if that will help i am new and really dont know what makes one type of flint better from another. I have a qurater mile of flint in a creek to pick from.
-
ok here is a pic of two types of rock i picked up the other day. The one that I knocked a off a flake from has little clear flakes in it. Any input would be great. (http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/rock.jpg)
-
Welcome iowabow :)
Looks like you have plenty of material to practice and learn with!
Ofcourse the creamy, finer grained material on the right looks better, but
you can't always go by looks. The only way to really tell is bust into it.
The coarser grained stuff on the left may be just as good, but looks like either one
will work. I would suggest just trying to make some biface preforms, as thin as possible
to begin with just to get familiar with the rock and not worry so much about making
a finished point. Sometimes you will work the whole nodule down into a biface and
sometimes you will just knock a spall off to work. Shoot, with all the material you have
available to you, you ought to be a pro by Christmas! ;D
I grew up right down the road from you there in Fairfield. Ain't winters fun! ;)
Later, Joe
-
wow you do know the burlington area! Once it snows it never melts all winter. Makes seeing deer easy (the only plus). i downloaded a pdf on flint knapping percussion wow now that was helpful. Is it strange to have so many different types of flint in one creek? A lot of the stones are more square than round. I liked that tripod idea for removing large flakes the more square stone. Would anyone like to walk me through a stone (this would sound really strange out of context)...other than my wife
-
Send some my way I would love to try it! Anyway I have been searching all day to find this site I had and cant find ...maybe someone has it and can share... It was a list of all the different knappable rock/flint and or chert for each state! Can someone help?
Ps if I find it I will post it so u can see it will list all the lithics for your state
I found something for u!
http://www.uiowa.edu/~osa/lithics/
Russ
-
lol one of the maps has the deposit cutroad on the other side of the creek from my house. What a great site. I completely forgot that I meet mark anderson that is listed on that web page. Thank you so much for the link.
-
That web site was helpful i drove around and located one of the sites and picked up a rock to compare to the stuff i have.
-
this is a stone from a creek one ridge over from mine. I have never seen black flint in this area. If this were your stone what would you do to work it. I thought I should hit one end the right or left as seen in the photo. I thought this would create a platform to start working the stone. Would you guys walk me though making arrows head for my new arrows. I can make simple arrow heads but only if I get lucky.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/stone.jpg)
-
Well Iowabow, that's a tough one. It would be great if you could find someone in your area
to watch and learn from. It's kindof hard to put the whole process in words because alot of
it depends on how the rock wants to work and you don't know that until you start working it.
I like the looks of that last black stuff, but that doesn't mean it's going to flake well. It could
fracture in a blocky useless mess.
BUT just for the heck of it, it looks like you got three layers there below the dime. I might try
and get it to separate below the middle layer. Try and get the middle and top layer off in one piece
going from front to back in the pic. Try and get it to follow what already looks like a seam there.
That would be one spall or large flake to try and work into a point, then use what's left of your
nodule to try and work another point. Ofcourse you could try and work the whole nodule down
into one point, or it may just break into useless pieces. Don't know till you try.
I see a very large pile of broken rock and flakes in your yard in the future. I'm psychic. ;D
But it looks like you have a good eye for collecting the right material and would suggest you start
to stockpile it. You are going to need it to learn with and if it works well you will be able to
trade or sell it for other things, like money or lessons. ;)
I wonder what kindof tool kit you're working with? Try and get to a knap-in and watch some folks
doing it and keep on watching the available videos. Some of us have to bust up a mountain of
rock before we figure out anything. (That would be me. ;))
Joe
-
You guys are making me nostalgic. I grew up near Aredale, IA and my wife is from Fayette. She still has brothers in the state, but my family has all moved away. Some of the best pheasant hunting in the world there when I was a kid. Haven't been back in years. I'm also just starting to beat on rock myself. Be awhile before I can honestly call it knapping. Good luck.
George
-
I have tried to make some arrowheads but to be honest I really don't know how to make a larger stone do what I want. I have to work with the flakes that I lucky get from trying. Anyway I thought I would post some pictures of these points but understand that I fail12 times for ever one, it is very frustrating. I have a hard time thinning the tail and I am not good at thinning pieces that are not already thin from the start. I also have a hard time deciding where to start on a large stone. I plan on attending a knapping gathering and will keep hitting stone but my big questing is how to get thinning flakes because as I try to thin the angle just gets steeper. My flakes rarely make it to the middle of the biface. These are my tools and I also use the back of a file.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/flint2.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/flint3.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/flint1.jpg)
-
nice work. definitely go on youtube and look up paleomanjim and flintknapping tips. theres more but those are my favorites. explaning how to flintknap online without video is like reading how to do brain surgery. that piece of rock you in the pic is tabular and that a good thing. the tabsular pieces will be easier for you to get started with. i reccomend you look up a video on stitching. its a zigzag technique to get the edges ready for platforms.
-
I think I understand much better about how to work the stone. In the photo there are 3 to 4 layer of flint. The top layer is fine and the lower layers have some kinda flake like mica or something in it. I knocked off an odd shape piece from the top and started removing flakes to isolate the layer I wanted. As I worked I continued to abrade each surface as I went taking my time and the biface below is the result. I know it has steps and hinges but the cool thing is that it is thin and not block like. In the past I could only make something from a thin flake. This rock was ¾ of an inch thick when I started and triangle shaped on one end. I stopped working on it because I did not want to break my break through piece. I was so jazzed that I went out and bought the materials I saw for making a notching tool.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/tool.jpg)
-
Looks like you're off and running now, Iowa. :)
Keep up the good work! I like hearing about you going for the"layers" or
parts of the rock you want to work.
Also, while you're out collecting rock, keep your eye out for some good river rounded
cobbles of hardstone or quartzite to use as hammerstones to add to your tool kit.
Big ones for spalling the big rocks and smaller ones for an abrading and flaking tool.
Most of them will break pretty easy, but the ones that don't, ofcourse, are the ones to hold on to.
Joe
-
Your doing great Iowa! As afore mentioned, use hammerstones of different sizes for the big spalling and antler for the fine work. I personally like copper boppers for smaller percussion but that's how I learned. I have used antler for smaller percussion but prefer copper but I still use stones for the big stuff - maybe cause my biggest copper is only sooo big ;).
-
OK I will look for hammer stones this morning when I go out. The stone that you are talking about are they they made of the same material that the Indians made axe heads from. The material I see in the axe heads looks like black stone. Could you or someone post a pick of the stone you are tallking about. I guess I could also goggle it but you real never know what your getting that way. A member sent me in the mail a gift of copper boppers and deer antler tools and a pulley and rope for tillering my bow so I am very appreciative and cant wait to try them out today. I be hammering on stone right now but the wife would hammer on me for making noise at 5am.
-
Wonder what that rock would like like after it was cooked?
-
can you discribehow you cook them
-
OK I took some pictures of the flint layer in the creek I thought some of you experienced rock hunters might have some thoughts about this flint. I am sending the guy that send me that great gift a box of rocks to try. Would some of you very good rock chippers like to try a rock I can send like 4 people a sample because of the cost. I thought if I gave some flint away you could then give me some feed back on the way you think the rock works. Now you have to understand that you might just get garbage in the mail because I might send you something you would never pick up. Just MP me. I had a very hard time getting stones this morning because the ice is like mortar. Any thoughts on the pictures?
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/creek2.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/creek4.jpg)
-
Give me a pry bar and a hammerstone ! Quick ! !....Nice ! ' Frank
-
wish i had that in my back yard!!
-
Those are my thoughts EXACTLY guys. ;D
Well, I've been doing some reading and it appears the name "Burlington Chert"
originated from that chert there in your backyard of Burlington, IA, Iowabow.
So it's no wonder you have quite a bit around you. Even tho the chert trends southwest into Missouri
and west of you, that's where the name comes from and,ofcourse, the indians have been using it forever.
Now, I found a pretty good report on the geology of the Burlington area, but you pretty much
have to be a geologist to understand a dang word of it. Actually, it's a Field Trip Guide. I was wondering
if there was any good granite, quartzite, or hardstone in your area that you might find for hammerstones,
and I don't think so. Mostly limestone, dolomite, shales, and other sedimentary rock that isn't hard enough
to last very long as a hammerstone. So I'm going to send you a PM with alot of boring info on rock.
I would love to get back up there and some rock collecting some time. You ought to be collecting fossils, too.
Interesting tho, before Burlington was named that it was called Flint Hills and the Indian name
was Shoquoquon, ( Shok-ko-kon). It was the "Flint Ridge" of that area.
Joe
-
OK I made another discovery this has to do with pressure flaking, in the past seen on the right side of the blade I would randonly flake the stone to shape but this time I decided to follow the ridges and turn the bi face up so that I was pushing down the ridge with the copper pressure flaking tool. It was like the clouds parted and I could see. I don't know if this is the right time to use this technique or not but how cool. the right side I did first and the left side next. I started at the tip and continued this pattern on down. I did not think at the time to push the same angle but I think if i did the pattern would be more orderly. Now thinking way ahead does this create a ridge in the center that is used to flute? Now that I have figured out something can you pros tell me if I am headed down the right path or can you tell me more about what I have figured out.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/flake.jpg)