Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => ABO => Topic started by: Hummingbird Point on December 07, 2015, 06:07:43 pm
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I had an odd experience last night. Some little gray men came to visit me. They put me in their space ship and took me to a grassy knoll in Dallas. There a tame Sasquatch taught me two top secret knapping methods that allow insane amounts of power and accuracy to be harnessed from small pieces of antler. With either method, just about any random piece of solid antler can be used. The first used a piece of deer tine 0.75 inches in diameter by 3 inches long. I used it to make the preform below in under 10 minutes. The material is Onondaga Chert, width is 43 mm, thickness is 6.5 mm.
(http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/squirrelacre/12072015second_zpsh7owh7sr.jpg) (http://s556.photobucket.com/user/squirrelacre/media/12072015second_zpsh7owh7sr.jpg.html)
The second method used a small whitetail base, 1 inch in diameter and 4 inches long. I made the preform below from raw Georgetown. It is 48 mm wide by 6 mm thick.
(http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/squirrelacre/12072015first_zpsoql805qm.jpg) (http://s556.photobucket.com/user/squirrelacre/media/12072015first_zpsoql805qm.jpg.html)
Okay, just having a little fun. Like Ben I gave up my billets years ago. Just wanted to show the ways I know of that small pieces of antler can be used on toughish stone to produce big results. The Onodaga preform was made using an antler hammer as described by Cushing in The Arrow, for more information see:
http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/60533/Antler-hammers
The Georgetown preform was made using a scaled down version of Marty Reuter’s shaft punch, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaNs7H2ABBw
I will fully confess to having no idea how to make controlled overshot flakes with these, or any other tools, and acknowledge the superiority of any knapper that can.
Keith
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So you are about 6.5 :1 that is great. The first time I hit 6:1 I was super happy with the accomplishment. I like the nice flake scares. Can you post a picture again of the tool. I keep adding in the antler punch but still find it a bit of a mystery as to how to consistently produce thinning flakes. I am going to have to watch those links again.
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You had me going for a minute Keith....lol
I remember seeing those antler hammers at House Mountain and couldn't wait to get home and make one or two...they really work great. thanks again for sharing the info!
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Keith, that is impressive for Onondaga nice work.
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Yes, very impressive for Onandaga, and no gas mask?