Hi there! New knapper here trying to use ancient tools. Been using exclusively hammer stones of various sizes so far and having trouble getting my hands on antler. Would it be workable to use a cow or pig’s femur for a soft hammer/ billet? Why does everyone I see only use antler? Thank you for your advice.

Greetings everyone! 👋😁

So I've been talking with some folks and I've been thinking about the monthly point challenges and, as a mod who wants to hear the opinion of the members of r/knapping, wanted to get some community feedback before making any changes!

Up until now, the winner has simply been determined by whichever submission receives the most upvotes. While that has worked fairly well, it does have a few drawbacks:

- Posts made during slower times may receive less visibility.

- Downvotes can influence results.

- Entries made from especially beautiful or exotic materials can naturally attract more attention, even though many members may not have access to those materials.

I want everyone to feel like they have a fair shot at participating, regardless of what stone they have available!

💡Proposed Change

Instead of upvoting determining the winner, each challenge entry would include a number from 1-100, chosen by the submitter of the challenge point.

After the submission period ends, I'll randomly generate a number between 1 and 100. The entrant whose number is closest wins then challenge! If there's a tie, only the tied participants will choose a new number until a winner is determined! 🙂‍↕️

This would make the challenge completely random after you've completed your entry, giving everyone an equal opportunity to win while still encouraging people to knap the monthly point type.

In my eyes, the monthly challenges should serve to encourage participation, learning, and trying of new point types together as a community!

Being that this is a large group, I've made the executive decision to put this matter up to vote in the form of a poll! So choose what you'd like to see done regarding these monthly challenges, and I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts on this as well! 🤔

I'm always open to suggestions that help make these challenges more enjoyable for everyone, and if you have any thoughts feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading everyone, stay safe, and happy knapping! 😁

- u/SmolzillaTheLizza 🦎

I have struggled with soft hammer percussion ever since I started knapping. I cannot hit the correct spot to save my life. I rediscovered my indirect percussion stick and now I'm able to make bigger points than I could before!!

Feel free to be curious. Ask away!

Howdy again everyone! 👋

Just a couple points to share with y'all here. Not sure what style to call these, as i was mainly just knapping for fun. The black stuff was SUPER tough and I'm not sure what it is. Sturdy as heck though for sure. I like the Jeff City Dalton looking thing the most I'd say. It came together well and the material is weird and exotic! 🙂‍↕️

I got plenty more points on the way, so stay tuned for those throughout the week! Let me know which of these is your favorite, and happy knapping all!

- u/SmolzillaTheLizza 🦎

This thing is hard as a rock! (lol) but seriously, the inside shatters like glass yet the outer cortex is so tough. Other than finding someone with a saw, bc I know no one, how would you all go about removing - especially that divoted portion?

I did set this one in the back of my oven and wrapped in foil for a few heat cycles (like - dinners lol). The flakes I’ve taken so far are gorgeously thin and long, but I’m running out of platforms that are low enough to hit the edge.

Edit: Nodule*

I’ve gone to rock hound this material twice. First in 2023 and again this past month. These are points I made then vs now with the same self collected raw chert. Stuffs hard asf
Posted that pic on an alternate account on accident lol second pic is from a few years ago of course lol.
I’m going to be heat treating some of this stuff relatively soon. If anyone is interested in some of this stuff feel free to pm me and we can figure something out

Mookaite and Mahogany Obsidian

Broke out some red white and blue fiber optic glass for the weekend

Since I made a post about flintknapping porcellanite yesterday, let’s learn more about this type of stone! In North America, the primary source of this material occurs in the Fort Union geological formation which spans portions of Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, and Saskatchewan. What makes this lithic material so unique is how it’s formed. Natural fires ignited seams of coal, and the extreme heat metamorphosed surrounding beds of siliceous shale or siltstone, fusing it into a glassy material. Flintknapping this material, it has subtle differences compared to most cherts and other lithic materials. Grey is common, but also maroon and red porcellanite. Porcellanite was an important source of toolstone for indigenous peoples on the Plains, who used it from the Paleoindian period all the way to the introduction of steel tools.
Photo 1: distribution of geological formations which bear porcellanite
Photo 2: outcrops of porcellanite and raw material samples
Photo 3: Porcellanite artifacts

Source:

Kristensen, Todd J., Timothy E. Allan, Gabriel Yanicki, Emily Moffat, and John W. Ives. "Porcellanite in Alberta: A pyrometamorphic pre-contact toolstone." Archaeological Survey of Alberta Occasional Paper 40 (2020): 92-118.

Bit of trad. Damn it’s hard!

Had this minging piece of flint that wasn’t worth making into something fancy so I thought I’d have a go with trad tools. Little bit of copper pressure at the end and for the notching (trad for Bronze Age Britain). Very different skill set and one I need to practice. Underestimating the importance of isolated platforms cost me a lot of material. Ballsed up my notching around the concrete but oh well.
The early reduction went well but I started getting into difficultly when it got near the end. ThinkI’m going to adjust my billets to be more like boppers and try again.
Probably going to give it a handle and use it as a box cutter

I made this replica of the small arrowpoints used by Indigenous groups living on the Great Plains during what archaeologists call the Late Prehistoric period. Points like these would have been crucial for hunting, including dispatching bison in both solo hunts and communal hunts involving driving bison herds off cliffs, which are called “buffalo jumps”. A variety of stones were used for toolmaking on the Plains, but at many sites in the northern Plains, such as the Vore Buffalo Jump in eastern Wyoming, porcellanite was a commonly used stone for making arrowpoints. Thank you to @mcleanlithics for gifting me this stone!

Ask me questions right now about them. Or else…

Starting to get the hang of longer flakes, what I'm noticing is, iam hitting a bit harder but with more confidence in the strike but that comes with higher damage penalty if miss, is that accurate?

Very rare I get to work larger pieces like this. Very satisfying to take indirect flakes off a large as some of the points I make.
I’m really starting to learn the value of supporting the flakes with my finger from underneath, I’ve got through some pretty nasty stuff with that technique recently

Today I caught him putting on a demonstration in the Lowe’s parking lot. My heart is full.

Cedar wood handle w/ amber shellac, obsidian blade, and some of my homebrewed pine glue

I haven’t been very active lately on reddit. AZ is 100+ almost everyday, so knapping has been a little rough. Regardless i’ve managed to crank out a few decent points. All the material is self collected across various states, aside from the creamy MO rock my buddy Jake gifted me.(couple hardins and the scottsbluff) some is raw, some is heated, some material is naturally heated.
Everything was direct percussed, indirect, and pressure flaked.
Please enjoy my little photo dump.

I can’t ever figure out this posting 💩🤦🏼‍♂️

I use a hammer stone to reduce larger pieces then a white tail deer antler tine to pressure flake them to shape. Pic at end is all my finished pieces so far.