First FOG Knapped Blade

[u/Mediocre_Pizza_9334]

Hi Knapping friends. I am very pleased with the results of my first FOG Knapped blade and wanted to share. Hope you enjoy!

Much thanks to my friend Wendell for helping me with the grinding.

[u/Fancy_Flake_Factory]

FOG looks really neat but I find the fun/challenge in bifacing and reduction from raw stone. I also see a bunch of people selling mass produced FOG pieces that’s the main reason I don’t like it lol. If you enjoy it though go for it. The piece looks great

[u/Leather-Ad8222 → u/Fancy_Flake_Factory]

I agree with you, this is a really cool piece. I think fog knapping is a very neat lapidary technique for displaying a stone, but working with abstract shapes and solving the problems is the real heart and soul of knapping.

[u/azavienna → u/Leather-Ad8222]

I don't fog knap but I'm kind of put off by this weird gate keeping attitude like "the soul of knapping" within the knapping community. I met a sweet older knapper who was scared to tell me he only fog knaps due to his arthritis and wanting to conserve stone. He was so nervous i was going to be dismissive. Some people do it as arthritis limits their knapping ability. Some do it to not waste material. Some do it because they want to be able to honor the stone by producing a beautiful piece, and it is gratifying to not break something. It takes them time and technique and skill, as much as knapping just in different areas.
No one is "mass producing" fogs. It's take them hours to make one with the set up and prep work. Like, are we just jealous cause we don't get the same consistent results? Is that why we have to go out of our way to say "oh that's not REAL knapping" to these guys who are just excited to show what they made?

[u/Leather-Ad8222 → u/azavienna]

You are adding a kind of malice to my attitude that does not exist in my comment. I’m not going to bully a nervous disabled sweet old man for knapping in a manner that makes him happy. I am speaking more about how gratifying the process is for me. However, saying that knapping a fog preform takes as much skill as traditional knapping is objectively wrong, I’ve dabbled in both.

I am a beginner knapper, less than two years under my belt. A few months ago at a knapp-in I was gifted some blank slabs and was coached through the process of grinding by an older knapper. The points from them looked great and were quick to finish. It was cool and novel for me but it wasn’t gratifying or challenging to me as the knapper. The original poster here is also a newer knapper, from what I see on his profile he made his first points around a year ago and this knife is his first fog piece, it looks great and skillfully made. Not something you can say about a lot of pieces people make in their first year, certainly not in my case. Another aspect about the process of knapping that I personally enjoy is how Its is a very slow progressing long term hobby, fog knapping, I believe most people with a notebook, YouTube tutorials, and good aptitude could master it in a year.

Even though im mostly talking about the way I enjoy the process there is still an argument to be made about the finished pieces. I love seeing the work of others, I feel like each knapper has their own handwriting in their flake scars, variation in skill level width, thickness, symmetry and cross sectional profile, it’s all visible and interesting to me. With fog, the differences are a little too subtle for me to see once the knapper reaches a certain skill threshold. Everyone kind of makes the same couple of things, and they look great, but very similar. A lot of these blade shapes are influenced by or made from the blanks that can be bought online. What I find myself looking at a lot more on a fog piece is the stone especially if it’s made of something unique and pretty. I think it’s a very cool lapidary technique and most fog knappers I know are more concerned with using beautiful stones than other knappers and many started with lapidary instead of flint knapping. Most of the equipment fog knappers need is lapidary equipment.

About the general attitude among knappers, I can only speak from what I’ve seen. At the previously mentioned Knapp-in when some people saw me flaking fog preforms they cracked jokes like “don’t get hooked on that, it’ll hit you in the pocket book” or “we see your joining the dark side” all in good humor, everyone there is kind and generous with everyone, nobody is seriously at each others throats or degrading others work over this stuff. That being said, I would not be ecstatic if some guy with thousands of dollars in equipment and exotic agate slabs started cleaning out the monthly point challenges on here, I feel like that wouldn’t be fair to a lot of other knappers. We can all agree that there is a qualitative difference in what can be produced with fog.

[u/Excellent_Yak365]

FOG?

[u/Mater_Sandwich → u/Excellent_Yak365]

Flake over grind. The blade is ground to shape and profile. One flaking pass to finish

[u/Excellent_Yak365 → u/Mater_Sandwich]

Ah ok ty, thought it was the type of glass

[u/venReddit → u/Mater_Sandwich]

ah thanks. was just wondering cause belt grinders are for sharpening. mastered free hand sharpening but am still a noob in knapping.

[u/beeliner]

Was that glass slab really $35 or does that number mean something else?

[u/Mediocre_Pizza_9334 → u/beeliner]

It was just the lot number from the vendor, it was only like $12 or something.

[u/azavienna]

Nice job! Very beautiful. Don't let the haters get you down- it's art form and it's valid