Flint Knapping?

I've been watching some videos on youtube and have taken a real interest in learning how to knap stone points. Not necessarily planning on making them to hunt with yet but that may come later down the road. Anybody else do it?

BhamFred is your huckleberry.

It's addictive when you figure out what you're doing. Been knapping for a couple years. Not great at it but I really enjoy it.

X2

Yes I do. It’s a lot of fun.

I'VE BEEN DOING IT FOR 25 YEARS OR SO. I FIRST LEARNED HOW SO I COULD MAKE HEADS TO HUNT WITH. I've killed a dozen deer, hogs, and turkey with stone points.

How hard is it to find naturally occurring stone to use in central AL? I don't know that I've ever seen flint/chert around our place. And it seems like all of the points that I find in our fields are made from quartz which I've read is pretty hard to work with. I did order a knapping kit and 10lbs of rock to get started with.

Get u some beer bottles n use the bottom

glass and obsidian(natural glass) are both easier to snap because the molecules are even throughout the rock. South Alabama Tallahatta Quartzite is very hard because the makeup thru the rock varies and it breaks in odd ways. White Quartz is very very hard to knap

Coosa you can find some regular old gravel chert that will work good raw, and very good when cooked. Just look for big rocks of regular gravel (look like baking potatoes). Once you break through the cortex, most are good material. Pm me if you want to talk about looking for material or making tools.

The best natural material you can find in Alabama is Knox Chert. Its jet black and some people confuse it with obsidian but they are very different. You can find it in cobblestones in the bed of the Coosa river but the geologic formation is actually in north Alabama where the Coosa cuts through it.

FIFY

When is the big knapping event at Moundville this year, or do they still have that weekend?

Clem, not sure. They have a bunch of knappers at the indian festival in summer. I can check and see

I used to have to shoot velociraptors on the ten mile walk to school every day.

Fred, what is the average weight of your big game heads?

Clem the spring knap-in is March 4-5, 9am to 4 pm, $8 admission to park knapin is free. be so good folks to learn from

///Native Indian Festival is early Oct usually fri sat sun. Lots of stuff for kids and some good knappers there down by the river.

stone is lighter than steel so near 100 grains or so.PM sent

In case anyone is interested and wondering WTH we're talking about in Moundville, they have a knap-in at the arkeeuhlogical park each spring.

It's very cool, with experienced knappers, demonstrations and other cool stuff on site.

https://moundville.museums.ua.edu/2022/01/31/knap-in-march-4-5-2022/

Got my kit and rocks in today. Gave it a go real quick and got this rough looking little point knocked out. Definitely have a ton of learning and practice ahead of me.

I know u wanna build your own but one day I'm gonna put a head that I've found on an arrow n try it... that don't look bad for 1st try 👍

Coosa - I've never done it, but it looks pretty freaking awesome for a start..

You can expect those hands to be toting some scars if you take knapping seriously.

Yeah I’ve got a few cuts from todays beginner session lol. It definitely helps you understand how natives killed stuff with rocks, those jokes get SHARP!

I've always wanted to take up the hobby just don't have the patience. Your first looks good!

super glue is your friend...

Where did you get this kit from? I've seen some on ebay and amazon, but none as complete as this nor with as much rock.

https://gillsprimitivearchery.com/product/knapping-kits-and-rock-combos/

I got the deluxe kit

Thanks!

Where did you buy super-glue at back in the the triceratops hunting days?

That would have been hide glue and pine tar

you squeeze it out of a velociraptors azz.....

Excellent for first point.

Still more fun to hunt them. I was working on cleaning out the surface finds on the Texas ranch when I moved here.