knapping (no that isn's a missspelling)
tonight marks my newest undertaking
I am teaching myself the stone age art of flint knapping, or making sharpened tools from flint, obsidian, glass or other crystalline materials.
my first project is something I got in my MAKEmagazine feed, I will attempt to chip an arrow head from the bottom of a beer bottle (or in my case a spear head from the bottom of a handle of rum)
I need to make some proper tools (a spray nozzle for a garden hose and a Philips screw driver are not a substitute for a hammer-stone and a pressure flaker) and I realized just how much of a mess this will be making so I need to find an area that is devoid of travel by any living thing so that glass shards don't end up cutting people or animals...
speaking of the shards, they are LITTERALY razor sharp. I took an anthropology class where the theory that perhaps the small chips of flint and obsidian where the actual cutting tools and the large stone that eventually became a spear point was merely a happy after thought. so I decided to see just how sharp these things where, I never said I listened to my survival instinct...
when I get a bit further I'll begin to post pictures of the progress
I am teaching myself the stone age art of flint knapping, or making sharpened tools from flint, obsidian, glass or other crystalline materials.
my first project is something I got in my MAKEmagazine feed, I will attempt to chip an arrow head from the bottom of a beer bottle (or in my case a spear head from the bottom of a handle of rum)
I need to make some proper tools (a spray nozzle for a garden hose and a Philips screw driver are not a substitute for a hammer-stone and a pressure flaker) and I realized just how much of a mess this will be making so I need to find an area that is devoid of travel by any living thing so that glass shards don't end up cutting people or animals...
speaking of the shards, they are LITTERALY razor sharp. I took an anthropology class where the theory that perhaps the small chips of flint and obsidian where the actual cutting tools and the large stone that eventually became a spear point was merely a happy after thought. so I decided to see just how sharp these things where, I never said I listened to my survival instinct...
when I get a bit further I'll begin to post pictures of the progress