Choosing the right hammerstones for you

 Choosing the wrong stone for the wrong task causes many people to give up on hammerstone percussion. Knowing what size to use is also an important factor. For spalling, you should use one made of basalt or metamorphosized quartz. For biface work, use quartz, basalt, granite, hard limestone, etc.  I also of heard that you should only expect to remove a flake half the weight of the hammerstone.

Springtime stuff, knapping out of doors

A coarse obsidian something. I tried some diagonal pressure flaking.

A "big" novaculite turkeytail!

                                             A small snyders point made of what I think is flintridge flint.

                                       A harvester chert adena that I made at the Chelsea knap-in.

                                                                    group shot in the sand.

This spring's work

A corner notch point made from white porceline novaculite. The notches were done with an antler punch.

A side-notch made from translucent pink novaculite. The notches were done with a pressure flaker. The stone was a real treat to work.

 A gibson point from heated flint ridge chert.

Michigan Flintknapper's Chelsea knap-in

Here are some pictures Frank Stevens took at the knap-in on April 6th. As you can see, we all had a good time.

                                           Me and Clay Wykes listening in on a conversation

 Mike Cook explaining flintknapping tips

Frank Stevens' flint wares (I bought more than a bit).

Bob Love enjoying a conversation.

A small part of Bob's display.

Point-in-the-hat

As a member of paleoplanet, a arrowhead trading event is held quarterly on the website. This is an excellent way to share a knapper's work and get some other people's work as well. Here is a very nice point sent to me by the paleoplanet member Chippintuff.

Using a hammerstone for secondary thinning

For you knappers out there, I decided to post about thinning with hammerstones. I am no expert at this, but I  have gained, through experience, a basic idea of how to use a hammerstone for thinning. First, use a small hammerstone, it should be no larger than the end of a billet used for similar purposes. Secondly, abrade a lot  , make sure the platform is well rounded and dull. A relatively slow strike should be all the force required to detach a flake that will go past the center.

Some more of my knapping: two snyder points of  obsidian and harvester chert, a hornstone lanceolate, a flintridge side-notch, and an agate something.

Me Flintknapping

Here are some pictures of me flintknapping with Bob Love at the Great Lakes Traditional Arts Gathering last year.

Adena points

Adena points out of Kentucky hornstone. The big one has a 7/1 width to thickness ratio and is 3 3/4"; the small one has a ratio of 4.5/1.