Copper tube plate glass only knapper????

[sakimoto]

Greetings,
Someone told me that a while back there was someone selling plans for a Flintknapper made out of two different size pieces of copper pipe mounted on a plywood stand. The pipes were roughed out with sandpaper on one side. He would cut the point with a tile cutter and make the edges flat on a bench grinder. The he would press the glass point against the large pipe to knapp large piecies and the small pipe for the finer egdes. I know it is not traditional, but I fould it interesting. Can this actually be done? I know of nobody that knapps glass with this technique, but this person told me that they were using it to teach native americans how to knapp again because it was easy to do. Has anyone ever heard of this? Sound kind of weard to me. Any information will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Sakimoto

[Newbow]

I never heard anything about teaching Indians to knapp (that has the sound of an urban legend - like they couldn't learn unless it was real simple), but the apparatus you describe can be found in volume three of The Traditional Bowyer's Bible, pages 319-323.  It's under the sub heading, starting on page 314, of "Forget Tradition, I Just Want To Make An Arrowhead".  The description in the text is for flake over grind preforms.  I haven't tried it myself but, starting with square edged plate glass, it looks like it would be more difficult than traditional techniques.

[RidgeRunner]

I heard a story similar to this not long ago.
A contractor on a fast food restaurant told me that his brother could Knapp a point this way.

His brother has a flat sand stone about 3' long x 2' wide with a flat surface on it.
The flat surface has round bottom groves in it about 2" wide and 1" deep.
Supposedly, points could be produced by taking thin flat pieces of glass or flint and pushed them up the grooves while working them back and fourth.

The contractor did not say anything about using sawn and ground pieces of flint. 

I suppose the copper pipes in your story would actually be half pipes???

David

[sakimoto]

Thanks guys! As for teaching Indians how to knapp. I guess I did not explain myself enough. Many tribes had lost the art of Flintknapping when iron and steel was discovered by these tribes. It was easier and faster to cut a piece of metal and shape it with a file. As time when on some of the tribes forgot the art. The inventor of this knapper actually taught some of the members of these tribes to knapp with this device because they found the original technique difficult to aquire. I guess he taught them to use this device while they were learning the original techniques. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I ment no disrespect to our native americans, or to anyone else. Again thanks for the information.
sakimoto

[Newbow]

The copper tube is smashed flat on top, rather than a half tube.  I'll see if I remember how to post a picture.

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