Percussion Flaking How To?

[bushman]

I have been tryin to do some percussion flaking but I seem to be having some problems. The rocks in my immediate area that I have been tryin to learn on I think are a type of lava rock, since most of the mountains around here are laval. It isn’t that great since its made up of rectangular crystals that are about a 16 of an inch long and about a 32 of an inch wide. Some of the rocks are really magnetic but there isn’t much rust on them like there normally is on rocks high in iron. I don’t have any pictures of the rocks to show you guys, sorry. Anyways I got a few that I guess you would call plates, they are about the size of your hand and from ½ inch to an inch thick. They mush have been smoothed in a creek since all the edges are rounded off. When I tried to flake from the outside edge I can’t get the flakes to go all the way to the center of the rock, no matter the size of the rock I can only get the flakes to go about a ¼ of the way across the rock. Is it that I’m strikin the rock not hard enough or am I stricken too low on the edge, or the wrong angle? Also I was wondering what exactly are you doing when you are makin a platform? Are you rounding the outside edge so it isn’t a sharp edge and are you roughing it up so that when you try to flake it your hammer stone actually grips the rock rather then sliding off of it?
Bushman

[JackCrafty]

Sounds like really tough rock.  You may want to try other rocks (purchased) so that you can try your percussion technique on different material.  If the flakes still aren't going past the half-way mark then you will have to use a different type of hammer, or change the angle, or both.  There are a lot of good youtube videos...you may want to check them out.  Others will chime in as well, so don't get discouraged.

[jamie]

pretty much what pat said. hard to give good advice without really knowing what kind of rock you are using. one of my favorite vids on youyube is paleomanjims vid on isolating platforms. check it out. itll help you out a lot with percussion and getting those flakes to travel.

[sailordad]

i agree with jamie
youtube vids helped me immensly

not to mention if these rocks are flat or concaved with no convexity,flake wont travel far
they like convexity to travel

[leapingbare]

Tims right 

And i also agree, You should watch some vids and try to get some better rock.

[cowboy]

Wish you had a picture of that lava - i'd like to see what your hittin . Utubes are great and paleomanjim is one of the best that i've looked at, books will help too but it's hard to beat sitting down with someone that can show you. You should try to make a knap-in sometime.

[caveman2533]

After  removing the rounded edge with a hammerstone. Try using a wooden billet. Don't grind it to much.  You can make a suitable one from an old baseball bat or pick handle.  Dogwood or hickory, osage orange will work also.  Often time real grainy stone will work well with a wooden billet. 

 If you are using copper now grind the crap out of it.

Is it some kind of basalt or diabase material. Can you post a picture.
Steve

[bushman]

Thanks for all of the info and help. Here is a picture of the flake from the rocks I have been tryin to use. Sorry for the poor quality but I don’t have a digital camera so I used a scanner and scanned it into the computer. I hope you guys can see enough of it to figure out what type of rock it is. Thanks

Bushman

[Newbow]

You will get very little but frustration if you continue trying to knap that kind of rock.  It just isn't going to work.  You could buy workable material from neolithics.com or a number of other places, but it's a lot cheaper to learn on glass and the thick glass from an old TV picture tube works well for percussion.  Plain window glass is pretty thin but plate glass is good, and often a broken mirror will have reasonably thick (thicker than 1/8 inch) glass.  Mirrors have the advantage of having a 'cortex' (the backing) to remove and allow you to better see where your flakes are going.  There's the old standby of bottle bottoms, of course.  The glass will work like obsidian.  To work material more like flints and cherts, find some broken porcelain; old toilet tanks (johnstone) are the standby, but anything made of porcelain will work; a broken plate, for instance.  There are different qualities of porcelain, just as there are different cherts, and some will work better than others, but any will work better than what you have pictured.  Good luck!

[n2everythg]

Oh man what are you talking about.... that'll knapp...
That there is man rock... dont let anyone steer u wrong.
if you can knapp that you will be able to knap anything.

All kidding aside. for just learning. It would be better to get something that would throw a more consistent and predictable flake.

But you can send me some of that rock to try out if you wanna.
I wouldnt mind smashing on it and seeing what happens.

luck 2 u.
wade

[caveman2533]

Thunderchert otherwise known as  johnstone otherwise known as toilet tank    try some you"ll like it after that stuff

[AncientArcher76]

Looks like some kind of ore ur attempting to knapp.  As mentioned u may want to start out with Crappiculite or terlit chert.  Maybe glass bottle bottoms..

AA