Woke up this morning to see a herd of elk on the sky line behind the house and a bigger herd in the hills across the road. They seem to know where they have the best chance of ex scape (private property)! Have only been out once this year with Hawk Huston with our bows and we had no luck. Only have cow tags and they are mighty hard to get close to with all the rifle hunters around. Was going through some old hunting slides and found a two hour video that I have never watched (no player). Its titled "Making Fluted Points with the Sollberger Jig with Woody Blackwell." Back in the 70s I had a long distance friendship with JB. I would send him a box of elk, moose, deer horns, some obsidian and he would send me some of his points. He was a plumber by trade in Dallas, but was a superior knapper and taught his skills in the local universities and also some in France. Over the years he would write letters to me with all his calculations most of which I never understood. He did manage to help me clean up my hunting points and I managed to harvest most everything but a sheep and an antelope with them. Somewhere packed away in my shop is one of his jigs. His Folsoms are extremely thin. I have no idea what my collection of JB's points is worth. Have been thinking of finding a home for the letters he sent with his calculations as they probably need to be keep somewhere so people can study them. Am going to try to find a player so I can watch the video. The video features the following: the jig, the preform, the platform, making Clovis points, making Folsom points, making Cumberland points, making Wenatchee points, controlling flute length, pressure flaking technique, trouble shooting, general tips and advice, next generation jigs, and detailed plans for building a Sollberger Jig. Even though I never met JB to shake his hand and set with him to watch his techniques I felt a great loss when he died. He was a smoker and with all his knapping he died of silicosis. Thanks for reading this message! Joe
