Kenny,
The first question that should be clarified is exactly what type of goal or goals do you have, in wanting to learn to knap? Do you want to reach the goal of making an arrowpoint? Do you want to copy ancient artifacts? Do you want to learn about ancient technologies? Do you want to make tools to hunt with? Are you interested in the aesthetic aspects of chipped stone, as a form of artwork?
Different people are interested in flintknapping for completely different reasons. In my own case, my interest and reasons for flintknapping have drastically changed, three or four times, since the mid-1980's. As a result, my flintknapping has drastically changed three or four times, over the years.
In the 1980's, I only engaged in spalling, and pressure flaking. I also made glass tipped arrows, which I shot through bales of Arizona hay. After getting a tip from a local Pima indian, I learned to harvest "arrow weed" from along canal banks. And, I scavenged feathers from redtail hawk remains, found in the desert. I was eventually inspired by meeting an old indian knapper named "Jim Fire Eagle", who traveled to pow wows, to sell arrowheads.
Then, in the mid-1990's, I was introduced to the antler "baton", and practiced with it, while selling wire wrapped points to the Cherokee Nation gift shop, in Talehqua, Oklahoma. A Cherokee indian named Noel Grayson taught me how to use the baton. He is a great bowyer.
Then, in 2010, I realized that there are irreconcilable discrepancies in how American prehistoric flintknapping has been presented, in textbooks. And, all of my attention has been on making sense out of unstudied data, since 2010, in order to resolve these discrepancies.
In every phase, my flintknapping has been completely different, because I have had completely different goals in sight. I am now on my third flintknapping "life", which is worlds apart from the last two. I say all of this to explain that a person's interest will dramatically affect his goals, in flintknapping.
Anyway, if you have some idea as to what is driving your interest in flintknapping, then I would suggest starting with videos, rather than books. As much as I love books, the problem with books - at least when it comes to flintknapping - is that you do not always get the dynamic sense of the process.
Because flintknapping is very dynamic, there is a certain "monkey see monkey do" element, to it. On the internet - particularly Youtube - there are plenty of good videos, which should be easy to learn from. Possibly, the only time that books hold an advantage over videos is when you are looking for really obscure flintknapping data, that no one alive has seen. But, for the most part, if you are interested in simple, artistic flintknapping, today's processes are probably going to be easier to learn, and to carry out, than the old stuff. And, I would imagine that the modern techniques have been fully documented in online videos, such as those found on Youtube.
Also, while you are climbing the "learning curve", don't ever let anyone cause you to think that something you made is not worth showing.
