"On Mr. Catlin's return from his long sojourn among the Indians, believing that, as an observing practical mechanic, nothing in the way of art among them would escape him, I took the first opportunity to see him. On my inquiry as to the mode in practice of splitting the stone into flakes for arrow- and spear-points, his reply was by a question characteristic of the man. He asked if I had forgotten Dr. Jones's axiom, 'The least possible momentum is greater than the greatest possible pressure.' This was in allusion to a lecture on mechanics we had together heard delivered by Dr. Thomas P. Jones (afterwards Commissioner of Patents). He then added, "'That is well understood by the flake-makers among the Indians, but it will soon be among the lost arts, just as the nests of Birmingham brass battered-ware kettles, the Yankee tinware, and glass whiskey bottles have already almost totally destroyed their crude art of pottery-making. The rifle is taking the place of the bow and arrow. For boys' practice and for small game the iron points got from the fur traders are preferred to stone. A common jack-knife is worth to them more than all the flint knives and saws ever made.'
"After expressing himself in this manner he went on to explain what he had seen. He considered making flakes much more of an art than the shaping them into arrow- or spear-points, for a thorough knowledge of the nature of the stone to be flaked was essential, as a slight difference in its quality necessitated a totally different mode of treatment. The principal source of supply for what he termed home-made flakes was the coarse gravel bars of the rivers, where large pebbles are found; those most easily worked into flakes for small arrow points were chalcedony, jasper, and agate.
Most of the tribes had men who were expert at flaking, and who could decide at sight the best mode of working. Some of these pebbles would split into tolerably good flakes by quick and sharp blows striking on the same point; others would break by a cross-fracture into two or more pieces; these were preferred, as good flakes could be split from their clean fractured surface by what Mr. Catlin called impulsive pressure, the tool used being a shaft or stick of between two and three inches diameter, varying in length from thirty inches to four feet, according to the manner of using them. These shafts were pointed with bone or buck-horn, inserted in the working end bound with sinews, or rawhide thongs, to prevent splitting. (See Fig. 15.)
For some kinds of work the bone or horn tips were scraped to a rather blunt point, others with a slightly rounded end of about one half inch in diameter. He described various ways of holding the stone while the pressure was being applied. A water-worn pebble broken transversely was commonly held by being sufficiently embedded in hard earth to prevent its slipping when held by the foot as the pressure was applied. Large blocks of obsidian or any easily flaked stones were held between the feet of the operator while sitting on the ground, the impulsive pressure being given to the tool grasped in both hands, a cross-piece on the upper end resting against his chest, the bone end against the stone in a slight indentation, previously prepared, to give the proper angle and to prevent slipping.
"In some cases the stone operated on was secured between two pieces or strips of wood like the jaws of a vise, bound together by cords or thongs of rawhide ; on these strips the operator would stand as he applied the pressure of his weight by impulse. The best flakes, outside of the home-made, were a subject of commerce, and came from certain localities where the chert of the best quality was quarried in sheets or blocks, as it occurs in almost continuous seams in the intercalated limestones of the Coal Measures. These seams are mostly cracked or broken into blocks, that show the nature of the cross-fracture, which is taken advantage of by the operators, who seem to have reduced the art of flaking to almost an absolute science, with division of labor; one set of men being expert in quarrying and selecting the stone, others in preparing the blocks for the flaker. This was done when the blocks were nearly right-angled at the corners, by striking off the corner where the flaking was to commence, and, with a properly directed blow with a hard pebble stone, knock off of the upper edge a small flake, making a seat for the point of the flaking- tool. Sometimes these blows were carried entirely across the front upper edge of the block, making a groove entirely across the edge, when the first row of flakes have been thrown off. It is the work of this operator to prepare seats for a second row, and so on. What was meant by almost absolute science was a knowledge and skill that would give the proper direction to the pressure to throw off the kind of flake required. The staffs of these flaking-tools were selected from young hard-wood saplings of vigorous growth. A lower branch was utilized to form the crotch in which the blow was struck. (See Fig. 16.) Another branch on the opposite side was used to secure a heavy stone to give weight and increase the pressure. When the stone to be flaked was firmly held, the point adjusted to give the pressure in the required direction, the staff firmly grasped, the upper end against the chest of the operator, he would throw his weight on it in successive thrusts, and if the flake did not fly off, a man standing opposite would simultaneously with the thrust give a sharp blow with a heavy club, it being so shaped that its force is downward close in the crotch. It has been represented to me that a single blow rarely failed to throw off the flake, frequently the entire depth of the block of stone, sometimes as much as ten or twelve inches. The tooth or tusk of the walrus was highly prized for tips of the flakers."
(STONE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA VOL.1, Warren K. Morehead, A.M, 1910)
For people who probably never picked up a flintknapping tool, and tried their hand at flintknapping, the details in this account cannot be over appreciated.
Also, Catlin probably never got the credit that he deserved and deserves, as an early avocational anthropologist, who did an incredible job at recording various facets of Native American life, through paint and through pen.
Even though he died around 1870, his early account of indirect percussion flintknapping rocked Europe, for decades. It took scientists thirty years to catch up and start asking exactly how the process was carried out - long after Catlin was dead.
What the Europeans were guilty of is dismissing something that they did not understand, as sometimes still happens, today. If they had diligently followed up on Catlin, Cushing, and Holmes, they never would have needed the "Brandon gun flint model" to build an entire lithic reduction theory, based on direct percussion, in the late 19th century, and then build a subsequent theory on soft hammer batons almost half a century later, during the 1930's and 1940's.
The reason that it took so long for a soft hammer baton theory to emerge is because there never was any evidence. What kind of "wise man" builds a theory without evidence? Instead, they concocted a third theory, suggesting that the batons were probably wood, and probably disintegrated with time. And, this creates another problem, namely the Americas are loaded with both wood and antler artifacts, plus the American inhabitants made chipped stone tools right past 1492! In fact, Native Americans were still using undocumented lithic reduction practices, right into the early 20th century, less than one hundred years ago!
So, I am not going to say that the Europeans ran a fool's errand. I am just going to say that the people who ignore Catlin, Cushing, and Holmes, while also ignoring historical Native America, and even while ignoring about ten thousand years worth of archaeologically documented flaking tools - that reflect deeply embedded lithic reduction traditions - are probably not "wise".
