Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: iowabow on January 30, 2011, 10:41:52 am
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I read two pdf that made a world of difference to me. One was on platform preparations and the other was on slab reduction. I combinded the two ideas in my technique finally last night and was very happy with the results. My biggest problem as a beginner is thinning the biface. Another words what do i do next when the rock has become something close to a biface. In the past (two days ago) I continued to step the biface with almost every strike and kinda relied on luck to get a nice point. I read these two articles like 3 mons ago but it did not sink in until I read them again after smashing piles of rock and gaining experience for it to make sense. The biggest thing was preparing the platform before I make the strong striking blow. There are a set of drawings in this pdf that looked like Chinese to me when I started. After having worked the stone enough I could recognize the illustrations as something I had seen before and the knowledge then plugged in place. As a beginner it is hard to hear the old knappers say "just hit rock" but they are right the info did not sink in until I made a nice large flint gravel pile. It is like you cant read until you master word recognition. Anyway I thinned a biface real nice last night and broke the point just as I was making the final blow to reduce the center but I am ok with that because I learned so much. I hope it is ok to provide these two links and a drawing of what I did last night. The drawing only shows striking patterns not what I did to prepare the platfrom and I cant explain it because it is so circumstantial. I am just jumpping up and down because I was able to do this once so I am no expert. I just wanted to share this break through with all of you! This is explained in the pdf on platfrom reduction.
www.customimprintsbyleeparker.com/images/bifacetutorial.pdf (http://www.customimprintsbyleeparker.com/images/bifacetutorial.pdf)
http://www.customimprintsbyleeparker.com/images/jimwinntutorial2.PDF (http://www.customimprintsbyleeparker.com/images/jimwinntutorial2.PDF)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/knapping.jpg)
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yup ;D
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by jove i think hes got it ;D
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I still have to get it....LOL but I need to put in some more time for myself.
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here are a couple of picture of a point I am working. I wanted to show some of the thinning flakes I am driving off
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/arrowhead4.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/arowhead3.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/arrowhead2.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/arrowhead.jpg)
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I Spent about three hours making bi faces and collecting flake to make points. I stopped on the biface above because I did not want to break the best biface I have made yet. I smashed up rock all afternoon and started getting better at not stepping the stone. It looks like a lot of problems can be solved early on by not hitting unless you know that the flake is not going to step on you. I was wondering if non-heat treated stone will tend to be less thin or be more difficult to reduce? Or is it my skill that is not allowing real thin work. It is hard for me to make thinning flakes travel to the center of the poiint with pressure flaking but if I strik it with a bopper it normally will. The problem is that the platform starts getting really small and harder to hit. It is also difficult to judge what the correct amount of force is at that scale (125grain size points). I think I have about 30 bifaces from the days work so I am going to make points today. I will post picturs of question later today. One more question is setting up a platform for a flake to removed with the pressure flaker that same as with the bopper but just on a smaller scale?
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Looks like your getting it down. Generally speaking - treated rock is going to be easier to get thin. Some rocks don't need heat and some folks can just thin em no matter what ;D. Your correct on the platforms, smaller for pressure. Keep doing what your doing and you'll figure it out as you go. they like to call it tonnage, just another word for experience :). When I get down close to a finished point I like to abraid all the edges to create a continuous platform and also shape up the point. Keep it up..
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looking great.
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I hit stone all day yesterday and made one point that fit my standard for thinning stone. The end or point of the first picture was very thick and thinned to make this point 120 grains. The thing that I was trying to do yesterday was learn to make the long thinning flake that I see all of you doing with the pressure flaking tool. If you look at the edge of the first picture you can see that the pressure flakes do not travel far they stop after a short distance. They have the same similar pattern as the bopper patterns but have a shorter ratio of distance to Length. So I was very discouraged by not being able to master this after 8 hours. I got up this morning wondering if the heat treated stuff in my trash pile would flake if the same technique was applied to it. So the second picture is of heat treated flint (burlington) and I think I got it. Would you all look at the pictures and tell me if I am right. I still have to figure out the angle thing because it is different with the heat treated stuff. I also noticed that if I sharpened the end it grabs better. So now I think I need to ask two questions, 1 how do I think about what sharping does and does the angle remain the same as in striking the stone with the bopper?
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/2011-02-031623071.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/2011-02-04083959.jpg)
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I looked at this piture again and noticed that it really is not good so I will post another one.
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i had a chance to work on this a little more I think this might be better for the question above. I started thinning again from the top to the center
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/thinning3.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/thinning2.jpg)
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OK, I finished this point this morning. It is the finished product of the flake from above. I could not remove the step on the other side seen in the photo above. Any thoughts or advices at this point. I really appreciate the the help all of you have given me in the past two months.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/thinning5.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/thinning4.jpg)
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I wanted to share these three points made over the last three weeks. It feels like I have made a lot of changes in the past three weeks. My phone camera seems to shorten images a little.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/three.jpg)
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the tougher stone will definetly stack easier. looking good. looks like your platforms are too high so you are getting those short flakes when pressure flaking. make sure you are using the previous flake ridge so the flake travels further and try isolating the platform a little more. im sure i already told you but check out paleoman jims video on youtube of platform isolation. you are doing great and little bits will start sinking in and you'll get those "holy s***" moments when you realise you figured stuff out. keep on chipping. you are doing great
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Thanks Jamie I will watch that tomorrow morning. Also thanks for the input..I am going to master this if it is the only thing I get done this year! This morning I just practiced only making thinning flakes and had a little more luck. Is this kinda on the right track? I experimented with different angles on the platform and pressure and direction of pressure. All of these resulted in different flakes but not sure I could know when it was best to do "what and when" yet. I think I am going to just practice thinning flakes on scrape till I understand a little better.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/thinning6.jpg)
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Thank you for taking the time to direct me to the video and focusing my efforts on the platform preparation. This is not done but I wanted to share with you what I learned. First I watch those videos on reduction and the 6 phases. I think I made it to phase 4. I came home and put the information to the test by grabbing scrape from the bucket of flint that I could not finish and started building the platforms with a 60 degree angle and using the copper bopper. Look at the difference this made! My flakes now travel to the center because of my preparation. Many of the flakes early on were overshots… I just could not believe what was happening. On the back side I have a large hinge from earlier attempts but I know what to do. I am going to continue thinning and raise the platform then chip to 60 degrees and undercut that baby (with lining up and following ridges). I had to stop because I wanted you all to see how different the flake pattern is with this platform perpetration ( I have long flakes and not round ones). Granted I only made it work like 20 times but I know this is the ticket. And this is not heat treated so it was my lack of skill that was the problem all along (you Old timers are very polite to newbies)…THANKS FOR HEADING ME IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION! If I don’t snap this in half I will post the finished reduction in a couple of days.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/omg7.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/omg.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/omg2.jpg)
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you are definetly getting there. aint it cool when things click ;D
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I did finish the biface and was able to remove the hinge on the back (see photo) I dug through the scrap pile and pulled out some flint that was a little smoother and made the point below. This was going pretty good till I ran in to the crack seen about 1/3 down and that disrupted the flaking pattern so I was not able to continue the pattern that was looking good toward the tip. I am real happy with the progress at this point and I think I am going to spend some time just setting up platforms and knocking out bifaces for a week. This is the first point that I have made by thinning the block down and Pressure flaking the edge to center (as seen near the upper third). With A larger piece of smooth flint this should go a little better. Wow something else the edges are much sharper.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/new2.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/new.jpg)
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flake scars are definetly getting longer. :)
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I ran out of large stuff to work on and it is too cold out to go and get more. So I started practicing on pressure flaking and thinning some of the small flakes I had laying around. I worked on platforms and angles and direction of force. I was surprised to discover the force I was putting on the platform was not inwardly sufficient to drive long flake to the center of the piece. You can see the results in the picture. I wish I could do this for 2 inches all the way down a point someday in the future. I really had to put the maximum amount of pressure I could place to drive these flakes. I have a friend that is making me an ishi (spelling ?) stick. Before I think I was a little low on the platform and pushing just down and not in (reall hard) at the same time.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/lines.jpg)
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that kinda looks like a seahorse. ;D nice runs on that one.
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When it is done it will look like a hermit crab shell. lol I watched more of paleomanjim yesterday and learned I was holding the biface wrong when striking it so cant wait to try some of his technique on the new stuff. The unresting part was how he held the stone with thumb and index finger and squeezed to firm the forward part of the platform for striking leaving the back section free so the flake can release. I always held it in the center this and other things must have created a few steps. Any comments or thoughts about pressure flaking would be great to read. Or link to other post?
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OK What do ya think? this flint was heat treated. I had a little trouble adjusting to the heat treat because it felt like I was cheating. I think I need to get a better handle on the pressure flaking. The is new learning curve with the heat treated stuff. I had a couple of platforms collapse because not enough convexity.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/2011-02-17074509.jpg)
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Thats some good burlington you got there..
And a very nice point!
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All the thanks goes to you for the formula. Great recipe! I really like the color light pink/dark pink and small bands of golden yellow.
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I have been working on pressure flaking lately. So if anyone has advice on this subject that would be helpful. I have learned that the inward force and outward force produce a different flake and that was an eye opener. I was working a three inch point last night (broke it just as I was finishing it ) and setup a nice platform. I was hoping to level a step at the center of the platform. I was not shooting flakes into a step because it had steeped from the other side so I was attempting to level the top by reducing from a new platform. My platform was thick and I used my thicker pressure flaker. I was able to setup a good series of thinning flake that made it to the center and was reducing the step. I dressed up the platform for the next pass and noticed that the platform was smaller and that made sense. Because I was now using more inward force as a technique for driving off thinning flakes my larger tool was getting harder to place on the platform. I switch to a smaller flaker and my flakes released before I could build the same amount of pressure as I did with the larger pressure flaker. I almost removed all of the step. So How do you know what to do as the platform thickness starts getting smaller and smaller? Do you switch to a smaller pressure flaker or sharpen the lager one or start using a notch tool. I am kinda lost do to lack of experience. I know this is hard to answer but if anyone could give a brief technique description that would be great!
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OK I worked a bit more this morning and took photos but my email is down. So I solved a couple questions and was able to thin the work out real nice but now I have another problem I broke the tip. I think I was taking to large of a bit near the tip so I reshaped it and broke the tip again. I reshaped and was real light on the tip and it did not break. I made a nice point that I will show later. So i guess the more you learn the more problems you start to have.I also figured out that you have to plan a lot of moves ahead to get all three dimensions to work in the end. As the thickness of the platform decreased I used smaller pressure flakers and that worked.
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linda like playin pool. ;D
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(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/2011-02-200938031.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/tool-1.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/side1.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/side2.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/side.jpg)
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wow you are kickin a$$ dude. i meant to say kinda, not linda. ;D
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Thanks that means a whole lot to me. I have been knapping everyday for 30 days my left arm is going to fall off the inside of the elbow hurts lol. Anyway I finally made my first arrowhead today! I mean from a large stone not a flake and reduced with the bopper and switched to the pressure flaker and drove long flakes for the the notch setup. You all sure have to do a lot of thinking to make even a junk arrowhead like mine. I like mine however because it is the first time I did it all!!!! So I am going to take the night off and have a celebration beer (I will lift it with the right arm). Just one question, does the Ishi stick make the pressure flaking easier? well I was going to show this other point but email is not working again.
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You are doing very good. And thats what it takes, you have to want it and you have to stay with it so you build muscle memory.
Yes a ishi stick helps if you use it right.
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thanks for the help..here is the picture
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l567/iowabow/2011-02-21153831.jpg)
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Wow!, You took a short cut across the Learning Curve. Those are some nice points.
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Oh man!
Thats amazing for as long as you have been at it.
Some people are just naturals.
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I really appreciate the input and comments it helps when I make the next point. The one thing that is amazing to me is that I did not know going into this how far ahead you all have to plan in making your works of art. I look at the points you all make and it makes my head hurt lol. I have a small collection of arrowheads I borrowed form my neighbor and it is funny how I can now turn the stone around and see what he (native person) was thinking when making the point. I can also see their mistakes and why it might have happened. It is like seeing arrowheads with a new awareness. I can look at the arrowheads that I made last month and do the same. In a couple of weeks I am going to post arrowheads I made through the last few months because today I really have made only one. It is interesting also that the early arrowheads are the hardest because you have no idea what to do and they always break. If you are lucky you might get something that looks like a point. I remember hitting a stone in frustration hoping anything would happen. So thanks again for the support and always heading me in the right direction folks. Now I have to start thinking about how to do those notches better, When the flake broke the tool hit the sides and broke them. I have some interesting techniques that the natives used in making notches that I will photograph from the collection I have.