Rainy Days and Notching always gets me down

[gstoneberg]

Well, not the rainy day today, we needed it so badly. A week of rain would not get our lakes filled back up.  But my notching...it stinks.  I messed this one up yesterday.



Tonight I knocked out 3 points, 2 obsidian and 1 pedernales, and I'm waiting for more nerve before making another go at notching.



That chert point is from the larger piece of this oops...



Maybe I'll watch some youtube video before I try notching again.  

On the bright side, I'm very pleased I got that larger point to work.  The spall was narrow and thick and for a change the thinning went pretty well.  Obsidian is sure easier to run long flakes in.  Easier to break too, I lost 2 points to breakage.  Got through it without bleeding though, just realized that.  Weird.  Pretty good night for me.

George

[soy]

You win some and you loose some but you live to knapp another day looks better than I could do love every thing you bring to the table.

[bowtarist]

Lookin' good man!  Gettin better all the time!

[iowabow]

G you are getting better and better! When I was at the same place as you I started notching scrap and just kept putting the arrowhead blanks aside till I was ready for them.  This is the only thing holding you back is one of the last steps.  I watched a funny video about a kid that popped the center of the notch and then flipped it over and pop the center then flip it over.  I never adopted the technique but it was interesting and I learned from it.  For me it is about knocking out the corners and making sure I have a good platform.  I don't use diamond files anymore but they were helpful as I was learning to prevent a stall.  Also a grout removing blade will kinda do the same thing. Tower gave me some good advice once he said don't try to remove a flake in a notch unless you are 100 percent sure that the patform is ready and if it is not ready then keep working on it till it is ready.  One more thing sawfiler told me to work both sides of the point at the sametime so the if it stalls they will be equal and so that you can adjust them to look the same as you go.  You are doing great!

[jamie]

g most of the time a point breaks its because of support. either too little or too much. putting too much pressure on the top of the piece with your fingers when pressure flaking will easily snap a piece, especially with obsidian. i like to keep my fingers off the piece and use them more as a backstop, wedging the biface into them , rather than using them as a vice. youre doing some fine work, keep it up

[iowabow]

Dead-on Jamie I did brake a lot of pieces that way also.