Author Topic: point making for arrows  (Read 1502 times)

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Offline bronco611

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point making for arrows
« on: November 24, 2016, 07:02:14 pm »
I am curios is it better to make the point from a large flake or a preform? I think the flake way is easier and saves a lot of thinning and waste of material. I know slabs work well also but I can only buy them and can make my own flakes.
FLINTKNAPPING IS EASY...I WAS ALWAYS TOLD I COULD BREAK AN ANVIL WITH A POWDER PUFF.

Offline Sparrow

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Re: point making for arrows
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2016, 01:07:02 pm »
I am very lucky to have access to a wonderful stone source  The Glass Buttes in Oregon is many square miles of obsidian and dacite      Spend a day there and have enough high quality material to last years  I spall off of Blocks of it and work the spalls .... Seems natural  '  Frank
Frank (The Sparrow) Pataha, Washington

Offline Chippintuff

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Re: point making for arrows
« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2016, 12:36:48 am »
The best/easiest way to make them in my opinion is to start with flakes. It won't take long to learn how much curve, concavity, turtle back and median ridge you can manage. All that is excellent knapping practice. I work more slabs these days because I can easily saw what I want to, but for ease of working, the flakes are better. The advantage to sawing is getting many more points out of one rock than can be done by percussion reduction.

A lot of knappers use the big stones to make large preforms and use the flakes produced by the reduction process to make smaller points. A person who enjoys making small points can pick up many good flakes at knappins where some of the knappers only utilize the big stuff. Most of the time they are free for the asking.

WA

Offline bronco611

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Re: point making for arrows
« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2016, 10:28:54 pm »
the reason I asked such a question is because I received a box of obsidian flakes from tracker0721 a while back and made a few points from them. I still have some flakes left just have not had time to get after it. I have made a good bit of points from reduction but never tried from a large flake. I saved a lot of time in the start to finish of the point. I have never tired a slab before but I can surely see how you get the most bang for our buck out of each rock with slabs. I really enjoy knapping when I can find the time to sit down without 100 other things to do tugging at me. It is very relaxing to just concentrate on the next hit instead of the next fire that needs to be put out or the grass needs mowing etc etc, keep posting I'm still looking.
FLINTKNAPPING IS EASY...I WAS ALWAYS TOLD I COULD BREAK AN ANVIL WITH A POWDER PUFF.