can i make a heavy bopper?

[beartail]

sup yall.I just received some beautyfull I got in a trade.b I need a heavy bopper to do the job.is there any way I can make one that will git the job done right?

[Bone pile]

hammer stones, solid copper, copper cap with lead inside glued to a handle are a few options, moose billet is another.
Bone

[Chippintuff]

Go to the hardware store and get a copper plumbing end cap. Get a dowell that exactly fits inside it. Put the copper end cap on a socket that is just right to support the socket without letting the copper cap fall inside it. Take or make a rod with the end rounded and put the rounded end into the copper cap. Hit rounded rod with a hammer till the copper cap is rounded to the desired shape. Place the copper cap on something that will not burn. Heat the copper cap with a propane torch and melt a lead tire weight into it filling it about half full. Let it cool. Mix a little epoxy glue and put it into the cap. Insert the dowell and let it sit overnight. It's cheap and ready.

WA

[beartail]

I done some googlin and seen a bopper made just as you described chippin.thank you.
If you read this mullet,what size spall should I expect to get from that biggest piece with a large bopper like this one? and if you know,could you pleas tell me the names of the material? thank you again so much! this is gonna be fun!!

[mullet]

You should be able to get spalls as long as any of the pieces you pick up. The Georgetown, Kentucky Blue or the Butterscotch Coastal Plains all spall good.

[StevenT]

Just to add, I made my boppers this way. There are all different sized copper caps, so the size of your bopper just depends on what size cap you can get your hands on. If you find a three or four inch cap, you can use a tree branch as your bopper handle. Just trim it down until it fits. I went to an auto tire store and got a bunch of old lead weights free. They had buckets of old weights and was glad to get rid of some. I cut the lead into small pieces and just melted them with a propane torch right inside the copper caps. Once the lead starts to melt you can add pieces until you get however much you want in the cap. I didn't bother to clean the inside of the caps and after a bit, the lead separated and was loose. So I would say to clean the inside of the cap before you start melting the lead in the cap. Probably a bit of flux would have helped. This type bopper works great and actually last for quit a while.

[mullet]

I'd hate to imagine how much a 3-4" copper cap would cost? It's hard finding a 1 1/2" cap.

[AncientArcher76]

I got 2" copper caps in a local hardware store..lol but good hammerstones will do all u will ever need to make big long spalls..  Sandstone works great.  Here in Ny state theres every shape and size big and small.. Ive used hammerstones to knock 3' spalls and flakes fom big boulders of argillite,quartzite and chert nodules.  You can use what u want but simple cheap and effective ways that's tried and trued for thousands of years... Otherwise I do use wood bone and antler..


Russ

[bronco611]

I picked up a 3 in cap at an industrial plumbing supply store for 4.50

[StevenT]

I was wrong about the copper cap size. 1/2" to 1 3/4 are very easy to get. 2" and 3" little harder to find, especially 3". But they are around. Worst case check eBay. 4" exist, but Mullet is right, they are expensive to the tune about $50 a pop, so they are not practical.

[JEB]

 I help supply one of the sellers of knapping supplies with copper rounds when I can get them.  I check the scrap yard every few days.  I noticed a couple of solid copper rounds in the bin that were around 2 inches in diameter , 6 to 8" long but were mushroomed on the ends.  Trouble is you have to buy the entire piece as they have no way to cut the mushroomed ends off  which would leave a nice solid copper round.  I can check on the price if you want and mail it to you.  The cooper is costing me around $5.00 a pound and that is what it would cost you plus actual postage costs.  Might be able to get it in a small flat rate box.  There was also a copper hammer head in the box that looked like what a 2# beater would look like with a hole for a handle in the middle if that interests you.  Of course that is if all this stuff is still there.

Check in your area for a metal scrap yard that sells metal and you may find what you want.  I grabbed a bag full of copper butt caps one day at $5.00 a pound and that made them very inexpensive.