I do think there's something to this horizontal punch idea. I really like jackcrafty's way of doing it, I think it makes more sense than the shaft method in a number of ways, I just can't personally get it to work, which is why I'm currently doing it this way. The action on both methods, as far as I can tell, is the same. By tilting the rock different angles, and changing the speed and angle of the strike, you can edge trim, set up platforms, remove square edges, take big, wide thinning flakes, long thin flakes and flakes that any archy looking at the piece would swear are pressure flakes. While small adjustments are needed as you go, the method is almost as fast as direct percussion, once you get somewhat used to the motions. I have little idea how or why it works. I'm like a monkey flailing away and slowly getting a "feel" for what works and what doesn't. That is, if you asked me to take a certain kind of flake, I would be hit or miss at this point. The nice thing about this method, though it that it compensates for mistakes better than anything else I've tried (and I've tried just about everything). This is because this method allows for high power (but not as high as direct percussion), very high accuracy, and seems to produce low shock to the piece being worked. You can get insanely long flakes from tiny platforms. If you want to try it, this is one thing that doesn't work: You would think the idea of the shaft is to allow you to push the antler into the platform, then strike. No. The platform is brought up to the antler, but not pushed into it. The action is something along the lines of the tool flexing into the stone and (at least sometimes) sliding downward to create a pulling motion. Another thing is, I have found -- and this is also true of my antler base horizontal punch -- that this method is most efficient if you start with a mid-stage preform. In other words, it does not replace direct percussion, it subliments it by filling in that gap between the mid-stage preform and the late stage preform where all the problems are. (You all know what I mean). The other area where it really shines -- and this is true to a lesser extent of vertical punches as well -- is in getting the most from limited rock resources. If a method like this was used it was likely of limited value in the quarry, but once away from the pile of good rock it is very valuable. The rhyolite piece above is a good example. It was in the scrap heap beacuse it was essenially a large, snapped blade flake, so it had a thick ridge running down the middle and a square edge. Combined with it being a kind of tough grade of the material, I knew that by the time I set up the platforms needed to remove the ridge and square edge, I wouldn't have much left to work with. The combination of power and accuracy of the horizonital puch allowed me to make a preform that is thinner and probly twice as wide as I could have made by direct percussion. On the other hand, If I was sitting up on the mountain in a pile of rhyolite, it wouldn't have been worth the trouble.
Incidentily, one average squirrel hide, cutting a quarter inch wide strip around and around in a spiral until you run out of hide yields about 7 feet of lace.
Keith
