Flint Knapping - guidance & resources needed

[Dunelm]

I'm interested to learn flint knapping and other stone-age techologies - can anybody recommend good books/guides to get me started.

Also - any geologists among you know of natural flint outcrops in northern England. The region is not known for chalk/flint but I heard that largish flint nodules suitable for knapping can be found at various points on the Yorkshire coast? I'm loathed to purchase suitable material when the bottom half of the country has it lying about on the ground...

thanks

 

[ilovemybed]

A good start is "The nature and subsequent uses of Flint" by John Lord. He even looks the part of a flint knapper! He's reknowned for his ability and is on telly a lot because of his expertise. Ray Mears gets in to do the flint knapping, and I think his son is a bit adept at it too.

Don't do it indoors or you'll have to buy another hoover...

John and his wife Val have a website, conveniently
http://www.flintknapping.co.uk/

Hope that helps!

Neil

 

[Roving Rich]

Yeah - I second that - John Lord and his Son Will are both expert flint knappers. If you are really keen, you can pay him a visit and get 1 on 1 tutorage.
Most field flint is a bit tricky to use, as it has somany floors in it from getting battered around. A piece of flint from undisterebed soil is a better bet.
You can also try thick glass from TV screens and beer bottle bottoms - obviosly you have to drink the beer first
You will need a few shapes and sizes of pebbles, as "hard mallets" and preferably some antler as soft mallets. Traditionaly you can use an antler point as a pressure flaker, or an "Ishi stick" - a short piece of broomhandle with a nail hammered into the end of it, then the head cut off. (Names after Ishi the last American Indian - whi used it to make arrow heads out of beer bottles...)

I hope that helps

Regards
Rich

 

[5.10leader]

Guys,

I've read your replies with interest.

I livein the SE and flint is no problem but have not been quite sure where to start. You have given me a few ideas where to start.

Thanks

 

[Stuart]

john lord is definatly the best source of instruction on flint knapping in the UK

 

[andyn]

There were some rather good demonstrations of flint knapping at the Wilderness Gathering by Nomad Bushcraft.

Thought they were very good and most helpful and they run a flint knapping tuition morning in Lyme Regis. Might be worth the look if you in that region? http://www.nomadbushcraft.com/

Have bought one of their starter packs to give it a go before commiting to a course but I came away most interested in making some tools.

 

[Dogface]

Having read a load of books on flintknapping when I started to get interested in the subject a couple of years ago, I can't recomend John C. Whittaker's book highly enough. I know it's already been mentioned, but 'Flintknapping: making and understanding stone tools' was by some way the best . John Lord's book is also good, as are 'flintknapping: the art of making stone tools' by Paul Helweg, 'Old tools-New Eyes' by Bob Pattern, and 'Tools of the Old and New Stone Age' by Jacques Bordaz. Bordaz, together with Don E. Crabtree, could be considered one of the pioneers of modern research into flintknapping techniques.....

 

[rich59]

Just a couple of reflections. Certainly I am a complete novice when it comes to knapping. However, I do advocate having a go at things before going to the experts. Sometimes one finds something new and it is certainly an interesting journey.

1) I have needed to make a number of flints with a good sharp edge when seeking to teach and demonstrate starting a fire with flint and ferro rod. I had to move on from simply hitting a rock with a hammer. So I added a builder's masonary chisel. This allowed me to break rocks previously too big. I noted that to get a sharp edge one needed to first get a raw, flat, black flint surface and then strike on the stone toward the flat surface.

2) While down at a SE coast beach I suddenly realised that the huge piles of stones on the beaches are in fact 99% pure flint cores. Most beaches have a grading from shingle and tiny pebbles at one end of a bank to massive cannon ball sized stones at the other. So beaches could a ready source of raw material if the local by laws don't prohibit removing a few pebbles/ rocks.

Your problem of lack of flints - well - if there are any about then you will find them on pebble beaches.

Also - most knapping is done in the USA, and often as not on rocks that are not flint - with some beautiful results. The skill is pretty well the same I think. The main criterion is to choose stones that have a uniform glassy like texture.

 

[jason01]

Yep, many of the beaches down the SE coast are covered in flint (chalk everywhere), as you say its detrimental and illegal to take it away (due to people taking car loads for garden ornamentation) but quite often the fields at the top of the cliffs are also full of flint turned up by the farmers plough (and no doubt the farmers bane) which can be had legally and for nothing if you have a word with the farmer

 

[ESpy]

I livein the SE and flint is no problem

Unless you're actually trying to dig anything...

 

[5.10leader]

Unless you're actually trying to dig anything...

Quite right - 30cm of top soil then chalk.

Still a good reason to engage in bushcraft rather than gardening!!

 

[Millbilly]

Guys, ive been getting my head around lighting fires with a firesteel and flint, but am struggling as my flints going blunt. How can i chip a sharp edge back onto it, and is there anyway i can identify flint while out and about? Living in the Essex, where should i be looking for flint? Just on the beaches, or is there anywhere else? Any ifo greatly appreciated guys!

 

[rich59]

My experience of sharp flints is that they are crucial if your technique is to put the charcloth on top of the flint to catch a spark shooting off the sharp edge straight across a flat table of flint onto the charcloth. I guess that any irregularity at the striking edge would deflect the sparks.

Therefore, I suppose you could sharpen your flint if you could flake bits off the face below the striking edge, leaving that flat table.

However, breaking off another few chunks of flint from a new flint with a single blow of a hammer might be easier.

Mostly though what I do is give up on the technique of a sharp edge and a single piece of char. Instead I place my tin of pieces of char cloth on the bench and strike sparks over it so that some fall in the tin. It presents a large target area and usually you get sucess within just a few strikes.

According to my geological map Essex is underlain by chalk and clay. Therefore most of the stones you will find anywhere about will most likely be cherts - which is the family of smooth textured stones that flint is in. Here is a knapped or split flint in an Essex church wall.

 

[rich59]

Guys, ive been getting my head around lighting fires with a firesteel and flint, but am struggling as my flints going blunt.

Your question got me thinking and then testing something. There is an alternative setup where your flint never goes blunt. Instead of having a split piece of flint with sharp edges use instead a flint pebble - a rounded lump of flint with a rough but flat surface. If it is a fairly flat one like you would use for skimming stones so much the better. I picked up one on a beach. (I don't know if I was allowed to or not. You could probably get something similar from a garden centre.) Lay the flint pebble down on a surface and hold a piece of char cloth to one edge of the top surface of the flint. Then strike with your steel obliquely across the surface of the pebble to miss the charcloth. You should get a shower of sparks flying directly towards the char cloth. I had a go this evening for the first time and got success after 4-5 strikes and then did it again to confirm. My guess is that this would work for a large number of stone types as it probably does not rely on the stone being overly hard as the oblique strike is not particularly stressful to the stone. I will try this with some other stone types as I come across them. I wonder if sand stone or marble would work. Chalk is probably too soft.

I have an idea from reading that the vikings may have used flat striking stones. Anyone know more about this? How did they strike their sparks to get fire?

 

[running bare]

if can get to the coast at marsden,south shields. I found a nodule about 6" round on sunday gone. Im new to bushcraft and didnt know how to knapp it so I left it. There is a little cove/bay whatever you want to call it just past the rifle range as you walk south from souter lighthouse carpark. if you dont find any its still a good view and there are washed up tree trunks to sit on and plenty of limpets.

 

[Dunelm]

Actually I was at the beach at South Sheilds in the summer with the wife and kids and found a little pebble of beach flint about 4cm across. Too small to work but it must have come from somewhere fairly local.

 

[Toddy]

hit it twice

 

[Toddy]

Actually I was at the beach at South Sheilds in the summer with the wife and kids and found a little pebble of beach flint about 4cm across. Too small to work but it must have come from somewhere fairly local.

It'd surprise you, mesolithic cores from Scotland are tiny. They used virtually all of the pebble if they could. Tiny little flakes turned into excellent tools. It's amazing what you can do when resources are limited.
Cheers,
Toddy

 

[running bare]

hi dunelm

am working all weekend( damned overtime) but when I get the chance i'll see if I can find some more descent size bits for you. will let you know if I find any.

tom.d

 

[Dunelm]

Thanks Tom, if you do let me know where and I'll try to have a drive over the coast to pick up a few nuggets.