Pressure Flaker

[DaveBromley]

Hi Guys

I have been set a task in another thread and without going into too much detail need to have a bash at flint knapping, i can find ahammer stone and hopefully will find something to knap (although my recent jaunt was unfruitful) but i'm stuck what to use as a pressure flaker?

I wont be able to spend anything on it as i'm brassic as usual but might be able to repurpose things from round the house.

Anyone got any ideas please?

Dave

 

[Bardster]

bit of copper rod in the end of a section of broom handle should sort you out. An antler tine also works well as a pressure flaker

 

[DaveBromley]

would aluminium do? got no copper

Dave

 

[Stringmaker]

Try using a metal meat skewer wrapped in a hand cloth.

Having a good point on the flaker helps a lot in pushing the flakes off.

 

[DaveBromley]

would annealed O1 tool steel be ok? i've got some scraps hanging around

Dave

 

[Bardster]

aluminium should do, possibly annealed 01. Its a softish tip you are after, not smooth and shiny. This is so you have a rough surface that grabs the flint from what i understand.

 

[Mr Cake]

You can make a pressure flaker from a piece of copper pipe folded over on itself and then beaten flat. Then again folded over on itself and beaten flat, and so on until you can't fold it any more. Using a hacksaw cut it along it's long axis to make a fat flaker point which you set into a stick for a handle. Not my preferred flaker but it served when I'd mislaid my knapping tools for a while and so had to improvise.
The glass was a piece of TV screen I'd previously dug up in the garden. Being perfectly flat it probably wasn't the best thing to try shooting flakes across but with my flaker and a small rock I at least made a usable tool. You might be able to see one nasty step fracture if you look carefully but then I've never claimed to be good at knapping.

Bone can also be used and I've read reports of hardwood and even the knapper's teeth being used for pressure flaking but I wouldn't advise that last option