Lithic Labs

Antler Flaker Update

John — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:38:17 +0000

Okay, I said that I was going to make a projectile point of some kind with my new antler-tipped pressure flaker and then post the results. I made this little arrowhead last week but haven’t gotten around to posting about it until today. This is a small little ‘bird point’ that I made from a waste flake, so it is not huge. I intentionally decided to experiment with something small and if the flake tool worked out well, then I’d try it again on some larger material. And it is a good thing I started this way because it quickly became apparent that the mass of the small piece of antler I used for this tool was inadequate for larger flake removal applications. In addition, I had to cut my piece of antler shorter than I wanted because of a bend that I couldn’t get out. Ideally, I would have liked a longer piece for a more secure haft and added leverage that I couldn’t conveniently achieve with the shorter handle.

When using my new flaker, I was afraid to apply too much pressure on some of the larger platforms for fear of breaking the antler. In the beginning, I had a difficult time getting the antler to grip the platform; the smooth surface of the antler caused it to slip off before removing a flake. But after a little tinkering, I was actually able to make it bite pretty well. In fact, because of the antler is softer than the copper, it did an excellent job of gripping the platform’s edge if applied at just the right angle. This surely contributes to accelerated wear and subsequent resharpening, but when working with antler that is to be expected anyway. I can’t really give a fair or complete assessment of antler since my flaking tool is too small for thorough testing. But I do have some larger pieces of antler lying around and I want to make a new one similar in size and form to an Ishi Stick. The new one I plan to make will be larger and should be capable of removing larger flakes. When it is done, I’ll be sure to update. Until then I’ll go back to using copper and may reshape the antler flaker for use as a notching tool.

Antler Pressure Flaker

John — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:45:24 +0000

I’ve been using a copper tipped pressure flaking tool ever since I started flint knapping. But I’ve always wanted to try using antler. I suspect that most people who flint knap have picked up an antler tine at one time or another and tried chipping with it with mixed results and opinions. For myself, I never enjoyed the feel of an antler tine. It was always uncomfortable – either it was not long enough or its curvature felt awkward in my hand or the fat, blunt tip was just different from what I was used to. I assume that this is probably why 99 percent of the knappers I know use copper.

Like most flint knappers, the occasion often arises when we are either working in the public’s eye or we are showing friends how this was done in the past. When I am observed working with copper, people invariably ask me what was originally used. For this reason, I always have an antler tine in my knapping kit to show and use as an example. I will remove a few flakes from the piece I am working on, then put it away and immediately go back to the copper flaker. But I’ve always wanted to have something more functional that I could be comfortable with, and not just use for the purpose of demonstration. In addition, I use a moose antler billet exclusively during the early reduction stages (with the exception of hammer stones) so using an antler tipped pressure flaker would be more satisfying and would compliment the traditional nature of the rest of my kit. I am also very curious about the use of antler and want to experiment with it and possibly abandon copper all together (sometime in the future perhaps). So, when I came across the article about Making a Reduced Antler Flaker by Steven Edholm in Primitive Technology, I had to make one for myself and try it out. Below is the process I followed as outlined in the article:

First the antler should be soaked for a few days to soften up the material. I used the sister antler tine from last weeks post. After soaking, you can then engrave a channel down the length of both sides of the antler tine using chert flakes from your debitage bucket. These sharp pieces of stone are referred to as burins in the literature and in archeological circles. In the past, I’ve used this technique to split bone and have always gone too shallow. So, this time I wanted to make sure I did a good job, but I probably went deeper than necessary. You just need to reach the pithy core of the antler.

These are the waste flakes I used:

And this is the groove they produced in the antler:

The next step was to split the antler in half by inserting something flat and rigid through the pithy center of the antler to start separating the two halves:

Now that it is split, some additional shaping will be necessary. In my case, the tips were too narrow to support the amount of pressure that will eventually be applied during the flaking process. And the pithy center needs to be reduced to leave the inner half flat for hafting. At this stage, the antler tine is still curvy and wavy and will need to be straightened. The straightening is accomplished simply by binding the antler tightly to a straight stick and allowing it to dry. When the antler is wet, it is flexible enough that it will conform to the shape of the stick. When it is dry, it will be as hard as…well, as hard as antler.

I used some braintan buckskin to make lacing for the hafting process. I just created a flat surface on the edge of a stick for a handle and bound it all together.

Now, I’ve only used this tool a little bit to test it out. It is definitely more comfortable to use than a simple antler tine and it does do the job it is supposed to. I will confess, however, that the tine is too thin for the handle which causes it to move around a bit while I work. I believe this can be remedied by hafting it to a handle that is similar in width as the antler. As it is now, there is space on either side of the antler created by the wider handle. The result is no lateral contact of the leather to the antler.

I plan to do some knapping this weekend and hope to produce a point with it. I’ll post my thoughts on performance and pictures of the point.

Knapped Novaculite Knife

John — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:26:31 +0000

I made a little blade from a piece of novaculite and wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it. I ended up hafting it onto a piece of antler tine that I had laying around. I’ve made similar knives like this in the past as gifts for friends and think of them more as ornamental then functional. Normally I use 5-minute epoxy mixed with a little India ink to fasten the blade to the handle. The ink gives the epoxy a rich dark color to represent the classic pine pitch/charcoal mixture often used for primitive hafting. However, since I wasn’t giving this one away, I decided to actually use pitch for the primary hafting agent to see how it would bind. When I make these as gifts, I use masking tape to cover any part of the stone and handle that I don’t want to get stained with the ink/epoxy mixture. With this knife, I got lazy and didn’t use tape and made a mess on the upper trailing edge of the knife blade. It probably wouldn’t have been so noticeable if I wasn’t using a white stone. I wanted to make sure everything would hold together well, so as an added precaution, I used more pitch than was probably necessary resulting in a sloppy looking haft. Anyway, the novaculite blade itself is a little bulky for the thin antler handle and would have probably been better suited on the end of a spear insert or something similar. The nice thing about using the pine pitch instead of the epoxy is that if I decide I want to put the stone point onto a spear head at a later date, I can always heat up the pitch so the point loosens. I can then remove it and use it elsewhere.

Natural Fishing Hooks

John — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:21:15 +0000

I’ve been reading Hilary Stewart’s book Indian Fishing which is an excellent resource that describes in detail the fishing techniques used by the native peoples who inhabited the west coast of North America. I was inspired by the artistic quality and craftsmanship expressed by these people in the making of the tools they used on a day-to-day basis. I was so impressed that I wanted to try to replicate something from the book. I opted for the salmon trolling hook that you see here thinking it wouldn’t be too difficult to put together. I had originally lashed the bone barb into place with waxed nylon (artificial sinew) but I wanted to make it more authentic so I ended up replacing that with split spruce roots. I was concerned that the root lashing wouldn’t bind the barb as tightly as the nylon thread did; however, I must confess that it holds it in place more firmly than the synthetic thread did. Perhaps this is due to the residual pitch left in the roots making them a little sticky. All in all, I am very happy with my new hook. What I want to do next is put together about 60 feet of natural twisted cord and then test the hook and line combination out in one of the local farm ponds. I’m hoping I might be able to land a bass with it.

Skijoring – let it snow!

John — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:37:07 +0000

Me and Bravo

I spent some time living in northeastern Minnesota where they receive very cold temperatures and an abundance of annual snowfall. As a result, many folks (especially the many outfitters in the area I lived in) have adopted the use of dog sledding for both fun and profit by touring the numerous frozen lakes and rivers that abound. While I was there, I picked up on the sport of skijoring. If you are not familiar with skijoring, think of it as a combination of cross country skiing and dog sledding. You basically harness up your dog, throw on a pair of skis and allow your dog to pull you – just like dog sledding, minus the sled. Here in western New York, we don’t usually get snow accumulations consistent enough for winter activities like snowshoeing and nordic skiing. However, this season, like in many other parts of the country and the world (like Britain for example), we have been blessed with a large quantity of fine, light snow. And you can bet that my dog and I have been taking advantage of it. We’ve been out every day (and sometimes at night) to explore the countryside and practice our teamwork. The beauty behind this form of travel is that it doesn’t require a lot of gear to get started nor do you need a team of 10 or 12 dogs to manage during the off season. You just need a pair of nordic skis, a harness, a medium to large sized dog, and some snow. There are some simple directional commands that your dog should know for negotiating turns in the trail. But other than that, it is fairly simple to pick up. Skijoring has its roots in Scandinavia and has historically been used in a variety of ways. Now, it is mostly used for recreation or sport. If you want to learn more about it, pick up the book Skijor With Your Dog by Mari Hoe-Raitto & Carol Kaynor. It is a great introductory book for beginners and it helped me get started.

Tanning Furs

John — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:17:58 +0000

I’ve tanned a few deer hides in my day, but this is my first time trying to tan fur. Considering that it was my first attempt, I decided to make it easier on myself by working something small. I had a little red squirrel in my freezer that I’d been saving for just such a project. Typically, I like to read up on things before I dive in, so I went to braintan.com where they have some good articles that cover fur tanning. They primarily tend to focus on the production of brain tanned buckskin, but there are also numerous articles covering other aspects of traditional tanning as well. They also sell a great book and video companion that details the entire process and makes it very easy for the first-time tanner to succeed at making buckskin.

So, on to the fur tanning:

I decided to case-skin the squirrel hide and work it that way. No real reason here, I just went with it. For convenience sake, I used the egg yolk from one chicken egg and mixed it with some warm water as a substitute for the brain solution. I wanted to do this in a simple fashion, so I didn’t use any tools for the majority of the process (e.x., fleshing tool, cable, etc.). I scraped as much of the flesh from the hide with my fingernail then allowed it to dry a little. Next, I rubbed the egg yolk solution onto the flesh side of the hide and let it partially dry again. Before it dried out completely, I applied another coat of egg. I repeated this process until the egg yolk solution was used up – about four applications in total. Then I just worked the hide in my hands, stretching it back and forth for about an hour, until it was dry. I have to tell you that it didn’t come out perfect. A large area on the lower half of the back came out rather papery. But, with the exception of this and the head/face area, the rest of the fur came out nice and soft. I haven’t smoked it yet because I’m considering adding more yolk solution to the stiff spots and working it some more. I often hear folks say you can case out certain critters and use their hide as an improvised glove or sock. But this squirrel was way too small to cover the four fingers of my hand. Next time I try tanning a squirrel hide, I think I’ll open-skin it and work it that way. I believe I’ll be able to work it much more easily and more thoroughly and possibly be able to do more with it as an open fur. We’ll have to see…..

Woodchuck in Sour Cream

Love-Hate Relationship

John — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:16:22 +0000

As the saying goes, “you have to break a few eggs before you can make an omelet.” The same holds true for flint knapping. Of course, with flint knapping, the whole premise revolves around fracturing a piece of stone in a predictable manner in order to produce an edged tool. However, it usually doesn’t take long in your knapping career before something happens that you weren’t prepared for. For example, the other day I was working a dry piece of keokuk that I had shaped into a nice little biface. It was cool and windy outside, my hands were cold, and I was rushing a bit so I could get back in the house to warm up. Somewhere along the line I thought to myself that I should finish up or take a break because I noticed my billet swings were getting sloppy and I wasn’t taking the time to adequately prepare the striking platforms. But I decided to push through, reasoning to myself that I was almost done with the reduction process. Then, just a few moments later, SNAP – followed by a fairly loud expletive! I had landed a poorly placed swing on too stout of a platform which left me with two pieces of keokuk instead of one. Everyone knows that these kinds of things are a part of flint knapping, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept when it happens. I’d like to think that I learned something from this experience, but truth be told, I tend to put these kinds of lessons behind me rather quickly. So, I’ve decided to write a post about it to help remind myself and any others out there to take your time and to listen to that little voice inside your head when it tells you to take a break. So, with that being said, I expect I’ll be breaking some more pieces this way in the future. I’m just hoping there will be fewer of them.

Kettle Hooks

John — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:40:11 +0000

This is just the coolest thing. I learned about this from Fredde over at SwedishBushcraft. If you haven’t seen this guys work, do yourself a favor and check out his YouTube site. Not only is his take on bushcraft interesting and original, but his craftsmanship is superb and the way he uses a knife is an absolute joy to watch. And these hooks are just one example of some of the cool stuff you’ll see from him. You’ll get more from his video and the associated comments than I can explain here so be sure to check it out if you’re at all interested in making this for yourself. As you may be able to see in the photo, mine isn’t nearly as refined as Fredde’s, but it works. I can’t say that for my first two attempts – they barely held together.

Normanskill Projectile

John — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:12:18 +0000

I pumped out a little point made from normanskill chert today. I know many flint knappers who favor using materials that occur locally within their state or surrounding geographic area, and I am no exception. Many knappers also enjoy producing historically accurate replicas of point-types known to occur in their area from the archeological record, and this can only be done by using the appropriate type of stone. In general, New York lithic materials are not considered beautiful or easy to work, but for those of us who enjoy knapping them, the end result can leave you with a great sense of satisfaction (or frustration, as is often times the case). For me, using local rock connects me to the previous inhabitants who relied upon the same material to sustain their lives. And it also provides me with a level of assurance knowing that I can utilize the same resource in a similar way if need be. The more common New York cherts include onondaga, normanskill, and esopus and they can be found in different parts of the state.

Mini Oil Lamp

John — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:39:09 +0000

I came across this neat Instructables article for making a pocket sized oil lantern and I wanted to make one for myself. Aside from being somewhat of a bastardized kudlik, it doesn’t really fall into the bushcraft or stone tools categories, so I’ve added a new one for self reliance; hopefully with additional articles to follow in the future. Anyway, the construction process was straight forward and simple enough that I won’t describe any of the details involved in making it because that was already done in the article. The lamp’s versatility, small size and ease of portability gives it some potential camping and bushcraft applications and it may be worth taking one along next time out.