Formally called “Flintknapping”, this ancient form of removing flakes from a piece of hard stone like flint, agate, jasper, chert and obsidian, is two to three million years old by different species of human spanning the whole world.  It is an art form.  Ancient Native Americans breathed their spirit into their points with the belief that their shots would be more accurate and carry part of themselves to their targets.

Remember my neighbor Ralph?

Well… he gave me that gorgeous rose colored glass point that he made the other night, and told me to use it for a display with my wirewraps.  I’m just too tickled and honored to have it, and it motivated me to try to learn some of the skills that have such long roots in our ancient history.

So… Ralph has been giving me knapping lessons.  The first thing he gave me to work on was a large point that was almost finished.  Well… it needed a little thinning and I hit it in the wrong place and… crunch!  Yep, broke it.  So… I tried to work what I had into a new, smaller point.  This was my first attempt at a knapped point.  It’s a heart, LOL.  I showed it to Ralph and said that it’s for loving, not killing.

Ralph’s willingness to teach is a rare and cherished thing.  So, I began to work at it…

…and made some mistakes, for sure… but, I still learned from my mis-strikes.

I decided to take a piece from my cache of Flint from the Guadalupe River in Texas and attempt to learn how it flakes as I tried to shape it.  It’s VERY hard, and is normally heat-treated in a kiln to make it better to work with.

Boy, did my hands and fingers hurt!!!  Knapping sure isn’t for sissies, but, I encourage anyone who is interested to try it.  It’s totally engrossing and fascinating.  (and yes there was a little blood-letting involved).

So, I kept at it.  The next evening, Ralph brought over some medium sized flakes for me to work with and another tool and a leather pad to try.  I managed to make this rough shape, that didn’t break and looks somewhat like a point.

So, I worked on some more…

… and I think I came out with something half decent for a beginner.

I’ll keep at it and will post updates of my progress.  I’ll try to remember to post some pictures of the tools I’m using and am planning to take a video of Ralph creating a piece from beginning to end.