Knapping Natalie

This week we made another flint scraper and started the process of making a glass arrowhead. This time around I was much more confident in what I was doing, all of my actions and movements were much more smooth and sure.

The one thing that did give me pause was just trying to figure out where to strike my flint nodule now that so many pieces had been taken off and it had taken on a strange shape. After a bit of trial and error I eventually found a way in and it was smooth sailing from there.

I broke off a good amount of flakes and was able to pick one that would work for a scraper. Again, I marked the general shape I wanted with a Sharpie and started hammering off small pieces to shape it. This is the part of the process I felt I improved the most from the first time. I has a better idea of how hard to hit it and I was able to be more precise. I got a smoother edge than on the previous scraper which I was definitely proud of. I sanded the edge down with the rough stone and finished my second scraper.

We then moved on to making an arrowhead out of the bottom of glass bottles. First we knocked off the raised edged of the bottle and then moved on to shaping it. Like with the scrapers I used a Sharpie to plan out the general shape of my arrowhead. Although this initial shaping process was very similar to what we did with the scraper, it took some getting used to the difference between working with glass and flint. The amount of force needed is different as well as the tactile feedback in your hand on each hit .

Once we had the general shape, we started pressure flaking to shape it more precisely and thin out the glass. We used flattened copper pipes to do this, using them to push in and down on the glass to take of small flakes. This process I found quite difficult and still don't fully have the hang of it. The amount of forced needed to flake the glass is a lot and you can't use the momentum of your arm like you can when hammering. The in-and-down angle you need to push on the glass is what I struggled with the most. We didn't complete the pressure flaking so I'll get another chance at it next week.

As a sensory experiences, making the glass arrowhead and the flint scraper were very difference. Along with the more obvious tactile difference between the material, things like the sound and the smell were different. Glass doesn't have much of a smell at all but the flint often had a strong scent when it was struck, a mix between a campfire and petrol.

The sound made by striking the flint and the glass was also different, which is made very noticeably by the fact that we have multiple people working in the same room at the same time. The glass made a higher pitched 'tinkling' sound.

This week we began working with flint nodules, trying to get flakes to work with. Using those flakes we made flint scrapers.

At first it was a bit intimidating, trying to decide where to hit it and how to hit it to get the desired result. This is such a new and unique process to me, I had no idea where to start. With some help from John, figured out a 'way in' and finally began hammering some stone.

Initially I was hesitant, I didn't want to screw up and waste the flint. I began to realize that most of the 'waste' was still good and useful flint, even if it wouldn't work for the scraper I planned on making. The more I hit it, the more confidence I gained and everything flowed easier.

After a while I has amasses a small pile of flakes. Again, with some guidance from John I chose one that looked like it would make a promising scraper. I used a Sharpie to mark out the general shape I wanted and back to hammering.

The shaping of the scraper required a bit more precision than breaking off flakes. I had to use smaller motions, more a flick of the wrist rather than using my whole arm. One tip from John was to place a finger under the flint where you want to take off a piece, which greatly helped my aim.

Once I finished shaping my scraper, I used a rougher sandstone to smooth down the edges. With that, I had a finished scraper.