Stone tools & knapping - anyone had a go?

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AtomRat

AtomRat

Art
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I've been getting into attempting some knapping with basalt and quartz until I find myself a boulder of chert next time I dig and just wondering if anyone has experience at all it it?

I'm using traditional tools just as aboriginals, caveman or indians did to attempt to make pointed blades and arrow heads, like rock and antler sections.

Rather fun work.. especially the percussion side of things and learning that.

On the same note, do we have flint rock in australia?

I've preciously made stone tools before but through grinding not knapping but still turned out great
 
First go.., start with a big stone hey..it shrinks fast!

1445731647_14457315506510.jpg

1445731673_14457315669591.jpg
 
Back in the day, Aboriginals used Silcrete for their tools ;)

It makes a huge difference to how they work, we have found it near Berwick\Wonthaggi before, some around the Geelong area, and a metric shite ton of the stuff up around Mildura :D

I have some floating around here some where......dunno where though.

Edit: , dunno about Flint, never come across it.
 
Cheers Mav, Silcrete is another name for Chert ;)

I found a semi formed one yesterday but it was slightly sandy in some spots and didn't cleave fully, broke in half as I was nearing the arrowhead shape :(

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I know where I can get it from though close by ish.
 
AtomRat said:
I've been getting into attempting some knapping with basalt and quartz until I find myself a boulder of chert next time I dig and just wondering if anyone has experience at all it it?

I'm using traditional tools just as aboriginals, caveman or indians did to attempt to make pointed blades and arrow heads, like rock and antler sections.

Rather fun work.. especially the percussion side of things and learning that.

On the same note, do we have flint rock in australia?

I've preciously made stone tools before but through grinding not knapping but still turned out great
Click to expand...

Not sure about flint but traditionally greenstone (diabase) was used in SE Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_William_stone_axe_quarry
 
casper said:
AtomRat said:
I've been getting into attempting some knapping with basalt and quartz until I find myself a boulder of chert next time I dig and just wondering if anyone has experience at all it it?

I'm using traditional tools just as aboriginals, caveman or indians did to attempt to make pointed blades and arrow heads, like rock and antler sections.

Rather fun work.. especially the percussion side of things and learning that.

On the same note, do we have flint rock in australia?

I've preciously made stone tools before but through grinding not knapping but still turned out great
Click to expand...

Not sure about flint but traditionally greenstone (diabase) was used in SE Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_William_stone_axe_quarry
Click to expand...

Greenstone is for grinding stones, knapping is using hitting tools to break off chips, but thanks for letting me know this, ill visit the site and grind some axes next :)
 
Quartz arrow point - probably 1 hour
1446173580_14461727285601.jpg


O.k - safety: glasses and gloves a must. My fingers aren't bleeding from accidents, the edge that knapping creates is mega sharp and just touching the sharp edges without pressure was cutting my fingers up bad. Especially obsidian.

I'd also highly reccomend this is done on an easy cleaned floor like tiles or concrete to make cleanup a breeze and prevent future inscisions.
1446173600_14461727367642.jpg


Only tools I've used so far. A rock from tassie and a fork ( my deer antler hasn't been cut up yet..so holding a whole head to do small knapping was difficult so used a fork for now. Sorry..broke tradition ) and also sorry for crappy photos! I don't know what's going on wuth my phone camera :mad:
1446174287_14461741141630.jpg
 
Hahaha I'm not a much of a game hunter for sport but if I had to, I'd certainly be carving these up for survival. This one was a tad too small to mount, so ill make another and set it onto an arrow and see if littlenugget wants to take it shooting for a hit.

Much sharper than what I expected at all once complete. Cheers casper :)

It not a massive effort so if I find a good supply of rock ill be able to give out a few
 
Cleaved stone can be sharper than a scalpel,... love the thread and the photos AR. :D
 
ill see what i can do fellas, doesnt look the hardest task. thanks for the info outback!

oohh..how horrible. first time using the forum on a PC for 2 seconds.. my photographs are horrible. sorry :(
i can see I can shrink them some more before uploading. I still cant help that bold n the beatuful hazy look. i think thats water damage
 
DrDuck said:
After posting the knife, I remembered reading (probably back in the early 70's) about Kimberley Aborigines using glass from bottles and ceramic telegraph insulators to make very fine points.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/158/1446878472_glass_spear_head.jpg

http://australianmuseum.net.au/collection-stories-from-stone-to-glass
Click to expand...
I prefer to keep as original and traditional as i can, ( survival ) but if were saying glass is just like obsidian, i can still use it ;)
 
G'day AR, I like what you're doing, especially with the Quartz - one of the hardest stones to knap, due to it's crystalline structure and lack of cleavage.

Here's a couple of the Old Peoples examples - both knives, one from Chert (mans knife) and the other from a river washed cobble (womans knife), and I've thrown in an edged ground axe from down Goulburn NSW way.

Both knives were produced with three judicious whacks - that's all - and have produced items of beauty that would have taken me maybe ten life times to replicate.

The coin is the size of a twenty cent piece.

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Thanks Mungoman, I started with quartz as I do tend to work in reverse with things and work with flaws before presicion. Considering the cracked through pebble I started with, the arrowhead came from a nice solid clear structured bit that broke out of it and gave me something to work with about 2" in size. Most work incredibly done by percussion hitting with the crumbling tassie rock.

Compared to the obsidian which cleaved with little force at all in a very controllable manner, its an easy one to decide what I need to go collect for more, less time consuming knapping.

Thanks for the input and info! I've got to cut my comment short for a second. Sirens and stuff going off closeby for some reason
 
..all good.

Some of the big sections that fall off in the heavy percussion coukd easily be used for cutting, its increadible hiw sharo this stuff actually is. Slices a4 paper just as straight as a box cutter and withought force.

I'ts a bit if a distance to the chert but ill get my supply soon. Its local. I've got a tutorial i made a while back if you'd like to have a laugh:

http://m.instructables.com/id/Natures-Survival-Mini-Saw/
 

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