The Flint Knapping Machine!

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Some time ago I was looking into mechanical lever jigs for fluting clovis points and other ways of lever knapping and I came accross this device. This is not my invention (unfortunatly) but something that was being sold in a Lapidary mag from the 60's to enable you to "make your own Indian arrowheads"! It came with very vague operating instructions and several cut slabs of obsidian with 90 degree edges to lever into shape somehow.
I had to make one!
So here is my faithfull replica, complete with part of a door hinge and pivoting (on a screw) wooden guard to hold the piece still whilst you yank on the handle (made from steel rod hammered out and drilled through and set in an old handle), and the slot for the waste flakes to fall into, before eventually falling on to the floor! It looks crude but this one is not far off what was being sold, apart from the origional was sprayed silver!

Not having any slab cut obsidian I used the nearest thing, glass, and set to work. Bugger me it works! It takes a bit of getting used to but you can fire a series of flakes from edge to edge, although it only works on a 90 degree edge, so conventional flaking has to be used to actually finish the piece.

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A close up of the business end

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And this is the slot for the waste flakes to get wedged in.
If you are lucky you can entirely knap both faces with cross over flakes before you shape the piece, if you are not lucky you'll have a snapped piece of glass!
An interesting experiment though!

that is well cool, and an awesome piece of man-ism. hats off to you sir!

That's a hell of a machine and some nice knapping results. I seen other machines made by people and the results seem to be poor.

So what sort of size would the business end be. About the thickness of a big slot screwdriver?

I suppose you could put together a series of sizes for whatever you are working on. Or do you think one size machine would do the job.

I'm deeply tempted to make one of these. I do love a new toy.....

One size fits all, the block on the top is only held in place by one screw, and that allows it to pivot to get an adjustable angle.If one flake fails, you can "aim" the next one to go back in that direction. Also the top block can be unscrewed and screwed back on in another place (the top of the machine is covered with old screw holes) to take any size of glass that will fit on top! The third pic shows the top block moved back slightly.
And the business end is large screwdriver size.
My one was made from oddments from the shed, the only thing I paid for was the door hinge.
Also the clamps are there to immobilise the jig, you could drill holes through the bottom block and screw it down to your worksurface, I does need to be solidly fastened to work properly.
Make one, they're fun...

Forgot to say the glass in the picture is 6mm thick! I would say this is the thinnest it will work on, 10mm+ is the norm.

Can't resist......Will see what I can knock together.

Well, I left it in the hands of the hubby to build the machine.
Unfortunately, I think he's drilled the hole in the metal lever too low down. I think this has knocked out the angle for applying pressure to the flint.
I am obviously going to do a bit of 'adjustment' on it.

I think too long is better than too short as it can always be filed down a little, the metal lever on mine needs replacing/adjusting as it's worn down. you must post some photos of the finished beast!

Will get some photos organised tomorrow.

I think the hubby is seriously into over-engineering. Trust me, no danger of anything snapping on this monster.

Lumpendoodle wrote:Will get some photos organised tomorrow.

I think the hubby is seriously into over-engineering. Trust me, no danger of anything snapping on this monster.

will look forward to the pics sounds interesting.

You know, it's been so long since I've posted photos, I can't remember how to do it.

Must be getting old.......

Here is a variation of the knapping machine, its set at 90 degrees to the origional but works on the same priciple, rather than an lever arm there is a Ishi stick and rather than a door hinge there is a eye ring. The piece is set on edge rather than flat. see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSt3PYA7GWM

That's a mighty complex and slow way of skinning a slab. Wouldn't it be much easier and quicker to pressure flake it regularly.

It would! but you can get some real umph with this jig, if done right the pressure flakes look like percussion flakes and it doesn't make your arm ache!
Still, it should belong on novelty island

The knapping dutchman has a new version of the knapping machine, I admire his ambition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNwEpEDYa5Q
This one is a true monster, and sadly some detritus gets under it and crack!

mr.hertzian cone wrote:The knapping dutchman has a new version of the knapping machine, I admire his ambition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNwEpEDYa5Q
This one is a true monster, and sadly some detritus gets under it and crack!

 I like the way he calls it de luxe

I wonder where he gets his glass from?

His old aquarium apparently, it was 1 meter long of 8mm glass, now split into 1 meter slabs for knapping.

My old man has a large aquarium, he's going on holiday in august...... hmmmm

You know what you have to do...

Fish genocide...

I didn't see this one in the series the last time I looked, but he actually made a monster glass biface out of that glass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6bfy51yu-k
Makes me want to dust off my ol' knapping machine!