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wow what a blade.

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Post by the barnacle Sun May 06, 2012 8:26 am

take a look at these authentic blades in the British Museum, - click on the pic to enlarge it -



http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/r/ripple_flaked_flint_knife.aspx
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Post by grendel Sun May 06, 2012 9:26 am

wow what a blade. Gebel_arak_full

Gerzian knifes are beautiful I agree, but also only flaked on one side, I always wondered why this is so.

I read a theory a while back that pointed out, although the knives are found across Egypt, they were all made of a specific type of flint, so could be from a single workshop or single area that developed this knapping style and passed it down the generations.
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Post by the barnacle Sun May 06, 2012 2:01 pm

perhaps the smooth side was to spread the butter on their sarnies Laughing
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Post by Lumpendoodle Sun May 06, 2012 10:09 pm

The smooth side is for spreading the marmite.Very Happy
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Post by skalla Sun May 06, 2012 11:26 pm

i support the butter theory, afterall the egyptians were an advanced civilisation, and therefore the use of marmite was anathema.
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Post by mr.hertzian cone Mon May 07, 2012 5:53 pm

[img]wow what a blade. April_36[/img]
Whilst on the subject of egyptian knapping, here is proof that they had a sense of humour, flint hippo anyone?
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Post by mr.hertzian cone Sat May 26, 2012 12:44 pm

The Gerzian knives where percussion flaked first to make a blank, then ground and then flaked on one side, they must have had copper tipped pressure flakers to run long flakes lke that, and arms like Popeye!
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Post by grendel Sat May 26, 2012 4:45 pm

Certainly looks that way, however copper usually leaves microscopic traces on anything knapped with it. I wonder if any has been foundon the pressure platforms?
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Post by mr.hertzian cone Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:38 pm

[img]wow what a blade. April_49[/img]
I've been wanting to knap one of these for a while now, so glad to have a go at a flint Pesesh kef knife from pre-dynastic Egypt, it's the fish tail end which is the cutting edge, the "point" is usually hafted. The flint is from Needham chalks again.
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Post by grendel Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:43 am

Beautiful I'm the I find out about Egyption knapping the more fascinated I am.
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Post by mr.hertzian cone Thu Jul 12, 2012 8:56 pm

When you're back in Blighty, you may want to go to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford as they have some stunning Egyptian flint work on display including a fine example of a Gerzian knife and a knapped chert boomerang! I kid you not... It's amazing.
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Post by mr.hertzian cone Wed Apr 10, 2013 11:57 pm

A W.T.F price for a Gerzian flint knife, but you can see why it speedly charged past it's estimate price, feast your eyes:http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ancient-art-antiquities/an-egyptian-flint-blade-predynastic-period-late-5567141-details.aspx?pos=1&intObjectID=5567141&sid=&page=1
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Post by the barnacle Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:32 am

if you click the image you can see it close up - would be interesting to get some of the same material to see how it knaps,
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Post by grendel Thu Apr 11, 2013 9:29 am

That is astonishing, I can't see a fault on it. I'm guessing the lower row of flakes were done second as they are deeper and the method used to get the the same length was unnatural termination, as they are all shallow step fractures. So maybe they applied pressure to the place where they wanted them all to stop.
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Post by mr.hertzian cone Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:40 am

Some of the Ameican flint/chert looks similar to the Egyptian stone (Burlington or Keokuk chert). Palaeomanjim et al has made some good reproductions:http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/41503/Gerzean-Knife#.UWdJTTf4LTo
Did the Egyptians cook thier stone too?
They certainly ground thier preforms to get that "flake over grind" pressure flaking ripple look!
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Post by grendel Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:01 pm

Perhaps the only confirmed use of FOG in prehistory, although I saw an interesting debate a while back where some FOG knappers argued for and provided suggested examples for FOG use outside Egypt, but there was nothing completely convincing but some hints.

wow what a blade. Image-egyptian-flint-400x266

Egyptian flint looks like American chert, so most likely heat treated and about half as hard as English flint to squeeze a flake off.
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Post by the barnacle Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:58 pm

so who is going to have a go at making one? - great link above - seems in the usa knapping is big business with lots of interest - i wonder why it seems so slow here in the uk considering our past and artifacts we have.
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Post by mr.hertzian cone Sun Apr 14, 2013 4:59 pm

The Egytians are not alone in F.O.G knapping, the danish where rather fond it too. Here are some astonishing reproductions by Geg Nunn:http://www.gregnunnflintworks.com/html/one.html
As for having a go, I'll get a grinding wheel at some point and see what I can do, Must admit I don't fancy grinding the blade by hand farao
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Post by grendel Sun Apr 14, 2013 5:30 pm

good point I forgot about Danish daggers, there's a good article on it here.

http://science.cranbrook.edu/sites/default/files/sdarticle.pdf
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Post by the barnacle Sun Apr 14, 2013 5:34 pm

some great knapping by Greg - thanks for the link,
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Post by mr.hertzian cone Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:30 pm

Michael Stafford knows his stuff, and this is a really useful paper.
Back to Egytian predinastic goodies:[img]wow what a blade. Pictur12[/img]

These are in the British Museum, note the ground blank area in the middle of the light brown pesesh kef knife.
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Post by grendel Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:28 pm

wow what a blade. 4533500390

A while back while wondering how the hell the above knapping was done I got to wondering if FOG was ever used in this country. I couldn't really find much beyond the above pic as a candidate. However I stumbled upon thisthis article

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~drus105/LithicsPDFs/Lithics%2022/lithics_22_2001_But_37-38.pdf
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Post by Dorset Andy Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:54 pm

Wow!! Very impressive Shocked

These blades reminded me of the Mayan Eccentric Flints that were featured in an old copy National Geographic I have.

Do you suppose there is anyone alive today that can work so finely?

Take a look at this one (click on the second photo as you scroll down the page)

http://arttrak.blogspot.co.uk/2012_05_13_archive.html

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Post by mr.hertzian cone Wed Apr 17, 2013 12:13 am

Mr. G, the ancient use of F.O.G is possable, it seems that that kind of flake pattern only happens with grinding before final flaking. It did remind me of this (though not of Europe), but clearly worthy of being in the wow! what a blade catergory: http://www.arrowheadology.com/forums/primitive-technology-cultures/6810-colorful-arrowheads-tools-mongolia-central-asia.html
Especially when it gets to "These guys wheren't bad at flaking either" cyclops Indeed WOW!
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Post by grendel Wed Apr 17, 2013 12:28 am

That one in post 3 is very similar to the UK example above. The UK example the flakes are about 2mm wide, I've never seen anything that thin from confirmed prehistoric FOG or modern FOG. Even with a steel nail flakes that thin seem impossible. I wonder what tool they were using? I saw a FOG preform once that wasn't ground flat, it had raised platforms and the beginnings of ridges ground in. Taking a flake from a high ridge off gives long thin flakes so perhaps it could be done this way.
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