Making a copper bopper

If you go to this: www.bes.co.uk/ and go to Pipes and fittings, they are under "pipe fittings - solder ring", which will put you onto page 167, go from there to page 169 and what we knappers call Bopper caps are the last thing on that page, the caps to order are: the big 'ol elephant gun bopper caps are the 54mm "stop ends", next one smaller are the 42mm, the next are the 35mm (the one to use for fluting clovis points) and the small bopper caps are the 22mm, but you can find these in any D.I.Y shop.
I ordered 2X 54mm and 1X 43mm and 2X 35mm the last time at about 6:30 at night and they where delivered the next day, for a £5 charge. These have kept me productive for some years. Not bad at all.
I highly recommend these folk as a large cap minus P+P cost £4.72 as opposed to £35 from some sites!

Just tried it and it takes some work, try searching for part number 9228 for the 54mm cap!

BES does seem to be the best source for these end caps. I have taken to drilling out 2 screw holes on the side of the cap. This means that not only is the cap araldited onto the handle, but screwed on as well.

Belts and braces, but saves you from that 'flying endcap' moment

Well I've upgraded the armoury.

Awesome, there is something veeery pleasing about a full set of fresh boppers!
I have to refresh 2 of mine again; the 30+mm one and the 40+mm now have small holes and I've been trying to aviod bopping on the holes as it really doesn't work.
Did you use B.E.S for the stop ends in the end?

Yup, I finished the 54mm one on the end a couple of days ago, magic for spalling large nodules.

Ha! you have an elephant gun bopper! They are a bugger to fill evenly but they are so good.

The 54mm bopper is just so good. I still have some hefty lumps of flint stowed away and I'm just now getting round to useing them.

A good confident thump with the big begger, and Bob's yer auntie.

Bob's yer auntie and fanny's yer grannie! hand axes in a flash.
I've been hankering after one of those massive soild copper spalling things the Americans use, the ones that they use to get massive flakes from massive boulders.
Sounds expensive, but large hammerstones are free... hmmmm...

B.E.S have updated thier website and it took me some searching yet again to find the copper stop ends we call bopper caps, the big ass one at 54mm is still product number 9228, 42mm is number 9227 and 35mm is number 9226. I forgot my own advice to search for product numbers rather than by name, they stock something like 14000 parts so this can be tricky!
Yep, It's finally time for some new caps for my boppers too...

You'll have to try an elephant gun bopper.

It took half the lead I bought to fill it, but it take a virtually finish handaxe off a nodule in a one hit.

Made a few over the last few days.

Now that is a pleasing sight, unless you are a nodule of flint:D

they look real good, I see you have put a screw through the side - did you just fill them with lead half way?

They do look good, there is some pretty wood there too.

about half full of lead with a screw in one side for extra security.

just got myself a few 22mm copper blanks to make a few boppers, I couldn't find them in the shop and the assistant asked what they were for, I couldn't bother to explain so I just said a project.

sometimes its just not worth going there  

do you always fill with lead or do you ever use just a whittled handle set in them?

There is a vid on youtube where a guy uses an Ultra Light bopper he gets amazing results with it, all his vids are worth watching. But personally I prefer lead, you'd have to hit really hard without it.

https://www.youtube.com/user/EDBO23/videos

Aahhh... Edbo, and his "poppers" and general lack of explanation! It will work on American heat treated rock, English flint however... Hmmm. Worth a try perhaps.

I have now filled with half lead, I was thinking without the lead you might leave a cavity which wouldn't be good just got to whittle a bit of nut down today,

with a cavity the lead and the copper would reshape to fill it. As tight a fit as possible is what I have learnt, especially the wood, it should ram in really tight.

Yep, no air pockets and you have a tough bopper! That sucker will move even if you leave no space to move, they will cone out and need re-shaping with a hammer after a while. Call it bopper maintenance.