"Soft" hammerstone

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After years of having quartzite hammerstones (which really are too hard for thinning), I found that this sandstone cobble works rather well for antler like soft hammer flaking. I have been recommended this by Mr.Lord but have only just got round to trying it. I did have a another sandstone piece but it turned out to be too soft, it turned to mush when faced with flint!

Limestone seems to have been very popular amongst prehistoric peoples. The main advantage of a soft hammer is thinner flakes and smaller bulb of percussion. I've heard a couple of theories why the bulb is reduced, they don't seem compatible. One is soft hammers give when they hit the flint so a larger area of the stone is in contact with the flint. The other is the platform digs into soft stone creating a groove on impact and the flake is more pressured away than percussed.

I noticed using hammerstones you impact the flint very gently and follow through unlike with copper and a noticeable groove is left in the stone. So I tend towards the latter theory and when using one your doing a swinging pressure flake rather than a percussion one.

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As the last sandstone hammerstone was an odd shape I found another with nice rounded edges and pitted it against some of Bernie's flint from Needham chalks. As you can see it done the job splendidly, and this wasn't the biggest spall out of the lot! The hammerstone is no more though... the flint won in the end.

I've got a big pile of flint waiting for me when I get back in the uk, next month. I'm definately going to be experemting with hard hammer vs soft when I spall them.

[img][/img]Sorry for fuzzy photo, This is some sort of soft quartzite with sparkly mica inclusions that I picked up from the beach (unusual rock for this area, may well be glacial) and it works for finer soft hammerstone flaking, the shape is kinda bopper like too.