Flint and stone knives gallery

Having looked at the yankee stone knife version of this for some time for insipation (all 50 plus pages) I was thinking it would be good to start off a U.K version, a compare and contrast if you will!
Anything stone age(ish) and anything sharp(ish) goes!

Here is one to start off with...[img][/img]

[img][/img]As our fingers defrost after winter lets get knapping!

Seriously thin and nice pretty flaking. I like the handle design as well. I'll most likely start knapping again soon, just a little warmer.

Good man. Lets hope this cold weather is not the onset of the next glaciation
The knife is not of my own design, I saw this one and thought I would beef it up a little[img][/img]!

they are supurb, all i seem to be getting is small chips off the edge of the flint when trying to get flakes, think we need a section also on back to basics as i am sure i am not doing it right lol.

Is it percussion flaking or pressure flaking that's causing the problem?

If it's percussion flaking it's all down the platform and flaking angle. Try holding the piece at a slightly more vertical angle so the flake goes deeper. However the steeper the angle the better the platform must be so it doesn't break. A different solution can be to strike faster, a good wrist speed can lengthen flakes, remember the harder you hit the lighter the bopper needs to be. Big hits with very light boppers at steep angles make long flakes.

Support is also an issue, if you're holding the piece firmly where the flake is coming off it can stop short where the pressure is, a useful technique if you want to stop flakes from travelling too far, but not good for thinning a biface.
Have a look at Paleomanjim's "making a super thin biface" on youtube and bear in mind that he is knapping primo material, this helped me no end in getting thinner bifaces.
Here is the link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CdfPM-KmaU&list=PL4D6FBCAAECC2ED91

Thanks mr Cone, that material sounds nice, i am making a few new copper boppers this week and hope to have a good knap.

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This is an American's work and damn fine it is too, based on an Inuit man's knife, as opposed to a woman's ulu crescent knife!
They made good cutting edges out of grinding slate for the blades, good for dealing with marine mammal blubber (or spreading butter) but not too good for anything much harder, mind you I would worry if Nannuk came at me with this in his hand
Do you have an old slate roof tile knocking around? It could be put to good use with a file and some sandpaper...

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This is the flint knife I added some of the hemp string to the handle to make a sort of grip, the binding near the blade is jute again.

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Side view, I split the handle and hollowed out for the blade like the Otzi knife, as you can see the split twisted down the handle so the grip twine covers over the most of the join.

That's a nice design, the cord really sets it off.

mr.hertzian cone wrote:[img][/img]
This is an American's work and damn fine it is too, based on an Inuit man's knife, as opposed to a woman's ulu crescent knife!
They made good cutting edges out of grinding slate for the blades, good for dealing with marine mammal blubber (or spreading butter) but not too good for anything much harder, mind you I would worry if Nannuk came at me with this in his hand
Do you have an old slate roof tile knocking around? It could be put to good use with a file and some sandpaper...

Got me thinking, the river where I live is full of huge lumps of slate. Wondering what else these people made.

Well it wasn't too difficult to make but it's not sharp. Either there are many kinds of slate or there's something I'm missing.

Nice work, I bet you have black dust everywhere now! I'm not sure if slate really gets any harder than the stuff we get here. Bet the Inuit were ready to move on to steel when they could.

great job, i guess the hardness of the slate might differ depending on how thick the layers were formed and if it went through any other environments in its life? - might have a go at one of those myself.

Slate is soooo easy and pleasing to grind into shape! have a go...
I guess the Inuit spent more time making a good handle for the knives than the blades!

Here's a summer knife, long warm light evenings are back. I lit a BBQ last night put a rack of ribs on and while I was waiting knocked this one out.






The dagger goes to a sharp point at the back the same as at the front and I drilled a hole in the wood at the bottom of the groove (the groove ends where the string starts and the drill hole goes almost that much again). It's in really solid, no glue, far better than if the back end was squared. I also beeswaxed the string, makes it look better and set rock solid.

Wowsers, that is thin, leaf shapes are sweet, is the blade like a turkey tail point?
Warm long light evenings ahoy, very soon...or should I say "winter is coming"?

Winter is always coming soon and only just gone in this country's summers. Yes I turkey tailed it.

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I found this a while ago and saved the image, again no details as to who the maker is (Geg Nunn?) but it is rather splendid, clearly from European flint and this looks like an early type ( I or II) Danish dagger.

Nice, what did he bind it with and where can I get some?

That's a gem of a knife love the handle.

Not sure what the binding is, it looks like leather thonging to me!

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I thought I'd do some binding with dried cordyline leaves, the little knife here has a nasty crystal pocket on the other side of the handle and this will deal with that nicely.