My Work

Hello all.

I hope this is an ok thread to put on this forum, and if its not, admin please remove it. I've recently set up a facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Native-Awareness/152468208141346 showing some of the primitive skills that I have been working on. I've just started so there's only a few images on it so far of the the things I had made/knapped that week. I've been on holiday since! I did it mainly to help motivate my students to work on skills more , but I thought you guys would find it interesting too.

Best wishes,

James

Hi James - i dont have facebook but would like to see your work - can you post a few pics on here please? Steve

Sure thing Steve.

I'm away until Tuesday, but I'll upload some images when I return to my computer...

Native wrote:Sure thing Steve.

I'm away until Tuesday, but I'll upload some images when I return to my computer...

Cheers Jams - will look forward to seeing them.

So Heres the photos of FB and twitter. Some arn't lithics but are mostly made from stone tools so should be relevant.

#1
Dacite stone point (3'' long) halted using red deer sinew and pine pitch glue into a spindle foreshaft. Stained with earth pigments and animal fat... Ready to be attached to a atl atl dart.

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These are the knives that I'm using in the woods. Two stone, one bone.

Belize flint

Norfolk, beach cobble flint, bur ash, halted pine pitch and red deer sinew, stained with red ochre.

Fallow deer leg bone

Brain tanned buckskin bag to carry them in.

Nasal Bone Fish Hook

Fallow deer.

Bone Hook with Leader

Fallow deer
Cypress bark

Bone needle case - sheep bone, braintan buckskin stopper, sinew, and scrimshaw decoration.

3 deer bone needles
1 European moose antler

To be used for sewing and basket making.

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So this is some things I've made within the past couple of weeks... I'll be putting more on as I make them... working on some slate knives at the moment.

great pics and some great skill, - thanks for posting the pics, - do you do knapping days? steve.

Thanks Steve!

I mainly teach knapping as part of another class, so that the student can learn the skill in small chunks and not get over whelmed...
If I do teach it in a day, I would teach series flaking with pressure on glass.... I like working beginners on glass for many reasons and through pressure flaking the principles of most percussive work is still their....If you want a more rounded day, a bit of pressure flaking, percussion work etc, I would highly recommend visiting my friend John Lord ( he has a website)

But to tell you the truth, for me the best way to learn knapping is by watching. Youtube is excellent for this! When I started knapping Youtube didn't exsist and I found myself spending hours in the knapping pit watching my teacher, Bill McConnell knap.

Some really impressive stuff, where did you get the dacite? Not in Scotland surely.

I've not taught anyone knapping yet, I had a neighbour ask a while back but the weather is far too cold. In there end I told him to watch youtube. I often wondered how I would start if ever I decided to teach. Glass is one way as you said, another is the traditional percuss a hand axe.

Thanks Grendel

No not Scotland. I had some left over from when I lived out in the states. I do like knapping dacite as it's got a bit more strength than obsidian and a little easier to knap than unheated flint.

Knapping is a tuff skill to teach! I think mainly due to the students expectations... As you know, its a progression in skill, and I think most think they will be master knappers with a days tuition.... l do think, if you have the motivation to knap an hour a day for a couple of months one will become a good knapper. Lots of gravel making to start but after 60 hours a lot of improvement can be made.

I would recommend you to have a go at teaching your neighbor. Mainly for your own development. Since I've started teaching I've really had to think about what I am doing so I can describe it to my students, which has helped so much with my own knapping.

Why I start teaching with glass is for many reasons. One is its cheap, so the students dont feel as if they are wasting a valuable stone, so they really go for it. Secondly its thin already, and mainly because its so unforgiving, and platforms need to be spot on.

I agree teaching is of course the best way to learn any topic and I see the logic in that sawn glass slabs and modern tools are best for beginner knappers. They're very easy to flake, you get good results very quickly and they only require a few of the wide range of knapping skills, but the core ones to do and most of what you learn in transferable to every else you will learn. However as a drawback they assume a person want to learn to seriously knap, many people who learn to knap are doing it for archaeological experience rather than a desire to become a master knapper and want to try it to see the difficulties or flint and stone, so don't get much out of knapping glass.

This guy here is a really good knapper, but what he's done here is come up with a very simple method for complete beginners to get a result with flint. It's quite impressive.

Thats very true Grendel. I do teach knapping in a very basic way too. On our Native Skills 2 class we have a competition to make fire by friction with a kit made with basic stone tools that they have made. In one hour they make the tools, gather the materials, make a bow drill set and get a coal that is ignited in a tinder bundle.... I love this part of the class.

Like this Native - one of my other hobbies is to make fire as natural as i can, -

Very nice video barnacle.

Your next challenge is with natural cordage. Please don think im trying to teach you suck eggs but may I suggest you use rawhide as your bow cordage, before using plant fibres. A dog chew will do, or if you want some deer rawhide, I can post you some.

Hi, Funny you should mention that as i was looking for some natural cordage, i have made nettle string but not for bow material, in an ideal situation i would like to go into the wood with no tools and find all the materials and make fire, i have been trying a hand turned spindle but i dont think i have the right wood.

Making cord is something I had a go at but I'm truly terrible at it, just haven't got the patience.

Making fire has always interested me too, and how it evolved over the ages and environments.

Thinking of 17th century London, a worker returns home to their upstairs room in a wooden house they are renting, in winter, it's snowing outside, it's pitch black and freezing. They can see to get to their room by moonlight through the windows but now there must light a candle. Usually they get fire from a neighbour but tonight no-one else is home yet so must light one in this wooden room, with flammable stuff everywhere without setting it on fire. I wonder how they would have done it? There's a lot of stuff out there about Bushcraft firelighting but most fires would have been lit in urban areas.

i would think in the 17century they would of used a fire steel and striker, i have seen a few come up while detecting in the past, i think alot was down to preperation, like i think in stoneage times fire was the most important thing, in some houses they had stone cupboards / shelves archys say they were to store treasured items but i think more like storage for fire liting materials.

Have just caught up chaps! Just wached the woodlands tv clip and Phil Harding is looking a bit different these days after Time Team has ended, maybe fewer pies:P

And Barnacle: that fire vid was sheer witchcraft. you said you can do fire in the bush, but i've seen Ray Mears actually sweat doing that! You made it look damn easy...
Who needs a strike-a-light?

mr.hertzian cone wrote:And Barnacle: that fire vid was sheer witchcraft. you said you can do fire in the bush, but i've seen Ray Mears actually sweat doing that! You made it look damn easy...
Who needs a strike-a-light?

Thanks j, i can make fire in under 2 mins most times and dont fail to often only if the bow slips, nut is about the best wood i have found and its native to the uk which i like, me and my lad often just go for a walk and make a fire - he loves to see the process,

As soon as you have the coal ember you have loads of time with no rush the ember can smoulder for 5 mins and the more air that passes it the better almost setting on fire itself.

if anyone ever wants a go i will post a kit to them to make it easier.