guns flints and novelties

Here's what I did earlier today, went along to see these.

Novelties by Bill Basham 1896-1932 arguably the first great modern knapper and one of the few to master percussing holes in flint. Here this box shows the whole process. Top left he bashed () holes in the flint, top right trimmed the holed flint down to a circle, then below some of his designs.







Some flint wall facings




The Fred Snare (1858-1934) Set, as written about in John Whittaker's, 'The Oldest British Industry.' 






A Brandon Knapper's hammer, surprisingly light, apparently they only lasted a week or two and were made from old files. 






Some Gun Flints from around Britain and also Europe, the Albanian once are utlra thin and pressure flaked on both sides.






Some Brandon flint core and blades, the blades are so flat and straight they could have been planed.

Bashing holes in flint?  and then making hearts, fish-hooks and chains and stuff???

Ultra flat blades struck from cores???

I call "witch-craft" on this one - simply no other explanation!

ETA: where was this display/museum? - it looks fascinating and would be splendid revenge on my better half for shopping trips

None of these are on public display, they're deep in the catacombs of the British museum under the vampire coffins and beside the lost treasure of the Aztecs.

They were brought up for examination by the Lithic Study Society at a lecture on the British Gun Flint Industry.

Awesome, i'll bet that it was fascinating!  Ineed another trip to the British Museum, my last trip was a half day, over a year ago - nothing like long enough.

Here's the vid

That's fab, thanks for posting it!  I see what you mean about the super flat blades/flakes.  That hammer looks so delicate too.. i assume it was used directly for percussion by the design?

You can see the hammers being used here.

Thanks for posting these pictures, the next comp - see who can make a flint ring 

Holy crap! Is this the same guy who knapped the flint aphabet?

No way, a flint alphabet???

I had to look it up:



Ancient House Collections

Just wow!

mr.hertzian cone wrote:Holy crap! Is this the same guy who knapped the flint aphabet?

Yup, same guy, if you look on the top left of the very first pic, you can see a piece of flint he's knocked two holes in, a letter B in its earliest form.

He must have figured out pressure flaking.... at least steep retouch pressure.
Are the holes not drilled? Percussing a hole through flint is going to be risky at the best of times. Unless he's using a sharp steel punch and padding, and using a full hertzian cone to pop a conical hole through! ahhh! it makes sense!
I was always told he took the "secret" to his grave, not such a secret now.