All About Pocket Knives

My brother-in-law who is a pretty good flintknapper got me interested. For Christmas he gave me some rocks and tools and showed me how to get started. I need a lot more practice but I made these points yesterday. They are made from Arkansas Novaculite.

James

My brother-in-law made this knife and gave it to me for Christmas along with the other stuff. I hope to have the skill to make a knife like this someday. The handle is elk stag.

James

that is cool, james. i'm trying to learn this art as well. a lot harder than you would think.

Like diamond cutting! Would like to try myself someday Ken

Johnnie, I'm having a heck of a time trying to learn how to do it. I'm having trouble getting my rocks thin enough. There certainly is an art to it.

James

do you cook your material? i have a book by paul hellweg that has helped me a lot. wish i had someone in person though.

Johnnie the rocks that David gave me were already heated. When I buy some more, I guess I will buy the ones that have already been heated. There are some places on the net that you can order them from. David goes through Cabot, AR regularly and buys them from a guy there.

James

Good start jfarmer, i use to knap back when i could. my uncle is an old hand at it.
heres a knife i bought awhile back from Tony Stanfield. its out of obsidian and elk antler with a bear on one side and wolf on the other. the buttcap has a torquise inset.

beautiful!

Now that is really nice. Thanks for the pic.

James

That is real nice, thanks for sharing that beauty..

Sunburst

Why dont some of you knowledgable ones do a thread somewhere and show the tools and how its done. I know I would follow it. I bet others would also.
wb

I'd follow it for sure! Flint knapping is one thing I have always had interest in, just never tried it.

If I get time tomorrow I will take some pics of the tools but I don't feel like I am qualified to show how its done. I'm sure a slow learner. I feel like I am ruining all the good rocks David gave me. I'm still having fun though.

James

Awesome stuff. I love those knives

No way I could ever do anything like this

A good friend gave me these arrow heads. The two largest ones (the ones on the left in each display) were knapped by a friend of his whom I have never had the pleasure to meet. He seems to do pretty nice work. The 4 smaller ones are genuine artifacts that were found here in mid state Illinois by my friend who hunts them.

Bryan

ive walked a many peanut fields in central texas where i was raised for arrowheads and still have about 200 from about 600 found that are real nice keepers. these are the best ones.

nice points. here is a book on knapping, some raw flint. the points on the book i found here in parker county, tx. the points to the left are ones i made. that's a club, celt or ax i found by the brazos river at the top.

this tomahawk or hammer head was found by my father where the nolan river spills into the brazos river near blum texas many years ago, the vertabrae and birdpoints all come from aquilla or caddo creek near lake whitney, near aquilla texas.

just to give the size idea of the bird points, i keep them all in the little paper match box.

REALLY NICE KNIFE AND POINTS HERE GUY'S
I DO NOT HAVE A FLINT KNAPPED KNIFE IN MY
COLLECTION. BUT I BEEN LOOKIN FOR JUST
THE RIGHT ONE FOR ABOUT 1 YEAR NOW
KEEP UP THE GREAT POSTS ON THIS MOST
INTERESTING & ANCIENT TOPIC

rigwelder ; this tomahawk was that used as what we call an ax now days?
I for one would hate to chop down a tree with that !!

Johnnie, it looks like you are doing well with your flintknapping. Much better than me. Does that book help a lot?

James

the book explains pretty well, but i wish i had a mentor. i've got a good start on a rock wall out back i'm making out of the flakes that did'nt.
i've broken many that were almost finished. with the amount of dug and found real points i and many others have recovered, the indians must have been more than prioficient. i understand a good knapper could turnout a point every couple of minuits. most were lost or broken with the first use. simple to art. they're very interesting.

i use an old round egg shaped river rock,(granite, i think) and whitetail antler tines with the tips fired and hardened. kinda like a red ryder bb gun, you'll put your eye out, so i wear glasses and a leather apron.

the tomahawk is rounded like a wide ball pien hammer on one end the come to a twisted edge on the other end. what i have read and have been told that it was probably a bone breaker/crusher type tool. in other words, when they killed there food they used it to break the large bones of whatever they were cleaning to eat. atleast thats a opinion anyway!