made me want to cry

[gregory84]

I am very new to knapping, by that I mean like only about ten hours total over the last few weeks. I've made a few on flakes with an antler flaker, nothing fancy. Then I talked with my neighbor who used to make glass art to see if he had any slag laying around for me to work on, unfortunately he doesn't, but his dad owns an optics glass shop and he gave me a half inch thick lense of optical glass. I finally got the hang of percussion flaking on it when I only had a small piece left. I had a nice point going and had one stubborn little piece that wouldn't come off and busted it in half, it made me want to cry.hopefully I can get my hands on some more of this glass, it flakes very nicely. Any other ideas on cheap practice material? The cobble I pick up while arrowhead hunting usually have fractures and other flaws and turn into gravel. The only tools I use are stone and antler.

[Dirty_Digger]

Still not bad for such little time in it. Dont stop! I'd say you have some talent in you!

[Middle Mountain]

Little super glue Gregory! That glass is so thin you may just want to pressure flake any future glass but I did read knapping glass may not be a material you want to breath in the micro particles. What it was? Not sure read it on another forum, maybe Arrowhead forums? While you are walking in creeks you will come across bottoms of bottles that might be still workable. Just remember to wear eye protection and being one eyed wont make you any tougher. Watch some knapping demonstrations and or videos and you can see how knapping is done.

[mbrown1833]

I'm sorry to hear that, Greg. Hope it continues to work out- looks like you're making progress.

Miles

[Lobo69ss]

Greg, If you`re looking for more glass to work with try checking out glass houses where they repair/replace commercial building windows. The glass is usually 1/4" or more thick & flakes great. The trick is getting the "cortex" (shiney gloss) off in the first or second pass. I`ve made a flaker from a gutter nail (of aluminum, mounted in a short section of broom handle) with a rounded tip that works nicely to push flakes off of the square edge. Just remember to abrade it real good so that the tip gets a solid purchase on the edge.
You are using a hard pad for flaking right? If not make 1 out of hard rubber (mud flaps or conveyor belt works) glued to a piece of 1/4"plywood (underlayment works nice). make it a little smaller than your palm & cut a notch into it with a grinder of some form, a side angle grinder`s what I used... not too deep , but enough so that the flake has somewhere to go when it releases.
Push in hard before twisting your wrist down to relase the flake. You can cut preforms with a simple glass cutter. I make most of mine under 2" wide as it`s difficult to get flakes to run across the flat surface of the glass. Practice makes perfect, expect to get tiny little slivers when you least expect them & don`t forget to invest in Bandaids, you`ll probably need those as well... lol
You`ll break more before you get it right, just don`t give up, you CAN to this, you`ve already got a good start. Let`s see more of your work
Good luck & keep chippin`
Tim/Lobo http://www.youtube.com/user/paleomanjim#g/u Check out the "knapping slabs" videos he`s got , brain food`s a good thing

[drdave514]

Greg, I know the feeling. It's the worst part about the learning curve. And still even happens the the very best of them. But after awhile the immediate grief isn't "cry". It's more like SONOFA(&)(^(%%$#@!@$^(((&^%$$###$#@!!!!!!!!!

[gregory84]

Thanks guys for the comments, drdave as you can probably guess I didn't really cry but I could have probably made a sailor blush with the colorful language that came out. Far from giving up though, if it were easy everyone would do it. It makes me appreciate each and every artifact I find that much more just knowing the talent it took to make them. I think I'm probably gonna have to break down and buy some good material to chip to keep me occupied this winter. I'm thinking about some novaculite but not sure. Id really like to find some good burlington but haven't been able to locate a good source. I had some small pieces I picked up and love the way it works. Any thoughts are welcome.

[sands of time]

Same thing happened to me this week! I was on my third point ever, I spent around an hour on it and snap..... I said awwww $hit, and just got discouraged lol I made a bunch of tools and have a Ishi stick, I just need to get inspired again

[Steve Valentine]

There was a knapper at the last show I attended that used old TV screens from the old type TV's. He made some killer large Blades and some nice smaller Points from them. He said he gets it from dumps.

[pointfinder]

yep i feel your pain! Looks a lot better than my first attempt at knapping. I like to practice with the bottoms of 32oz budweiser bottles because i am not talented enough to get the curve out of the 12 ounce bottles. Paleo man Jim on youtube is very helpful.