home made christmas present

[gregory84]

My brother in law is always looking over my artifact collection and thinks it is so neat. I've offered to take him, but from turkey hunting trips in the past I know he probably isn't patient enough for that. So while having christmas dinner at his house tonight I was showing him my newest creation and he thought that it was pretty neat and took it to show off to all his family members, so I decided to go ahead and gift it to him. It being my first nice, succesful point, it was hard to part with, but the look of thanks from him was enough of a reward. Now I know what to make for gifts next year. Here are some progression pictures of it, the tools used, and the final piece. Its made from blue bottle glass. Enjoy and a merry christmas to all.

[Dennis]

Nice work.

[MidlandMan]

Too bad the ancients didnt have blue glass to work. Thats really pretty! Wonder what youll be able to make in years worth of practice!

[gregory84]

Thanks guys! Actually midlandman, if you do a search for artifacts of the australian aboriginies you'll find some amazing pieces, if I'm not mistaken they are called kimberley points, they used colored glass in the recent past and they are beautiful. If I remember the article right, they used whatever they could get there hands on to make their points and then when white men started coming into there country they started stepping up production of these beutiful points for sale to tourist.

[neralich]

Perty point! Pretty tough to get that glass "cortex" all the way off!

I have a couple tricks I use to get pressure flakes to remove most/all of it.

I can take some pics for ya if you want??

[gregory84]

That would be great jason. I got almost all of it off,just the last little bit in the second to last picture was left. It was starting to get to thin to try and get anymore off. I love working on this glass.

[Mud Hawk]

Very nice work! That blue is beautiful.

I really want to try my hand at knapping... maybe 2012?

[neralich]

Originally Posted by gregory84

That would be great jason. I got almost all of it off,just the last little bit in the second to last picture was left. It was starting to get to thin to try and get anymore off. I love working on this glass.

Ok,,Hope I don't confuse you more than help you, lol

You did a fine job, especially using antler tines. Shown below I use copper to demonstrate. Really need a video to show you or show you in person.

Anyways, Some part of this may be of some kind of help,,,Maybe

I demonstrate using a smoke grey colored glass that I found in a creek dump. Not sure if this was old window pane glass or what, But I find large peices of this glass and use a glass cutter to score and then snap it into the relative shape of point style I plan to create. The same process can be used on broken bottle bottoms, etc (minus scoring with glass cutter) The glass I found is about a 1/4 inch thick.

It takes some practice, and a little muscle to accomplish the large pressure flakes that sometimes can run from edge to edge(using this technique). On the wider peices created, I usually get the flakes to run at least to the middle before terminating. Then, I flip the peice over and get the other half. SO, on a wider peice,, you would have to do the same process 4 times to remove all of the glass cortex.

Good heavy duty gloves and safety glasses a must, plus some nearby band-aids!

Here is my pressure flaking machine made out of small section of 2x4



Tools/materials needed



After scoring/cutting,,,or reducing (on bottle bottoms, etc),,,grind edge as shown so pressure flaker has something to grip...



Starting a flake removal at far end as shown.



Shown after first flake removal.



After several flake removals,,



To Be Continued

[neralich]

OK,,,after getting in a hurry and breaking the peice,,,here it is with some cortex I couldn't get removed the first go around. I colored it blue for easier spotting.



Here I'm crushing the edge to create a 90 degree angle and raise the centerline.



After a lil grinding, it's ready for some pressure flakes.



So far, so good...



Almost all of it removed. I gave up working on this peice but you get the idea.

[gregory84]

Thanks jason, I like the 2x4 idea. Right now I'm just doing most of my pressure flaking either in a well gloved hand or on top of a pair of gloves on my work bench. Doesn't work the best but works well enough, but would probably explain the short pressure flakes and hinges I am getting. The only help I have gotten is what little I've read in a few articles, dc waldorfs book, and trial and error so far. I live in close proximity to a very talented knapper who has spent a good deal of time knapping with Mr. Waldorf but he didn't really seem to want to give much advice, other than the negatives about it. Maybe I caught him on a bad day, because he is usually very approachable and a nice guy. So thanks for the help and ideas, now to try and get a hold of some more material. If I were to buy some, what would you reccomend and what source? I had a few medium size flakes of burlington I had found in a creek and really liked how they worked, just curious what you might reccomend. You can pm me if you would like. Thanks again.