Flintknapping

A week or so back I purchased some videos by John McPherson on flintknapping called "Breakin' Rock 1" and "Breakin' Rock 2, Let's Make an Arrowhead" and they arrived in today's mail. I have now watched the first one and am floored by this guy's ability.

At one point in the video he draws some lines on a spall (a section of a larger rock) and then hits it with a hammer stone driving off a flake RIGHT ON THE LINES. Whoah.

Midway through the video I had to run outside and attempt to find myself a hammer stone and a piece of flint (or other hard rock) to have a go at what I thought I'd learned. Let's just say it wasn't quite like the flint and steel lessons of a few weeks ago. I got the rock to flake but it wasn't quite as controlled as I would have liked.

McPherson has a website here. He and his wife Geri have also written a couple of books on the subject of primitive survival.

After nearly two hours of instruction (and with another 100 minutes in Volume 2) I am ready to head for a quarry. I might not do much but make a mess for a while but I sure will have some fun doing it.

All this because I wanted to learn how to "sharpen" the edge of my flint for firestarting.

Thanks for reading,


B