Am I the only one who thought flint knapping was just smashing rocks together?

I used to think flint knapping was basically just hitting one rock with another until something sharp happened. That was before I volunteered at a demo last Saturday at the local history museum in Salem. I watched this guy spend 45 minutes shaping one arrowhead and he kept walking away to cool down his material. I asked him why and he said thermal treating the chert makes it flake way cleaner. He let me try and I just shattered the piece because I was hitting it at the wrong angle. That moment made me realize there is actually a ton of science and patience behind it, not just brute force. Has anyone else totally changed their view after watching a real knapper work?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai6574d ago

Man it's just banging rocks together with extra steps. I get that there's technique but people act like this guy cracked the Da Vinci code of rock smashing.

grant8264d ago

Yeah but it's not really "banging rocks together" when you think about what's actually happening. The angle of the strike, the type of rock, where you hit it, all that stuff changes everything. Like try making an arrowhead by just smashing two rocks together, you'll end up with a pile of gravel. There's a reason people spend years learning this and still mess it up half the time.