As if World of Warcraft wasn't dorky enough, I let myself get drawn into the fabulous world of flintknapping. I read Whittaker's Flintknapping: Making & Understanding Stone Tools and will probably end up just buying it (got this copy from the library). Had been foraging for some historic chert at the dig site. Got some and it doesn't flake great. But, my landlord and I got to talking about the job and i mentioned this new hobby and he brought a box of flint, a hunk of what looks like melted glass, and a piece of antler by the other day.
Well, I was set. I'd made a pressure flaker out of some copper wire and a file handle last weekend and I'd gotten a couple nice hammerstone style cobbles the weekend before. I'd started in on a piece of flint that was pretty flat w/ the antler and got a couple nice flakes to come off that I set aside to practice pressure flaking on. When it got dark, I decided to forgo the soft percussion (antler) and mess around w/ pressure flaking so as not to disturb the neighbors (even though they tend to vacuum at 330 in the morning... I have no explanation). Ended up making two points, or what might pass as points.
Going for a smaller gauge of wire tomorrow and some goggles. Still a bit anxious about catching a flake of stone in the eye ball.
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