So my first flintknapping video somebody asked if this skill has any practical purpose
and I figured I could make a video about that to answer it.
Now the obvious thing of course is educational as well as recreational purpose
and some people also make money with this. They make stone arrow points and knives
and various other things and sell them.
So that's one thing.
But in a survival situation that can also come in handy, especially if we're thinking some kind of
worst case scenario, everything breaks down, SHTF scenario, that sort of thing.
There are actually a number of ways of making tools from modern materials.
Now right here I've got a piece of broken glass. This is from a bottle
and I randomly found this lying on top of a trash bin
so I just grabbed it and figured I could make something out of this.
Because the thing is glass, just like obsidian, has the characteristics that you need for knapping.
You may not have a fancy pressure flaker like this obviously,
but what you might find is nails or anything else really, any piece of metal, ideally soft metal like copper,
but steel could work as well. Aluminum could probably work.
So all you need to do is take a nail, some kind of other object and fix it in a wooden handle.
You could, for example, use a fresh branch and it has a soft pith in the center
and you just push the nail in, things like that.
Or you could also cut a groove into the handle and then put the nail or whatever you have in there
and then wrap it with duct tape or whatever you have.
So there would be options.
I'm holding it in my hand here and
[SNAP]
I'm pushing off flakes.
You can see right there
there's one and then I'll continue with this.
So now I'm done on one side you can see the flake scar pattern.
This is not a good edge yet; it wouldn't cut terribly well.
But I'll continue, go around...
[GLASS CRUNCHING]
[SNAP]
Okay now that's done.
It's got a rough edge all around
so now I can start driving flakes
across the surface.
[SCRAPING]
[SNAP]
Now I've got a halfway decent edge on one side.
Okay I want to cut myself a larger leather pad and I'm going to use this to show you how usable it is now.
[DULL CUTTING]
So it's a little bit awkward to hold because it's so small,
but it works.
Looks like I'm running out of light.
So ironically the process of making this is alternating between dulling and sharpening the piece.
So first I have to dull the edge
[SCRAPING]
by abrading.
And I do that because I need the platform to withstand the pressure that I put on it.
It needs to be strong enough that I can push in and build enough pressure to detach a decently long flake.
So first I make a sharp edge by detaching flakes, than I dull it by grinding it
than I make another sharp edge and this is essentially how I shape the thing.
[OUTRO MUSIC]