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flint

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dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 22 9:51 pm Post subject: flint

nice material

a natural material with "grain" and fractures, use that

i just made a rather nice 2 finger tip and thumb end micro knife

it is not symmetrical, it is sharp where it should be and blunt where it must be
if one is careful, what was the grip side can be a scraper

a little more work on the fingertip grip, only to soften the edges a bit more, and it will do

that fancy clovis point stuff and the like was probably for show and bragging rights

easy to handle and does the job can be quick and in my case lowish skilled work

ps a selection of microliths on a stick is probably a better hunting weapon than one pretty pointy thing on a stick

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 22 6:34 am Post subject:

We have black flint round our way which is pretty good for working. Not as good as the stuff mined in Grimes Graves and such like possibly, but until good steel was readily available, may well have been traded around the area as the usual cutting tool. I know it will cut the sort of thickness of willow that is useful for baskets. It is also used as a building material round here as there is no useable stone, although a lot of brick clay, so brick houses were common alongside the flint ones.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 22 11:33 am Post subject:

this is dark gray with a buff tinge when thin

tis ok stuff, as i had to start by removing some low grade mortar it was a bit of garden or suchlike so it could be from anywhere

the closest knapable stone to here is chert, rubbish stuff for blades, ok for scrapers

north manchester has brown flint cores in a chum's garden and a neolithic site under the local cricket pitch, those may be aluvial or imported

i just looked over at the new one, i sorted blunting the sharp bits on the grip, i also noticed the "swiss army knife" i made earlier
that one is nice, several shapes of blade, scrapers, a point and a small chisel, grippy and chalk covered on the hand hold side
i want to try that one for dismantling a decent size critter and it is a core for carry and make bits, proper Palaeolithic kit(no need for pyrites if you can play the fiddle

)

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 22 11:52 am Post subject:
ps i sharpened a pencil with the little one last night and that worked well

NorthernMonkeyGirl

Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 4630
Location: Peeping over your shoulder

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 22 10:37 pm Post subject:
I've got half a memory of being told that arrows from Doggerland and thereabouts were more likely to a multiple small flints - like you say - than one pointy one But google is not backing that up so far!

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 22 7:06 am Post subject:
Some tools were made from multiple small flints, but I don't think it was arrows. Can't remember what it was, but a sort of harpoon might be. Like you, Google isn't being helpful.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 22 8:57 am Post subject:

England

There are many examples of possible tools from Mesolithic deposits in England. Possibly the best known is a microlith from Star Carr in Yorkshire that retains residues of resin, probably used to fix it to the tip of a projectile. Recent excavations have found other examples. Archeologists at the Risby Warren V site in Lincolnshire have uncovered a row of eight triangular microliths that are equidistantly aligned along a dark stain indicating organic remains (possibly the wood from an arrow shaft). Another clear indication is from the Readycon Dene site in West Yorkshire, where 35 microliths appear to be associated with a single projectile. In Urra Moor, North Yorkshire, 25 microliths give the appearance of being related to one another, due to the extreme regularity and symmetry of their arrangement in the ground.[19]

The study of English and European artifacts in general has revealed that projectiles were made with a widely variable number of microliths: in Tværmose there was only one, in Loshult there were two (one for the tip and the other as a fin),[20] in White Hassocks, in West Yorkshire, more than 40 have been found together; the average is between 6 and 18 pieces for each projectile.[19]

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a line of little ones with a bit of resin in an arrow shaped orientation in the ground etc, and trying them, convinces me

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