A hat-tip to John Derbyshire who linked to this very cool YouTube video of a flint-knapper manufacturing blades from a pyramidal core using a punch technique. This is how artifacts that Steve saw on his trip to Turkey were made that I posted on last year.
I never fail to be facinated and amazed at the skills of a master hand craftsman . Whatever the material, there is the same deftness, consideration , and concentration, and apparent ease of motion in the hand / eye co ordination . We have one of the last remining Flintknappers, here in my region of the UK, in Brandon, who is the doyen of worldwide Flinklock users. Brandon is situated very close to the best known British neolithic flint mine in Thetford Forest , Grimes Graves.Whilst excavated, the original galleries give a real impression of how the miners lived and worked.
JohnnyUK
I am very jealous, Johnny that you live near Grimes Graves. That is one of the classic archaeological sites that we all learn about in our intro to archaeology courses. In terms of gunflints, some years ago I ran a test excavation project at an 1840s fur trade post – Ft. Davy Crockett – in northwestern Colorado. We recovered lots of English gunflints, characterized by a translucent honey color, that probably came from your part of the would.
Reid Farmer
The “Old Empire” strikes back!-it’s tentacles are everywhere.
JohnnyUK