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So you are starting the knapping journey but what tools do you need? What are the basics? The important tools to have are a billet, hammerstone, abrading stone and a pressure flaker. That is it! Of course, it is highly recommended to include a leather pad (one for your hand and one for your leg) and eyeglasses for protection. You will however find that as your ability grows, so does your toolbox. Earlier people have used tools well before modern knappers brought their high tech. designs into focus. First hammerstones should be sourced from gravel bars, rivers, construction sites or pretty much anywhere. Two would be good to start with; the first being a heavy and harder stone for the initial work of breaking down the knapping material into useable flakes. A softer, lighter hammerstone would then be needed to thin the perform further. Also, look for a sand stone for abrading the edges. Although hammerstones could do all of the percussion work, billets are extremely helpful. Moose billets are the most popular antler due to their durability and weight. The part that attaches to the skull should be rounded off and will be the area that hits the stone. Other antlers, heal bones or even large hard wood billets can be used as well. Deer tine or bone flakers are then used for pressure flaking. They can be used as is or formed into replaceable sections and slotted into a handle, such as the "Ice Man's" retouching tool. Finally, a filed flat rib bone or deer tine notcher can be made and used, though it is not necessary. Some notes about the pads; a leather hand pad should be thick enough that the flakes won't travel through it and cut your hand but soft enough that it will allow some flexibility. Most leather works fine for this and some even use old boot leather or inner tube rubber. A useful hand pad is a flat thick rubber pad with a slot cut out down the middle. The leg pad is there to protect you also. Again any padding will be fine from soft horsehide to the thick buffalo hide. Preferences differ but a thicker pad such as the buffalo is probably a good choice, but difficult to acquire. If you are like some knappers and do not care about being strictly traditional or modern (a lot of debate about what is what) and find it difficult to find antlers, or can't afford the heavy price of moose billets, then copper is your next choice. Flakers are fairly easy to make but preferences differ greatly so you will probably go through many tools before you decide to settle on a few. First you must locate a source of copper. This can be difficult in some places and many have substituted it for aluminium (which works very similar), brass and steel (both of which seem to have more slip and not enough give). Start by looking in the yellow pages under copper, metal, etc. Eventually you will find a place that has them. Sometimes they will give you scraps/end cuts (garbage to them). A size of 3/16' and 1/4', which works good for heavier work, is a good start. Now cut them into useable pieces, about 2-3 inches in length, but it all depends. There are two choices now. 1) Take one end and simply round it off like the tip of a match head. Or, 2) Hold the piece with vice grips and hammer each side down a bit at a time until you get four flat sides (squared) which will taper off at the tip (thicker at the handle end). You will then want to sharpen the tip till it looks like a pen tip. You will undoubtedly hear that a pressure flaker MUST be maintained all the time and the tip kept thin and sharp. This can often mean maintaining it two or more times for one point. This is of course is a knapper's opinion that is shared by many and not by all. It all depends on the style of point you are making and personal preferences. Besides the rounded tip style takes no maintaining which leaves more knapping time. Now a handle is needed, and again, many choices. The two most popular are wood and delrin. A wood handle is the most available and cheapest option. Many handles have been made from broken broomsticks. The other option is a plastic handle called delrin (look in the yellow pages under Plastics). Methods are the same but the delrin threads better and lasts a lot longer. Drill a hole straight down the centre long enough to accommodate the copper pieces. Every knapper prefers a different length of tip, so that part will depend. Now option one hammer the copper tool into the handle where it should sit tightly if care was used in selecting the right bit, or glue can be used. But the problem with this method is that all that copper in the handle is wasted. The more efficient method is to place the copper rod into the hole, which will fit snugly, and set it in with one or two screws. This will allow you to adjust the length as the copper wears short. The length of handle is another personal choice as some like them long and others less than four inches. However, an Ishi rod, which is a long flaker, is an important tool as it allows more pressure to be applied. There are many styles of copper billets used by knappers, from the size of almost a cigarette to a baseball. Bill Metcalf uses copper paddles, but the majority of copper knappers use copper caps. These caps are cheap and can be found at virtually any hardware/plumbing store. The caps should be domed and can be made so by a variety of ways, but the easiest it to put the cap on a rounded handle and work it with a hammer. Now comes the ugly part. Find some lead and start melting it OUTDOORS to avoid those poisonous fumes, pour it into the cap and allow it to cool. Some now glue the led into the cap and others simply glue the cap (with lead) right onto a handle, which is made out of pretty much anything, however lighter material seems to work better as it gives a good end snap. Best glue is heavy-duty epoxy as the billet is going to take a beating! Some use different sized caps and others simply add different amounts of lead to determine the weight. Another method is to buy solid copper rods. They can be used as is (which some don't like due to the evenly distributed weight) or cut into 1.5-inch (give or take) sections. They then can be attached by taking a slightly bigger or worked copper pipe and using epoxy to glue them to a handle. Some claim to drill a setscrew into the copper rod, which works great. That is if you're a machinist. While copper is a soft metal, it will break more than one blood vessel for most people who only have a standard drill. If you still don't know where to start, or just can't get them to work right then there are plenty of vendors that have a lot of experience in making perfect tools. It is highly recommended that one should at-least start with a professionally made tool. These are incredibly durable and will last quite a while. Be forewarned however that there are a lot of lousy tools being sold too, so be sure to buy them from a well recognized knapper, such as those noticed in the "Sales" section. As they use the tools, they know what works the best. While there are other methods that work just as well (…or better), that is the fun part of experimenting, learning and discovering that should be left for you to gain an appreciation for…Good luck. A good vendor is Glenn Witchey
Delrin (Acetal) can sometimes be found for around $3 a foot for a rod the diameter of a broomstick. They can be found in the yellow pages in any major city or at: http://www.dupont.com/enggpolymers/english/products/delrin.html http://www.interstateplastics.com/meta/fmdel.htm
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