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Took me 3 weeks to figure out why my flint knapping kept failing, and it was one dumb mistake
I started knapping last month after watching some videos from a guy in Boise. For 3 weeks every point I made snapped right at the tip, and I went through about 40 pounds of chert trying to get it right. Turned out I was holding the hammerstone way too high and not following through, which sent all the force straight down instead of across the edge. Once a guy at a rock show in Tucson showed me to flick my wrist more, I made 4 good points in one sitting. Anyone else have a technique they had to unlearn the hard way?
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angela_morgan12h ago
Did you check your platform angle before you blamed the hammerstone? I did the same thing when I started, kept snapping tips and figured it was my swing. Turns out my leather pad was bunched up and tilting the stone just enough that the force had nowhere to go but down. Once I smoothed the pad out flat, my points stopped breaking. What kind of chert were you burning through, and did you ever try switching to obsidian to see if the breaks went away?
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