An introductory kit into flint knapping that includes all necessary tools and enough rock to get you started. This particular package is great for traditionalists, students, or anyone else who appreciates doing it the ancient way.  

Kit includes:

• Traditional Antler Billet (3-5 oz, Mule deer shed, may show weathering)
• Antler Tine Pressure Flaker
• Natural Sandstone Abrader
• Medium Leather Leg Pad
• Leather Hand Pad 
• 2 lbs Select Flintknapping Stone (Mix may contain Novaculite, Keokuk, Dacite and/or Obsidian)
• Basic Flintknapping Techniques DVD
• 12 Page Basic Instructional Booklet

Antler tools are not the easiest to learn with but offer a great rewarding experience. We recommend one of our kits that include copper tools for someone looking to get the easiest introduction into flint knapping. 

Kit comes in a white tabbed box with a label. Great Gift Item!

*Flintknapping involves sharp stone flakes and is not for all ages. Please gift responsibly*

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Traditional tools are also known by flint knappers as 'abo' tools (derived from the word aboriginal). These terms refer to tools that are made of natural materials and are similar in function to the implements used by our stone tool making predecessors throughout the course of human technological development. Examples of other abo tools include hammerstones of various densities and shapes, antler tine flakers, rib bone flakers, lashed flakers, wood billets, sandstone edge modifiers, and billets created from the base or 'crown' section of antler.

Flint knapping with traditional tools is immensely rewarding, though challenging to use and not the easiest to learn with. There remains something to be said for recreating the process that is largely accepted as one of the most important technological advances in human history with nothing more than items found on the forest floor.

Flintknapping, or Lithic reduction involves the use of a hard hammer percusor, such as a hammerstone, a soft hammer billet (made of wood, bone or antler), or a wood or antler punch to detach lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone called a lithic core. As flakes are detached in sequence, the original mass of stone is reduced; hence the term for this process. Flintknapping may be performed in order to obtain sharp flakes, on which a variety of tools can be made, or to rough out a blank for later refinement into a projectile point, knife, or other object. Flakes of regular size that are at least twice as long as they are broad are called blades. Lithic tools produced this way may be bifacial (exhibiting flaking on both sides) or unifacial (exhibiting flaking on one side only).

Percussion reduction, or percussion flaking, refers to removal of flakes by striking a core or other objective piece, such as a partially formed tool, with a hammer or percussor. Percussors are traditionally either a stone cobble or pebble, often referred to as a hammerstone, or a billet made of bone, antler, or wood. Often, flakes are struck from a core using a punch, in which case the percussor never actually makes contact with the objective piece. This technique is referred to as indirect percussion.

Soft-hammer percussion involves the use of a billet, usually made of wood, bone, antler, or metal (modern) as the percussor. Flakes produced in this manner are generally smaller and thinner than those produced by hard-hammer (hammerstone) flaking; thus, soft-hammer flaking is often used after hard-hammer flaking in a lithic reduction sequence to do finer work.

Pressure flaking is a method of trimming the edge of a stone tool by removing small, fine flakes by pressing on the stone with a sharp instrument rather than striking it with a percussor. This method, which often uses punches made from bone or antler tines (or, among modern hobbyists, copper punches or even nails), provides a greater means of controlling the direction and quantity of the applied force than when using even the most careful percussive flaking. Copper retoucheurs to facilitate this process were widely employed in the Early Bronze Age – and may therefore be associated with Beaker Culture in northwestern Europe.

The use of pressure flaking facilitated the early production of sharper and more finely detailed tools. Pressure flaking also gave toolmakers the ability to create notches where the objective piece could be bound more securely to the shaft of the weapon or tool and increasing the object's utility.

An archaeological discovery in 2010 in Blombos Cave, South Africa, places the use of pressure flaking by early humans to make stone tools back to 73,000 BCE, 55,000 years earlier than previously accepted. The previously accepted date, "no more than 20,000 years ago", was based upon the earliest evidence previously available, which derived from findings of the Upper Paleolithic Solutrean culture in France and Spain.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia