Stone tools 7: Gathering and knapping flint / chert into primitive tools
There are some sites in my area where one can find chert / hornstein and possibly flint (I still find them hard to differentiate when I only find fragments). In this video, I visit these places, gather some nice pieces and then try out my the knapping skills that I have gleaned from watching flint knapping experts on YouTube, and from trying out their techniques on vacations at the Danish coast in the past years. I'm making progress, but I still have a lot to learn.
The chert I find around here is a lot harder to knap than the good quality baltic sea flint I'm used to from Denmark. Many pieces contain fractures, inclusions, crystals and sometimes fossils of sea life. As a result, a lot of my attempts ended up failing, but as my skills improved somewhat, I managed to produce some decent results. The most useful among them are probably the drill tips for my primitive cord / pump drills, as well as a small flint blade that I may use to make a "Ötzi style" primitive flint knife. So stick around if you want to see that!
0:00 Intro, gathering chert / flint in a field
1:48 Chert slabs in between layers of limestone
3:21 Egg-shaped chert nodules in a limestone cliff
3:50 Knapping chert into stone tool preforms
8:49 Edge retouching with antler and stone pressure flakers
11:06 The results: Hand axes, drill tips, arrow points, stone chisels, flint scrapers
12:15 Outro
For excellent flint knapping tutorials (and more) I recommend these channels:
AncientCraftUK - Dr. James Dilley: / ancientcraftuk
Will Lord Prehistoric Survival: / willlordprehistoricsurvival
Donny Dust’s Paleo Tracks: / paleotrackssurvival