Flint knapping is a wonderfully paradoxical craft. It requires next to nothing in terms of material – just a hammerstone and a piece of flint – but takes up towards a decade of hard work to perfect. Anyone can learn to calculate the strike to take off a simple flake, but making a tool is an art not even a computer can predict.

Emma knapping on the job.

Flint knapping has been done all over the world since the Paleolithic. Without it, there are many things man would not have been able to do. It revolutionised hunting, woodworking and leatherworking.

It is also something you can try yourself, or with your child, niece or nephew, or grandchild. All you need is a piece of flint and a hammerstone of somewhat harder quality.

Your First Try at Flint Knapping

Once you have found a suitable piece of flint and a hammerstone, you should put the flint against something to stabilise it as you work. This could be something like a log, but you will have better control if you are holding it towards your own body. Make sure the support is a fleshy area, such as the outer thigh, rather than a bony area, like the knee, as the impact of your strike might otherwise cause you bodily damage.

Hold the hammerstone so as to keep its underside entirely free from fingers. Trust me, you do not want to slam your thumb between two stones!

Strike!

You will soon learn to tell the difference between the sound made from a strike at an angle apt to break the stone – a highnote like glass – and an angle that will get you nowhere – a clanging thud like kitchenware.

You can then keep using the hammerstone to remove large pieces of flint, or a softer hammer of wood, bone or antler, to make smaller changes to the shape of your object.

Precautions

Though flint knapping is mostly safe, there are a number of precautions to consider to make sure your session doesn’t turn sour:

• Observers or other flint knappers should be several yards away or wear protective eye glasses. Tiny splinters of stone will fly about and they could lose an eye. You yourself are much less likely to injure yourself this way because the splinters will be mostly flying away from you. To be on the safe side, however, protect your own eyes as well.
• Watch your fingers! I know I already said this, but it bears repeating. Your fingers will turn purple if you forget.
• Keep some plasters on you! Some minor cuts can certainly occur.
• Never strike flint with flint! There is a reason we use hard hammer stones. If you strike porous rock with porous rock you can’t be sure it’s not the one in your hand that will break and your hand might not survive that.
• Do not try out your new sharp flint edge on yourself! A flint knife can be ten times as sharp as a surgical scalpel. One very brilliant knapper even made the tools for his own eye surgery by himself.

Instructional Videos to Get You Started

Make sure to check out the rest of Jim’s videos on his YouTube channel. Good luck with your knapping!

About the author: E P Wohlfart is a twenty-something freelance writer with a Classical Archaeology degree, a laptop and a maxed-out library card. Aside from administrating PastPresenters.com, which she started in 2008, she works with several historical publications and is a regular contributor at Suite101.