Re: Flint knapping

Michael Bauser (MBAUSER@KENTVM.KENT.EDU)
Wed, 7 Sep 1994 00:24:44 EDT

On Tue, 6 Sep 1994 14:57:39 CDT Rob Quinlan said:
>in contemporary (historical) cultures? OR does anyone know how to flint
>knap? I'm curious about how long it takes to learn to knap, how long it
>takes to be marginally competent, how long it takes to be an expert. That

This is awfully gossipy for an academic list, but I've always found it
an amusing notion: One of my old professors always insisted you could
teach yourself marginal competance in a day or so, provided you had
good material to work with. (Identifying "good flint" being relatively
difficult for the complete novice.)

This professor in particular learned most of what he knew while drunk and
making spear heads of empty bear bottles. Apparently this was a grad
school party game at some Canadian universities. So I can only suggest
asking some Canadian-trained archaelogists.

If I've overstepped myself, just classify this as professional folklore
and everything will be fine. I'm not going to worry about--the professor
in question much too anti-progress to be reading this list.

--
Michael Bauser <mbauser@kentvm.bitnet or mbauser@kentvm.kent.edu>
Dept. of Anthropology, Kent State University, Kent OH 44242, USA