Boxwood on basalt

[@TheJPDIII]

This is fun to watch. Thank you. PD

[@draven3838]

It's very impressive how you use wood boppers ,I primarily work chert and flint ,however I have some pale green quartzite that I many try wood boppers on

[@ryanmorrison2489]

Nice work, Thanks for sharing!

[@tatar_aydar8477]

That's great 👍

[@gregabate]

I ve never heard of boxwood, what are some other woods I should learn about?

[@Jason1975ism]

I love basidian for large bifaces and hand axe stuff. It's not great for fine work.

[@Tradbow85]

What are some good woods for billers? I'm from around St. Louis so going to try some local woods.

[@Flintknappingtips]

You’ll do well with some seasoned dogwood

[@theyoungoutdoorsman5814]

That kind of material really loves antler precussion

[@Flintknappingtips]

Agree, except finishing edges. Try the wood punch 😉

[@TheModernDayMountainMan]

Thanks for the video Marty. I'll be spending some time with wood for sure.

[@TellWilliambr549]

Where did you get the basalt from, I have been looking still no luck

[@Flintknappingtips]

This Az basalt I got from a friend from someone from Arizona. May have been Tom dodge?

[@Derek_Watts]

I've been working through a few local volcanics this month and it's amazing how much better they respond to softer tools. What a neat coincidence you're working basalt with wood right now. I'm definitely taking notes.

[@Flintknappingtips]

The range of large mass wooden billets, (besides under massed organic punches) are the least utilized tools by modern knappers. The possibilities are vast.

[@FloridaGiantsWereReal]

Boxwood as in (ilex)..?

[@jimajello1028]

Marty, I lacked an incomplete description of how Jack Cresson prepared & used his wood billets. It appeared that after he cut & prepared the work end of his wood billets he would round the circumference at least 1/2 inch whereby many wood grains were bonded. Then he would char & burnish the billet coming into contact with the biface platform. Also he would work freehand without a pad allowing him to turn the biface to the desired area of strike using more of the side of the billet with a full swing instead of head on. The billet he was using was made of persimmon wood. I apologize for creating an incomplete description. Jim

[@jimajello1028]

Clarification again- after he cut square the work end of his wood billets he would round the top work area circumference at least 1/2 inch whereby many wood grains were bonded. Then he would char & burnish the billet at the top where it came into contact with the platform. Also he would work freehand without a pad allowing him to turn the biface to the desired area of strike with a full swing. He would strike more with the side of the billet at its top. Never head on or using the side of the billet too far down. When you showed in this video where you thought the area of strike on the billet you thought I was suggesting for use I had to give clarification.

[@bradleyphillips7730]

Have you used mountain mahogany for napping?

[@Flintknappingtips]

No, I haven’t. You?

[@bradleyphillips7730]

@@Flintknappingtips no I have not. I’ve been wanting to try wood knapping, and mountain mahogany is probably the most dense wood we have here in eastern Oregon. Guess I’ll have to give it a go. Thanks for your time!

[@Flintknappingtips]

@@bradleyphillips7730 some dense woods don’t behave, but would like to see how it works for you. Thanks for commenting Bradley.

[@gregdavis7766]

One of my favorite materials to work. I use mesquite billets

[@musicmanhotrod]

Fascinating. Very satisfying to watch bi faces being created! The wood aspect is new and intriguing to me. Hope u keep posting these for awhile. Thanx for sharin' man...✌😎

[@dooleyfussle8634]

Where do you get such big pieces of box? It's the primary wood for woodcut/engraving printmaking so available commercially but extremely expensive. I once found some about half that size in a hedge at the front of an old abandoned plantation house in central Virginia. I have an arbor vitae mallet that might work but it is now Cites protected as a species so pretty much unavailable. It's also so hard that it tends to shatter if you hit it too hard. Wears incredibly well, though. Some other species you might consider are elm root burl and sycamore. Both have an interlocking grain that resists splitting.

[@Flintknappingtips]

Sycamore root? I wouldn’t have thought of that. Seems soft above ground but I’ll try it. This billet was gifted to me and is pretty special. I don’t know where to get it either.

[@dooleyfussle8634]

Yeah, the root burl is just below the ground where all the roots spread out from the tree/sapling trunk. Dig up that section and cut the protruding roots away and you'll have a handle formed by the trunk and a burl formed by the root ball. Let it dry out and you'll have a much denser wooden mallet than just the wood itself. They were used traditionally as a mallet to strike a froe to make shingles and other split wood. I have some sycamore wedges (gluts) that I use to split wood. I'm just a beginner at knapping so I'm trying to master the mother of all stone tools, the aucheulean hand axe. Your basalt looks a lot like one of those.

[@Flintknappingtips]

@@dooleyfussle8634 That makes a ton of sense. So glad I asked for input on this. Appreciate it Dooley!

[@chucklearnslithics3751]

In the great basin basalt is kind of a tertiary material, since they had good selection of obsidians and cherts. But there are plenty of examples of many great basin points made from basalts or other fine grained volcanics. Of course there's the infamous 9" haskett, but I've also seen cougar mountain points as well. You can probably pick any great basin point and there's an example of it in basalt out there somewhere. I haven't tried wood yet, but have worked a lot of fgv material and was surprised when I found bison horn to be one of the best ways to work it. (think I even have a video of that...?). Now you've got me inspired to take a chunk of firewood to it next!

[@Flintknappingtips]

I saw your bison vid! That Haskett is so cool but this rock I don’t think would hold up. Maybe a huge cougar mtn. Enjoyed your quarry vids. Looked like a blast.

[@chucklearnslithics3751]

@@Flintknappingtips Heh! Yeah if Gary ever gets you talked into joining us out here, it's worth a few extra miles if you guys want to go get some that agate too. Need to figure out how to spall the big ones now without just turning them into a bunch of crazed and sharp junk, like agate likes to do.

[@Flintknappingtips]

@@chucklearnslithics3751 I’ve got some some large, untempered steel for breaking large stubborn agates:) we need to do a trip.

[@mjbradshaw]

PP is gone, but someone backed up that thread. Let me see if I can find it.

[@Flintknappingtips]

That sucks. Sorry to hear. That thread was a wealth of information.

[@jonahlevi3178]

Wow you've got to be the only person on youtube who has videos from 15 years ago and is still posting flint knapping videos

[@gsnicholas8522]

I’ll never forget the first time I watched James Parker take one of his monster dogwood clubs to a big piece of North Carolina ryolite.

[@Flintknappingtips]

KZbin wasn’t a thing back then. It’s a shame. There’s a lot of knappers who have missed out.

[@gsnicholas8522]

@@Flintknappingtips I agree. James is a real talent with wood. It's a shame that more people don't know about him.

[@bobberdownbrown6692]

Great video as always Marty! I’m just learning how to flint knap and your videos have been a tremendous help. A few Great Basin point types I’d love to see you or another knapper do are Humboldt basal knotch, black rock concave, pinto basin and some classic Elko eared. Cheers

[@Tradbow85]

I love watching you knap. Idk any other abo knappers on KZbin. Always excited when I see you have a new video.

[@Flintknappingtips]

Appreciate it. There’s a bunch of excellent wood knappers and I wish there were more demos on KZbin.

[@jimajello1028]

I have made my billets in a very similar fashion. I have used them on some grades of basalt, argillite, quartzite, siltstone, obsidian, & quartz. It is noteworthy however that they do require sandstone refacing & refurbishing/charing when they become too pitted to properly transfer energy.

[@plantnichplantdied]

good wood

[@dooleyfussle8634]

I hope those airplanes are in your video, otherwise they're buzzing my house at 11:00 @ night!

[@Flintknappingtips]

There here. All is quiet there.

[@zacharyhansen9122]

Hey Marty, Zack Hansen here. I'm not sure about that specific Arizona basalt, but there are many point styles that can be made from that. You could make a large Northern Side notch. I saw a basalt one found about that length south of Sacramento. Of course you could also make quite a few different Western Stemmed points.

[@Flintknappingtips]

Thanks for the input. I have seen a few huge side notched points out if it now that you mention it. I wish it started narrower so I could justify a Haskett

[@zacharyhansen9122]

@@Flintknappingtips oh yeah, or you could make a fishtail

[@KnappinStuff]

Dude! That lip on that flake at 16:25! That's what I see on the Obsidian flakes with the wood. It creates that serrated edge on the haskett points. Antler lipping looks different to wood forsure

[@johnknappingthings271]

I made a wood video

[@Flintknappingtips]

I’ll check it out tonight. Cool

[@johnknappingthings271]

@@Flintknappingtips Thanks but it real basic I’m still pretty new