The great thing about flintknapping is that all you really need for a tool is a rock. A round river rock would be good. Fairly symetrical, moderately dense and hard. If you want to get fancy you can use a hefty section of antler instead, but not everyone bothers. You'll also want protective gear -- saftey glasses and a leather pad or two. Obsidian really is amazingly sharp, freshly spalled, and small bits can fly out on random trajectories at very high speed. All the equipment you'll need should only cost $30-$50. I'll assume you have a supply of obsidian to work with.
You aren't chiselling the obsidian when you're shaping it. You're hitting it, sending a shockwave through the material which removes a roughly cone-shaped section from the opposite side. Ever seen a little cone missing from a plateglass window, where it was hit by a BB? Same principle.
The concept is simple, the excution takes some practice. The angle you strike at is very important and needs to be fairly precise. There is also a lot fidly constraints on how to prepare a good platform (the bit you're striking) and up what circumstances the spall ends up being decidedly not cone-shaped. You're going to go through several good sized chunks of obsidian just getting the hang of it.
I believe that the blades in maquahuitls were formed with a more advanced punch technique, where you press into the obsidian using a crutch-like device. I've never tried it, so I can't say how hard it is to get right. But I recently saw a cute batleth-style maquahuitl made with the kind of random large flakes you'll get from percusive flaking. Depending on the level of historical accuracy you require, that might be good enough.
There are several good sites on the web for better descriptions of how to do it as well as sources for equipment and materials.
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Re: I'm gonna do it, I swear.
You aren't chiselling the obsidian when you're shaping it. You're hitting it, sending a shockwave through the material which removes a roughly cone-shaped section from the opposite side. Ever seen a little cone missing from a plateglass window, where it was hit by a BB? Same principle.
The concept is simple, the excution takes some practice. The angle you strike at is very important and needs to be fairly precise. There is also a lot fidly constraints on how to prepare a good platform (the bit you're striking) and up what circumstances the spall ends up being decidedly not cone-shaped. You're going to go through several good sized chunks of obsidian just getting the hang of it.
I believe that the blades in maquahuitls were formed with a more advanced punch technique, where you press into the obsidian using a crutch-like device. I've never tried it, so I can't say how hard it is to get right. But I recently saw a cute batleth-style maquahuitl made with the kind of random large flakes you'll get from percusive flaking. Depending on the level of historical accuracy you require, that might be good enough.
There are several good sites on the web for better descriptions of how to do it as well as sources for equipment and materials.