burnt embers

This is the probably the last of the mini-series from my visit to Dan Stueber’s flintknapping class at the University of Victoria and is about a time-lapse video we made of Dan pressure flaking a small corner-notched projectile point. The point would be suitable for use as an arrowhead or on an atlatl dart.

The video below is a timelapse that shows Dan pressure flaking a flake of stone to shape it into a tool. The video is rendered at 8 fps from 1,266 frames shot at a 1 second interval. In a couple of places I have inserted a string of image duplicates to briefly freeze the action. Total elapsed time for this sequence was a bit less than 22 minutes.

Below the video are selected stills to illustrate different aspects of this method, followed by a gallery with more examples.

Click on the image below to launch the video. I recommend clicking on the wheel symbol in the lower right and raising the resolution level, and maximising the view so you can see more detail.

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Pressure flaking is a method used once you have reduced a larger piece of stone down to a workable size, called a blank, such as the flake in the picture below. Preparing the blanks can be done with percussion using a hard hammer like another stone, or a soft hammer like a chunk of antler or very hard wood, or both in succession. Pressure flaking involves using a pointed tool that is softer than stone such as antler (copper is often used by modern flintknappers) – this allows a bit of grip when applying pressure so the tool does not slip off. The tip of the flaker is placed on the edge of the blank and pressed with considerable force until a flake pops off. The placement of the flaker tip and the angle of the pressure have to be just right. You will notice in this video that a lot of the force for applying pressure comes from the legs with Dan’s legs moving back and forth as he flakes.

Once one flake is removed, then typically the flaker is applied right next to it, and the next flake comes off along the ridge left next to the previous flake scar. This is repeated around the margins of the blank, with emphasis on shaping the tool and removing flakes from both faces in a symmetrical manner. However, this flaking action also thins out the edge where the flakes are being removed, and once it gets too thin or irregular then it starts to weaken. A weak edge provides a poor platform for pressing off more flakes and has to be strengthened. This is typically done by grinding the edge a bit with a stone or a bit of antler – you will see Dan do both in this video, the antler is part of the tool and he uses it near the end when doing fine finishing. Otherwise it is done with a stone which takes off more at once.

Final finishing is sometimes done with a finer tipped tool, and for notching the corners in this video Dan uses a spatulate tipped antler flaker which at one angle has quite a small profile.

Finally, when all is done, Dan signs his piece using a diamond tipped scriber. Signing the work is important for two reasons – one is that it prevents the tool from entering the underground market of “pot hunted” projectile points which are dug up from sites by vandals – in a small way this helps diminish that market. These people call themselves collectors, but in their greed for rare or perfect artifacts they destroy the three dimensional relationships that exist in a site. The kinds of data that are of interest to archaeologists, and essential to understanding past lifeways and human behaviour are found in the spatial arrangements of the artifacts and the other remains like hearths, living areas, discarded bones and even chemical changes or DNA preserved in the soil – excavating a site destroys these relationships, and digging indiscriminately just for artifacts without recording the other information removes this unique information forever, and is comparable to burning the only copy of a book, or for some sites a library of unique books.

Another reason to sign your work is that it is your work – people like Dan are masters at their craft and they should signify it as their art. These objects can be timeless and many will end up in collections at museums, art galleries and private homes and persist for centuries. The artists deserve to be remembered. Look at the link for Dan’s website to get a sense of the mastery – he has taken it to an amazing level.

The images below are not always crisp. This is because I had to fix the focus on a point that would do for all of the timelapse (I probably should have used even greater depth of field), the images are cropped quite a bit since I framed it generously to allow for Dan moving around but found I could zoom in quite tight in post, and also because I chose a slower shutter speed as this makes for a better timelapse video, at least when created 24 or 30 fps video. We decided after looking at this sequence at 24 fps, 12 fps and 6 fps that a slower rate of speed was more educational as it gave the viewer more time to see what is going on. Ultimately I settled on 8 fps as a bit smoother than 6 fps. If I had known in advance I would end up at this rate of speed, I might have shot each image at a slightly faster shutter speed to get them a bit sharper. But, it works pretty well like this, so I am satisfied with this first effort. Dan and I hope to do some more of these when he is next in town.

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To open the gallery, click on any thumbnail below, navigate with the arrows and escape to return to this page:

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Canon 5Dii, SMC Takumar 35/3.5 lens, ISO125, f-8, 1/50th. Shot at 3861×2574 pixels and cropped to 2204×1240 for rendering into a video.  Edits were done in Lightroom 4 and LRTimelapse, video editing in Windows Live Movie Maker.

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