How to Chip Flint

Choose the most suitable stone to model. Rocks such as flints and the like are particularly suited to being chipped, as are basalt, obsidian, laboratory quartz, sanitary ceramics and other minerals which, once fractured, reveal a smooth surface.Obsidian is quite soft, and for beginners it is the easiest material to work with as it does not require too much effort.Even waste glass from some factories can sometimes produce beautiful works of art.All these materials are easily found on eBay.

Choose a stone that does not have, if any, too many cracks, fissures, bubbles, obvious inclusions or other irregularities that could cause it to break or flake in a manner opposite to the result you want to achieve.

Choose a stone large enough to be able to remedy a possible mistake without losing the entire work, but also small enough to be able to easily achieve what you have in mind. *If you wish, you could also carry out a heat treatment (cooking some quartz, flint, fossil wood or fossil coral for many hours at the base of a fire will change their structure, from grainy to glassy) or a water treatment (some stones, in particular opals must remain submerged, otherwise they can crack as soon as they dry), both techniques used successfully by expert chippers.With heat treatment, bury the stones under 5 cm of earth and, in the case of stone still to be worked, leave covered with a very thick layer of embers for at least four hours (more or less time is needed depending on the density of the substance) .Put out the fire or let it go out on its own.Let the stones cool overnight before digging them up, otherwise they will explode when in contact with cold air.Turn them over and repeat the process until the stone, when chipped, becomes shiny and shiny.This requires a lot of practice to master, even more than chipping itself, and becomes expensive if you add the purchase of stones.This method was originally used by those men for whom stone was necessary for survival, and the quality of the product was not only desirable, but made a difference especially during the pursuit of animals due to harder and sharper weapons, characterized by roughness, ease of manufacturing, fewer defects, etc.If you want to try this process, great, but there are many other materials available today for which it can be avoided*

Sit comfortably. You can start chipping sitting at a table or on a bench, but traditionally the practice of chipping takes place with crossed legs, with the stone in one hand resting on your knee.This method may be difficult for beginners.Try to understand which position gives you the most control, especially when flaking.I prefer to sit on a log.You can use a wooden board or a large stone as a support for your project if you have started working with a large, heavy stone.

Some materials such as flint, flint and organic fossils have a grain whose striations are typical of now fossilized organic substances, such as wood, but can also reveal a volcanic formation. Pay attention to these important characteristics of the stone.During the process of fragmenting the stone, pay attention to its natural internal features.Some flints and most glass will not have any, while agates and malachite probably will.It is the internally featureless stones that are best for beginners.By working a similar rock, in fact, you will have no direction limits, and you can shape it as you like (within certain limits).

Start with a direct percussion. Direct percussion is carried out by taking a spherical, resistant material and striking it directly against the stone, thus forming two faces and removing material in the form of long, sharp blades.A round, fist-sized stone taken from a stream, or a billet created from a large, solid antler (preferably elk antler, deer antler is hollow and of slightly lower quality) will do just fine.This technique is more difficult to learn to have control over than finishing techniques such as pressure flaking.With stones that are irregularly shaped, or weigh more than fifty grams, you will need to begin the reduction process with direct percussion.To shrink the tips of medium-sized arrows, simply take a large flake that has been loosened by percussion, scrape the edge (see step 7) and proceed directly with the pressure flaking (see step 8).The purpose of direct percussion is to thin the stone from the edges inwards, to reach the desired thickness to form a double-sided blade.Hit the stone at an angle between 50° and 60°.Imagine that a straight downward shot is 90°, while a perfectly sideways straight shot is 0°.You should now be able to determine where 60° is, just hold a protractor upside down.This angle is perfect for removing large quantities of material without risking breaking the work in half - as would happen with a more acute and direct angle, around 30 degrees - or splitting the edges and surface, in the case of a straight angle .

In the chipping process the most important step is to scrape the edge of the stone, glass, etc. object. EVERY TIME you remove a set of edges from one of the edges, it is mandatory to sand that same edge well so that the stone can withstand the impact from the next set of percussions, otherwise the edge will give way and the entire workmanship will fall apart.Again, this is the MOST IMPORTANT step in chipping flint.It is carried out by scraping, with the typical movement of a saw, the edge of a stone against another stone, the latter equally flat but with a slightly lower hardness.Old grinding wheels work well for this purpose, and so does a smooth piece of limestone.Grooves will appear in the stone or mole, a desirable characteristic.The result will be a reliable surface capable of taking on the extreme rigors of lithic engineering.If you don't do the process properly, you'll never make anything more than simple stone projectiles.

Once the original block of stone has been reduced enough that its width is approximately seven or eight times its thickness (talking about a large project), you can begin pressure flaking. Flaking is achieved by placing your item in a thick leather sheath, which you will have to hold in your hand.Then place a pointed instrument on the edge of the stone, applying pressure inwards and concentrating the energy towards the palm of the hand, not away from it as during percussion, but at a 45° angle.Exact!You will work in the opposite direction of the percussion, always paying attention to the side you can see while you are holding it.This pressure will detach a small, thin plate from the stone.The slower and longer you apply pressure, the longer the blades will be.Long blades are best, as they effectively reduce the thickness of the stone.Up to 90% of your work can be spent on the flaking process, and only the remaining 10% on the percussion, so be patient and work while staying focused on the details.Don't forget to always smooth the edge after EVERY set of foils.Do not remove two sheets in the same place without sanding.The closer you get to the end of processing the product, the less hard you will have to scrape, as towards the end your work will have delicate and razor-sharp edges.The tool with which to carry out the flaking must be a pin of approximately 1 cm x 30 cm, made of hedge apple, walnut, ash or oak wood, in short, any solid but flexible wood;never use pine, fir, poplar or conifers.A sharp copper nail should be added to the pin, fixed firmly in a hole at one end.Steel, iron, brass and bronze are too hard for stoneworking and are not good for flaking.They will shatter your work, rather than shape it.Aluminum is too delicate and fragile.The nail or copper wire should be no less than half a centimeter thick, and should not protrude more than a centimeter from the stud, as copper is quite soft and may bend too much.Traditionally, a pointed deer antler was used, which works almost as well as copper.The tool with which you will perform the flaking will need to be sharpened with a certain frequency.

If you are worried about the onset of any tendinitis due to the efforts caused by flaking (read the warnings below) you can use the indirect pressure method. The results are very different aesthetically, but this process can be even more effective in reducing the thickness on both sides of the stone.Also in this case, insert the block of rough stone inside the leather sheath, then place it on the ground between your feet, or between your knees (it is better on the ground, for greater stability).Then use your flaking tool as an awl on the edge of the stone block, and strike the top of the tool you are using with a billet that you feel is solid enough to work the stone, but that you can confidently control.Pay attention to the severity of each blow as you get closer to completing the project.A good idea is to cut the tool you are using for flaking down to about 6 inches.If possible, grab the copper tip (or horn) fixed to the pin, extract a portion of about 5 cm, finding a point that is quite blunt but at the same time pointed, so that you can concentrate the energy there.The indirect pressure method requires a lot of practice and, during the first attempts, will certainly lead to some failures.But, as you get more comfortable with it, it will work just as well as traditional flaking, if not better, and will save your elbows from potentially enormous damage.You can finish the work on the side and edge with minimal pressure on the edges.

With each series of plates that you remove from one of the edges, alternate the side of the stone from which you remove the material. If you have struck or chipped a series of plates in a certain direction, smooth the edge and turn the stone block over to remove the material from the opposite side, on the same edge.Alternate the margins too!Try not to work on the same margin twice in a row, rather move from one margin to the other so as not to alter the compactness of the material being reduced.However, it is possible, and as you learn you will often find it necessary, to machine the same face from opposite sides to remove portions of material from edges that have been damaged due to previously applied force or natural inclusions in the material.

Repeat the process until you have shaped the stone into the desired shape. Complete the pressure flaking without, this time, smoothing the edges.Leave the sharp, rough edge for use as a tool.