Rocky Hollow Knapp In
A Report by Richard Sanchez
The Rocky Hollow Knapp In was located in Maxdale, Texas. It was hosted by The
Retired Sergeants Major Association. They put on an excellent event. The camp
site was located out in the hills, in a nice wooded
area. Driving through the country roads we spotted many a deer and armadillo.
We arrived a day early and got a prime spot. There were some knappers already
there. They were knapping via Clamp on Light. We walked over to their camp
site and everyone had their chairs or stools in a circle and were knapping on
a tarp. A tarp and a Clamp on Light is a necessity at a knapp in, at least if
you want to knapp after the sun goes down.
The knappers trickled in a little at a time and before you knew it the place
was packed out! The levels of experience varied, but the nice thing was that
everyone was always willing to help out and demo a technique for you. I watched
a guy show how to notch points, and watched others informally demo the "thinning
process". There was numerous vendors peddling points, books, tools and more.
The books that were available were D.C. Waldorf's book and John Whittaker's
book. The tools were mainly abraders, copper billets, copper pressure flaking
tools, hand anvils, ishi sticks etc. They also had machines that made the fluting
process a tad easier. And of course everyone had Points to sell and if you were
lacking in ideas on what to make, then this was the place to be. There were
knives, tomahawks, arrows, arrowheads. If you've seen the cover of Whittaker's
book, he has two points and an Aztec ceremonial knife . One of the Knappers
had duplicated them and they looked excellent.
If you were looking to buy rock, there was an abundance to be bought. Mainly
various flints, but there was a variety of other types. Navaculite, Opal,
Obsidian , Plate Glass, Leaded Glass, Agate and some stuff I didn't know what
it was. No one was selling "JohnStone/ThunderChert" bummer. (Grin)
For those of us who wanted the FREE stuff , there was an excursion into
Killeen and onto Fort Hood. They organizers had got permission from FT Hood
to allow us Knapper onto the grounds and conduct a Flint Hunt. Once we arrived
at Ft Hood we winded down many a dusty road, complete with wandering cows. The
background music to this adventure, was filled with militay manuevers, nice
loud explosions from tanks, helicopters and such. Everyone converged onto this
location and started looking for rock. Those of us who had never done this
were just looking (like me) and cooking. It was noon and boy was it
HOT 90 degrees or so and DRY....and did I mention DUST. I'd heard alot of
talking about finding the good stuff so I embarked on picking up stuff I
thought looked good. No cracks, had a nice Twang sound when you banged on it,
Chipped relatively well etc. I found if the rock was full of cracks it didn't
Twang. (yeah ok it's not scientific) Anyway here we were my father in law ,
brother in law and myself picking up rocks.
Tips for making your knapp-in experience a success
When buying rock from a vendor always do the following;
- Ask if it is Heat Treated, non heat treated stone is tough to work on. Not
impossible but tough.
- Ask How well it chips and have him demonstrate to you by flaking a chip off
of the stone. If it appears to flake easy then that should confirm that it is
heat treated.
- IMPORTANT ONE.... ask to see something made out of this material he/she is
selling.
(If he can not show you anything from the material then DON"T BUY IT!!! Even
if it looks really good.)
- If the stone is translucent (see through) then hold it up to the sun and
check for any imperfections, bubbles, cracks, internal fractures etc.
Other Observations
Although everybook I've read preaches the JOY OF ANTLER BILLETS , I saw NO ONE
use one. Everyone was using copper billets. There were several vendors
selling Antler Billets and yet none of them USED antler billets they all used
Copper. Probably because copper gives you more control over what you are
doing and it makes an already tough craft a lot easier. A number of the
knappers had bought cold shrink wrap and added this to the end of their copper
billets. Cold shrink wrap is simply a rubber tubing that shrinks to the size
of the billet without the need to heat it. It is available in hardware stores.
Most hardware stores sell Heated shrink wrap but the feel is a bit harder.
The cold shrink wrap felt more spongy and allows for a better grip.
My frustration as a knapper was
trying to pressure flake , and make flakes that are 1/2 inch or longer but unfortunately
I was making the cheesy 1/4 inch or less type of things. I noticed that the
Knappers all had a Notch in their Hand Anvils. The notch was a V shaped notch
at the edge of the hand anvil. When I asked this one Master Flintknapper why
he said that if your hand anvil did not have a notch in it, then the flake would
be trapped by the hand anvil. If you add a notch the space allowed the flake
to travel farther. I tried it and sure enough I could make 1/2 inch or longer
flakes. YEAH.
The Knapp-in was definetly worth attending and the information that I gleaned
from the other knappers has improved my own knapping skills.
Good Chipping,
Richard Sanchez
[email protected]
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