Still, I’m sure the second, maybe third tool man ever used was an edgy rock. I think the first was the hammer stone. It seems obvious to me. Pick up a rock and smash something. The tie for second and third place goes to fire and sharp edges. I suspect it was sharp edges followed by fire.
Inventing knapping went something like this:
She: “My sharp rock is dull again. Go find me another one.”
He: “I just got you that one. Those things don’t grow on trees.”
She: “Well, unless you want fur on your meat, you better find me another one just like this one.”
She passes it, he butter-fingers it and the stone tool breaks on the cave floor.
She: “Now you’ve done it!”
Picking up the damaged stone tool he cuts himself on the newly sharpened edge and an idea takes root.
He: “Here. I’ll be outside talking to Uglar. Call me when supper is ready”. He walks off acting like he had planned it.
The seed of knapping was planted. You can chip stone to create a sharp edge.
The knapper holds the stone in his left hand and strikes it with a copper bar with his right. It's art in motion, a skill once in great demand now on dispay at the Western Reserve Cutlery Association's Knife Show
I had a chance to watch a flint knapper explaining his art to during the Western Reserve Cutlery Show. He explained how flint has very fine grain. We call it cryptocrystalline and it has no cleavage planes. When force is applied with a soft tool, like an antler, or rounded copper nail, a conchoidal fracture, called a Hertzian Cone forms and material flakes off. By skillfully applying this principle the knapper can flake off material to form an incredibly sharp edge.
That’s the connection. Knife, sword, axe, and arrowhead: It’s all about sharp edges.
He explained that he wasn’t using flint but chert. Flint is a rock that forms in chalk deposits. Chert is a sedimentary rock that forms in any deposit.
Chert? Sounds like what a Rocky Balboa bird would say: “Hey! CHERT!”
No comments:
Post a Comment