Cheddar George said:
Let us know how the flint knapping goes. The big bloke on time team is obsessed by it - is it really that satisfying ?
There's a real skill to doing it right, making a really nice strong tool. You can make very sharp flakes (sharper than a scalpel) for small cutting jobs and even serrate them quite easily, but for a big axe you need to understand the stone, or you'll end up making one bad strike and shattering the whole thing.
I didn't knap any flint, but I did get to strike a few flakes off a Cornish beach cobble, and then grind it on a granite block to make a cutting edge - within an hour I had a hand axe which would cut a small tree down if I had to. I've taken it home to finish - in the absence of a granite block I'm using my blade sharpening stone to shape it for hafting and to polish it smooth.
