Online videos
In these videos, Bernard Ginelli (the professionnal) or Cayoo (the amateur) make flint or bone tools and try to recreate artefacts in the same way and with the same techniques as our ancestors.
The sound and image quality of the first movies is far from being perfect because of the camera used to record them and because of the web encoding process.
Newer videos will be much better, though since we use the same digital recorder as in our DVD products.
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60 available videos
Making flint blade knives
16 videos, 3 new
Categories:
•
Blade:
[9 videos]
•
Handle:
[1 videos]
•
Gluing:
[3 videos]
Atlat & neolithic bow shooting
6 videos, no new
Miscellaneous activities
4 videos, no new
Videos about: flint knives
NEWS NEOLITHIC KNIVES DVD: SAMPLE 1
1 |
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In a few words:
Sample from the "Neolithic knives" DVD. The carved wooden handle has just been glued with tar to the blade... It's now time to make the willow windings which will also be glued with tar. |
Duration: 02:13 Displays: 5156 |
NEWS NEOLITHIC KNIVES DVD: SAMPLE 2
2 |
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In a few words:
Sample from the ""Neolithic knives"" DVD. The retouch of the blade is almost complete, but its base needs to be carved for hafting purposes. This achieved, a deer antler can be carved to serve as a handle... |
Duration: 02:22 Displays: 4419 |
NEWS NEOLITHIC KNIVES DVD: SAMPLE 3
3 |
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In a few words:
Sample from the "Neolithic knives" DVD. This animation shows one amongst the several ways to obtain vegetal tar. In its principle, it is very similar to the way charcoal is made. |
Duration: 01:20 Displays: 2917 |
KNAPPING THE BLADE PREFORM
4 |
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In a few words:
I knap the blades preforms of my knives from a flint spall. A whole serie of bifacial retouches with a hammerstone then an antler will create the first stage of a preform that will later be thinned... in the next video. |
Duration: 12:36 Displays: 11549 |
FINISHED BLADE PREFORM
5 |
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In a few words:
Now the blade preform is finished, but there are still many imperfections on it. It will be difficult to get nice long and regular pressure flakes out of such a rough preform. This is the reason why I fully polish the preform: flake over grinding will then be much more efficient because the surfaces will be perfectly convex. |
Duration: 01:11 Displays: 5676 |
POLISHING THE BLADE ON SANDSTONE
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In a few words:
I crush small flint flakes on a big sandstone rock. Then I add water so as to obtain a ""grinding soup"" that should increase the efficiency of sandstone. The rest is just a matter of time (mostly)... and muscles ! It took 2 h30 to polish the blade (faces and bevels for pressure platforms on the sides) |
Duration: 01:49 Displays: 5333 |
PRESSURE FLAKING ON FACE 1
7 |
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In a few words:
With a copper-rod pressure flaker (chalcolithic period) I retouch by pressure the whole first face of the blade, to create long and parallel scars on it and serrations on the edges. I start with the point, with tiny flakes, that get longer and longer as I proceed toward the base of the blade. |
Duration: 04:11 Displays: 6431 |
PRESSURE FLAKING ON FACE 1 (CONT.)
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In a few words:
The first half of face 1 is now finished, so it's time to pressure flake the opposite edge. This time I start from the base and proceed toward the point untill the surface dosen't show any trace of polishing and is fully retouched. A few tweaks on the edges with a quartzite stone and I'm finished with this face. |
Duration: 05:58 Displays: 4239 |
PRESSURE FLAKING FACE 2
9 |
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In a few words:
The same double serie of retouch, flakes and scars, this time on the second face of the blade.... But now you all know how it works, don't you ? |
Duration: 06:10 Displays: 4390 |
BLADE TANG
10 |
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In a few words:
Still pressure flaking the blade, I create a tang on the base... This tang and the shoulders will hlp hafting the blade in the handle. I also fine tune the edges because a knife is supposed to be sharp ! |
Duration: 06:44 Displays: 4571 |
ABOUT SAWED SLABS
11 |
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In a few words:
Is it easier or not to use sawed slabs for making flint blades or points ? In my opinion it isn't. Working on those slabs requires greater efforts than knapping a spall. Flint loves convexity and the surfaces are here flat ! The positive point is that a flint nodule will give more preforms if sawn rather than spalled... but I still prefer knapping a spall with an antler billet. |
Duration: 05:34 Displays: 3923 |
DOES IT CUT ?
12 |
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In a few words:
Flint blades micro denticulated edges are extremely efficient for cutting soft materials such as flesh. They actually work like a saw does. Because flint is much harder than common steel, it is important to use such knives on a wooden board so as not to damage your plates. Yummy ! |
Duration: 01:45 Displays: 7725 |
MAKING THE HANDLE
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In a few words:
The handle is made out of an antler. First I need to drill a hole in the for the blade tang. Then I have to create two deep cuts on the handle edges so that the shoulders of the blade can rest in them. Hafting of the blade will require a pine-tree pitch & beeswax glue. |
Duration: 07:38 Displays: 3225 |
PREPARING THE GLUE
14 |
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In a few words:
The glue I use to haft the blade in the handle if a melted mixture of pine-tree resin and beeswax. Resin makes the glue harder but more fragile while beeswax makes if more flexible, but softer... It's just a matter of compromise. |
Duration: 02:33 Displays: 2985 |
HAFTING AND GLUING THE BLADE
15 |
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In a few words:
The boiling glue is poured several times in the handle and the blade is then quickly inserted. Cooling and fixing is a matter of seconds. The blade is now ready to be ligatured with sinew and raw-hide glue. |
Duration: 02:44 Displays: 3081 |
SINEW LIGATURES
16 |
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In a few words:
Rabbit-skin strips have boiled for many hours, thus creating a slimy collagene glue. I extract fibers from a tendon, soak them in the glue and wrap them around the blade and the handle. It will then dry for 24 hours. It took more than 4 hours to make this knife, but it definitely was worth it... |
Duration: 02:44 Displays: 3593 |