re knapping

["Will Johnson" <willj@zzzzzzzzzzz>]

Not ever having knapped anything but a few "play" pieces, I'm certainly no expert, but I think there exists a certain misunderstanding about technique. The copper wire or antler tool is used in "pressure flaking" to apply concentrated force upon a material like obsidian to "push" a conchoidal flake away from the edge as opposed to whomping the bejezzus out of your piece with a hammer etc.  The result (with practice) can be very carefully controlled.

I've sometimes created a distantly related faux-knapped effect on granite, basalt, jade, obsidian, and gem-quartz materials with diamond ball point tools from 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter but the grinding marks and resulting circular depressions are pretty distinctly different even when the "dimples" are overlapped. Interesting effects ARE created in transparent materials when some or all dimples are polished.(EXTREMELY labor intensive). Concavities become reducing lenses, capturing multiple images of other dimples and creating the appearance of bubbles within bubbles.

I'm not sure how linked images are handled on this forum but a couple of picts of  a faux-knapped and polished "blade" of quartz crystal can beseen at   http://www.premiergemdesign.com/citrineblade.html

Will