Sitting in the car.. dub-step flowing all around me, slamming my tympanum until it hurts. The small red car is packed full of four people, my sister and her friend who are going to a church convention or Chaplin workshop of some sorts.
179.. the exit that they we’re going to take to get to Edmunds. They are spending the weekend down there..
A bright yellow and red denny’s sign, soaring above the endless strip malls stands out like a slimy black slug on a white linoleum floor. a reminder of the amazing materialistic, time hungry, culture we live in.
beautiful blue sky is fading from a light salmon to turquoise and finally diminishing to a deep navy blue far in the east; the first of the night’s stars starting to peek their heads from behind the shroud of daylight .
6 or 7 pounds of rocks, waiting to be chipped and traded at my third-year-running attendance to the cabin fever knap in, lay snugly in the hatchback bundled up in my spare jackets
the knap in is usually held on the fourth weekend in January. It is held by Dave Pehling and Jim Dennis in an their awesome garage/ shop just outside of Granite Falls WA. It celebrates the opening of a new knapping year. Tomorrow I will be sitting with fellow knappers from all across the Pacific Northwest chipping rock and hopefully see some interesting new stone as well.
so i found some new stone. it’s tough as nails raw, and pretty chalky but it definately has some potential for heat treatment. check it out!
the first piece i found.. i looked and i said… “no way!” it was a part of a stone circle around a fire pit, and a corner had chipped off revealing a smooth gray and red surface.
it appears to have been brought in from somewhere while they were making the road. there also are different varieties, ranging from rusty chalk like banded stone, to relatively homogenious grey, with brown spots, too… well you’ll see as soon as you scroll down!
around the fire pits you can see that the brown speckles or bands, turn red and pink from the accidental heat treatment
here’s the very first piece.
dont worry they get better
and finally… look at it all!!!!
ill keep you updated on this stone when i know more about its source.. there s obviously a huge quarry somewhere around there… and also when i know how workable the stone is after it’s been heat treated.
talk to you soon
and keep chippin!
theteenagecaveman
update**
i made a point out of the first piece… oh man that’s hard on the wrists! just what i need another ridiculously tough rock to wear out my wrists on. hopefully i can figure out a temperature to heat treat it.
sorry for the delay, i will put all of the parts together in the end like i did with the “ice fishing” posts.
The glass buttes knap-in (day two)
Friday, march 25, 2011
Well we woke up at 6 in the morning and were on the I-5 by 6:30. The sky was a dark greenish gray and it seemed like the sky was sticking to the ground in some places. In some places the road was covered in a thick blanket of fog. It made the car seem like it was moving in slow motion. I only caught one little glimpse of the sunrise and it was a narrow band of pink clouds in between the horizon and the thick, low fog level. It was only visible as the car went over a rise in the highway, before the forest hid it again.
Gradually the sky lightened, turning into a soft blue before turning the light gray of a rainy winter day.
For the first hour or so we had the highway all to ourselves and made good time.
At around 8:30 we got lost for the first time. When we crossed the boarder into Oregon the numbers on the exit signs started to get larger without us knowing so we thought we had missed the exit that we needed. Taking advantage of this anya went to a drive-thu coffee stand and got a big old espresso. By the time we figured out how to get back onto the interstate the traffic caught up with us.
Another confusing bit was to try and cut through the little town before crossing the mountain pass. This time we didn’t really get lost, only didn’t know which way was the right way.
After a bit of zig zagging and following cars with snowboards on their roofs we got onto the highway wich led through the mountain pass.
The whole way through the road was bare but with a lot of new snow coming down.
It was quite a nice, smooth road. That is until we passed the summit. From then on the road deteriorated into a mass of large crevasses and pot holes where sections the size of a small car were gouged out of the middle of the road. It was a real tire wrecker to say the least.
When we finally got out of the mountain pass –all four tires intact- we were greeted by the wintery landscape of the interior of Oregon. It snowed lightly all through the desert but stopped at around 11 when we made it to Bend. We stopped at a super market there and stocked up on camping goodies. It always amuses me to see all of the toxic junk food in the stores down in the states. Packed full of aspartame, bad fats and various other chemicals to make the food taste delicious while slowly killing you.
Once we got onto highway 20 we knew we needed to go for 70 miles down the road, but that didn’t stop me from getting excited about every butte that we past. It always happens like that.
“oh is that the butte???” I ask while bouncing up and down in the passenger seat.
“i.. I don’t think so” … “I remember that butte we’ve tried there. no its not the glass butte we have another 45 minutes on this road”
5 minutes pass
“are you suuuurrrre???”
“yes”
“okaaayyy”
every time xP
We finally found the buttes and first thing we did was set up camp right by a little creek and in a little sheltered horseshoe shape of cypress trees.
Once the camp was set up it was time for us to go on a walk in the buttes, we walked southwest from our little valley camp ground, over hills in search of the elusive obsidian (its everywhere on the ground.) so I filled up my pack with some nice small cobles and came back to camp. After knapping for a good 40 minutes I had 5 performs and it was time for a nice bowl of chilly. Speaking of chilly, the whole time at the buttes so far, the temperature was just above freezing but as soon at the sun went behind the mountain or the clouds, it dropped below zero quickly, down to about minus 12.
So after out bellies were full we went over to see the people of the knap in. there was a tarp strung in between two trees to block the wind. the other direction had a steep hill with a few more cypress trees which blocked the wind from the south. In the center of the area was a big fire which did a really good job of warming the area. We found out that the day that we got there all of the people had left that morning. They heard that a big storm was coming through and that they were calling for 4 inches of snow. We also met two people who had brought a couple of horses. They had a TP set up and it was a real site to see. So I talked to them for a while and then headed back to the fire. While there I made two nice 8 inch blades out of dacite. Which was supplied by the man who held the knap in that year. By the end of the second it was getting dark so I went back to the tent and crawled into my sleeping bag.
I closed my eyes listening to the sounds of the high desert. Snow was tinkling down on the tent making slight tapping sounds. Every once in a while a just of wind would hit the tent blowing the thin layer of snow that had accumulated off into the desert. Later on the wind picked up for a while and it felt like we were going to be blown away.
A lone coyote started to yip breaking the silence of the desert another one called from further away. After about half an hour I fell asleep.
After a long hard week of tough schoolwork Thursday evening finally came around. I had to do 2, three-page labs for geology and geography and I had to do a group presentation on orangutans for an anthropology course. Let’s just say there was little sleep going on, and the sleep I did have was chalk full of intense dreams.
Only now am I starting to relax a little bit. But even while sitting here I feel like I should be doing something.. Here I am talking to you now.. I have been looking forward to this weekend for two years now, the glass buttes knap-in!
For those of you who do not know about the glass buttes knap-in, it’s -so I’ve heard- the mother of all knap ins. 40 knappers showed up last year to the middle of the desert and got together to show off their best primitive objects and their skills. It just so happens that this small area in the middle of the Oregon desert is one of the biggest obsidian deposits in the world. It is a dream come true for any glass knapper of any skill level. With obsidian littering the ground, no rules on where you can leave flakes (except for on the road) and a 200-pound bag limit per day per person, makes this a knappers playground.
So today on Anya and I are heading down for the event. In the little red Volkswagen golf with two buckets of rocks and camping gear in the back, going to brave the harsh winter weather of the interior of Oregon.
Crossing the Alex-Fraser Bridge we were treated with a beautiful Vancouver sunset:
At the border there was no hassle, the border guard was courteous (unlike the other drivers in the line-up for the border) and we were on our way! … After a quick pit-stop that is:
All re-fueled we hit the road again… listening to some acoustic guitar by Bruce Cockburn. I got the CD from my grandpa for my birthday and it is a really sweet album, it’s called speechless. I really like it.
so we drove until twenty after eleven and made it to a small town near mt. st. Helens. luckily their little motel was open and we there was internet
Well I’m getting kind of sleepy now… I think ill say goodnight now and tell you about tomorrow .. well.. i guess when i have internet next!!
the teenage caveman 