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.
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!!
I collected this common opal near glass buttes oregon after some kind elderly rockhouds pointed us in the right direction. it is virtually impossible to percuss and i ahev only ever made two points besides this out of this type of rock. it’s a challenge but peoples faces always light up when you tell them the arrowhead you gave them is made out of OPAL.
small opalite dart point
again the opal point
a small gem dart point made of white opal from oregon
side view for thickness
translucency.. it was more translucent the contrast is too high though
the Nevada jasper i personally collected in downtown Nevada… which in short means i promised white buffalo i wouldn’t go out yelling to the world of his honey hole.. he IS a rock shop owner after all and me giving away his secrets is like giving away his money.
nevada jasper winged gem point
nevada jasper
this secret i can give away because 1 if you are in denmark you are a long ways away from me and will not be cutting into my flint supply and 2) because i found this chunk of chert in an area destined for subdivision. it is an amazing area.. if you are currently residing in hasselø Denmark and you are not a flintknapper……. then you should be… this was a small spall that came off of a 40 pound block of beautiful flint. i got a nice big blade out of it and a box of spalls. anyways it’s everywhere down there.
dannish flint "gothic" style point
grey cool looking chert from denmark
dannish flint serrated spear point
other side
micro serrated nevada jasper
Nevada jasper arrowhead
this last point is made out of a type of stone that i collect in princeton. it is the toughest grainiest rock you will ever get a point out of.. and alot of people wont even touch the stuff. i call it 10,000 chert because of the size of the first ever rock i found of it. i couldn’t move it at all so i figured.. must be 10,000 pounds! haaha anyways enjoy! i love how old the points made out of this stone look though. they look a thousand years old the second they are finished!
local tough stone
killer spear point
the teenage caveman spear point.. like knapping a cynderblock
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the teenage caveman 