Flint tool

“ The ancient workman had his knife, saw, adze, chisel, drill, and scraper,—or plane, as we may term it,—all made of flint. The worn and triturated edges of many of those flint-tools show abundant evidence of their use in fashioning some hard substance. ”

“ The flint lance or arrow head, thrown by an enemy, or wrested from the grasp of a vanquished foe, would, as in the case of improved weapons of war in many a later age, first introduce the prized material to the notice of less favoured tribes. As the primitive tool-maker learned by experience the greater adaptability of flint than of most other stones for the manufacture of his weapons and implements, it may be assumed that it became an object of barter in localities remote from those where it abounds ”

“ They dropped that tool and tried the sledge. It got no results; even in the hands of the husky geologist, the most vigorous blows failed to budge the door. They did not even dent it.
So they propped the powerful hydraulic jack, a tool sturdy enough to lift a house, at an angle against the door. Then, using the crowbar as a lever, the architect steadily turned up the screw, the mechanism multiplying his very ordinary strength a hundredfold. In a moment it could be seen that he was getting results; the door began to stir. Van Emmon struck one edge with the sledge-hammer, and it gave slightly. ”

“ In the same beds in which the drift-type implements are found, flakes, either struck off in the formation of such tools, or especially flaked off from a core in a particular manner, indicating that they were themselves intended for use as tools, are found in considerable numbers. No more useful tool could have been used during the stone age than the plain, untouched flint flake, which, from the sharpness of the edge, is capable of being used for a variety of purposes. ”

“ The flake of flint on which I have operated has been placed against a stop on a flat piece of wood, and when necessary to raise the edge of the flake I have placed a small blocking piece, also of wood, underneath it, and then by pressure of the arrow-flaker upon the edge of the flake, have detached successive splinters until I have reduced it into form. If the tool consists of a rather square-ended flake, one corner may rest upon the table of wood, and the pressure be given by a rocking action, bringing the other corner down upon the flake. ”

“ The natural cleavage of flint, as also of the obsidian found in volcanic localities in the Old and New World, so readily adapts both materials to the manufacture of knives, lances, and arrow heads, that they appear to have been turned to account by the tool-maker from the dawn of rudest art. ”

“ In all parts of Europe, as far east as Greece, in Palestine, India, Japan, New Zealand, and Africa, including Egypt, flint tools have been discovered in abundance; and of their use the existing inhabitants retain no tradition. ”

“ The under side of these flint knives is always smooth, and a trifle arched or curved; evidently arising from the conchoidal fracture of the flint. Flints of this form have very probably been used as arrow- or lance-heads. The second general form of flints have doubtless been used as boring tools: they are distinguished from those last mentioned by having one end decidedly blunt, instead of being chisel-shaped and sharp (Plate I. fig. 4) . At all events, I have been able with the greatest ease to bore nearly circular holes in stag's-horn with similar pointed flints. ”

“ Flint Objects.—Two views of a portion of a curved flint knife, which has been much used, are here given (Fig. 198) . Another small flint implement like a scraper is figured, because it exhibits one side which has been artificially polished (Fig. 199) . Fig. 200 represents a small central core, neatly chipped all round. There is another large core of flint 31⁄4 inches in diameter, from which many flakes appear to have been struck off. Besides the above there were found a small portion of a finely chipped scraper, and a large quantity of broken flints and chips. ”

“ With skill and experience a mass of flint can be worked to any simple shape by well directed strokes, and further trimming can be effected with pressure by a pointed stone in a direction slightly across the edge of the weapon. The purest flints have the most perfect conchoidal fracture, and prehistoric man is known to have quarried or mined certain bands of flint which were specially suitable for his purposes.
Silica forms nearly the whole substance of flint ”

“ These splinters are afterwards shaped, by placing them upon a sharp iron instrument, and then giving them repeatedly small blows with a mallet. During the whole operation the workman holds the stone in his hand, or merely supports it on his knee: and the operation is so simple, that a good workman has no difficulty in making 1500 flints in a day. The manufacture of gun-flints is chiefly confined to England, and two or three departments in France. In Prussia an attempt was once made to substitute a kind of earthenware or porcelain for flint ”

“ These flints are wrought into shape in precisely the same manner as gun-flints, and it seems possible that the trade of chipping flint into forms adapted to be used with steel for striking a light may be of considerable antiquity, and that the manufacture of gun-flints ought consequently to be regarded as only a modification and extension of a pre-existing art, closely allied with the facing and squaring of flints for architectural purposes, which reached great perfection at an early period. ”

“ The number of the flint implements is computed at above fourteen hundred in an area of fourteen miles in length and half a mile in breadth. They are of the rudest nature, as if formed by a people in the most degraded state of barbarism. Some are mere flakes of flint, apparently used for knives or arrow-heads ”

“ Flints.--If we may rely on a well-known passage in Virgil, concerning Æneas and his comrades, fire was sometimes made in ancient days by striking together two flints, but I confess myself wholly unable to light tinder with flints alone, and I am equally at a loss to understand what were the "dry leaves" that they are said in the same passage to have used for tinder. Neither can I obtain fire except with a flint and steel, or, at least, hardened iron; a flint and ordinary iron will not give an available spark. ”

“ Frequently flints are found in all stages of formation: siliceous chalk with the corroded remains of sponge spicules may be found in the interior, black flint blotched with grey forming the mass of the nodule, while the exterior is completed by a thin layer of white porous flint. This layer must not be confused with the white layer which is frequently met with on the surface of weathered flints, which is due to a subsequent solution of some of the silica, so that by a process of unbuilding, the flint is brought back to the incompleted flint in its second stage. ”

“ If the axe thickened rapidly from the edge and was somewhat like a wedge, it was a good remedy against the brittleness of the flint, its great defect; and he put the more strength into the blow. The extreme hardness of flint made polishing very difficult. Most utensils of daily use were not polished at all. Many of the beautiful daggers, genuine works of art, were finished by a uniform, fine flaking down to the close of the period. Flint implements were not polished in Italy, Greece, Spain, and large parts of eastern Europe;97 they increase in abundance in Scandinavia and England. ”

“ The dawn of the Palæolithic Age is indicated in various river-drift stations by the appearance of crude flint weapons as well as tools or implements, in addition to the supposed tools of Eolithic times. There is an unmistakable effort to fashion the flint into a definite shape to serve a definite purpose: there can no longer be any question of human handiwork. Thus there gradually arise various types of flints, each of which undergoes its own evolution into a more perfect form. Naturally, the workers at some stations were more adept and inventive than at others. ”

“ It gives the object a more definite character than it really possesses, the chipping appearing in the representation far less superficial than it is in the original, which, indeed, has such a shape that it could easily be reduced to a smaller size by blows aimed at its circumference. I have myself scaled off large flat flakes from similarly-shaped pieces of flint, using a small iron hammer and directing my blows against the edge, and have thus become convinced that the further working of objects like that in question could offer no serious difficulties to a practised flint-chipper. ”

“ Where flint is more common—as in the Ozarks—than other materials, aboriginal man modified his form of hatchet in accordance with the material at hand. It would be too hard for him to groove a flint axe. He, therefore, notched the sides of the rough blade or turtleback, and lashed it in the handle. If the blade got dull he scaled off a few flakes and restored the cutting edge. Flint axes made convenient and formidable implements and weapons. There was an abundance of surface flint in Indian Territory and Kansas, as well as quarry material. ”

“ Readers will do well to compare them with the best flint abroad or elsewhere. It was necessary for the master workman who made these objects to secure unusually long, clear blocks of flint, in which were no imperfections. Where the material was obtained for these specimens (some of which are twenty to twenty-two inches in length) is a mystery. It was a simple task for the ancient workman to block out the implement, leaving it spade-like in character, fairly thick, and exhibiting a surface from which flakes an inch or more in size had been chipped. ”

“ With the above-mentioned articles were numerous fragments of calcined flint, and amongst the soil of the barrow two rude instruments of flint.
At eastern (p. 73) , in one part of the mound, an instrument was found, with a fine spear-head of flint, and a small arrow-head of the same. In other parts, but in apparently undisturbed earth, a circular instrument, and various chippings of flint, and the handle of a knife of stag's horn, riveted in the usual way on to the steel. ”

“ E. Lartet demonstrated the feasibility of this process, by himself drilling the eye of a similar needle with a flint borer, found in one of the French caves. I have myself bored perfectly round and smooth holes through both stag's horn and wood with flint flakes, and when a little water is used to facilitate the operation, it is almost surprising to find how quickly it proceeds, and how little the edge of the flint suffers when once its thinnest part has been worn or chipped away, so as to leave a sufficient thickness of flint to stand the strain without being broken off. ”

“ The fact is, that wherever flint is used as a material from which implements are fashioned, many of the flakes or splinters arising from the chipping of the flint, are certain to present sharp points or cutting edges, which by a race of men living principally by the chase are equally certain to be regarded as fitting points for their darts or arrows, or as useful for cutting purposes; they are so readily formed, and are so well adapted for such uses without any further fashioning, that they have been employed in all ages just as struck from off the flint. ”

“ Those flakes of flint, my child, were split off by men; even your young eyes ought to be able to see that. And here are other pieces of flint—pear-shaped, but flattened, sharp at one end and left rounded at the other, which look like spear-heads, or arrow-heads, or pointed axes, or pointed hatchets—even your young eyes can see that these must have been made by man. And they are, I may tell you, just like the tools of flint, or of obsidian, which is volcanic glass, and which savages use still where they have not iron. ”

“ Thirty-six flints in all have been recovered in the different strata of the cave beds. A few of those are simply unworked flints; but twenty-three of them betray traces of human workmanship and use; and include knives and oval and lanceolate blades, closely analogous to implements found in the Cavern of Aurignac, in the Pyrenees, and in that of Le Moustier, in the Dordogne. Others, though mere flint-flakes, bear decided marks of use as scraping tools. Another implement is a round pebble of siliceous sandstone, weighing 1 lb. ”

“ A few blows with the hammer enable a practised flint-knapper to judge whether the material on which he is at work is in the proper condition or no. Some of the Brandon workmen, however, maintain that though a flint which has been some time exposed to the air is harder than one recently dug, yet that it works equally well, and they say further, that the object in keeping the flints moist is to preserve the black colour from fading, black gun-flints being most saleable. ”

“ In 1870 about thirty men were employed. Since then the trade has become almost extinct as gun flints are in demand only in semi-savage countries where modern fire-arms are not obtainable. Powdered flint was formerly used in the manufacture of glass, and is still one of the ingredients of many of the finer varieties of pottery. ”

“ The surface of a newly-chipped flint can then in almost all cases be at once recognized by its peculiar dull lustreless appearance, especially if it be black flint, such as is best adapted for being chipped into form. Not unfrequently the metallic marks of the iron hammer with which it has been chipped out are visible, the angles are sharp and harsh, or, if smooth, show traces of having been ground, and the character of the chipping is usually different from that of genuine implements, as is also often the form. ”