Flint knapping for arrowheads?


cameronfreitas90

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Let me start off by saying this has probably been the most enjoyable survival sim I have ever played.

However, one thing that is sort of sticking out like a sore thumb for me is the inability to craft arrowheads out of stone. I don't know anything about programming, but I would assume some new materials would have to be introduced into the game as well as the mechanics involved in making the arrowheads. I'm not entirely sure if this would throw some major balancing issues into the game but I feel like it would be fair to the player to be able to make arrowheads out of stone or at the very least craft a homemade forge out of a ton of various materials, or making the forge appear in more than one location?

I would be much more inclined to use the bow and arrow if I knew I wouldn't have to find arrowheads or make a trip to the forge. I realize this game has a lot of things going on and you are busy working on story mode. But I believe something like this could be a nice touch. Maybe time needed to craft a stone arrow would be the penalty and perhaps metal tips do more damage?

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I feel you on being able to craft arrowheads in a way other than running to the forge.

However I think scrap metal plus a file should allow you to craft an arrowhead with less work than finding flint and then teaching yourself to flintknap.

Our neolithic ancestors were quite skilled, skill that probably took a lot of teaching and practice. It's not just banging a couple of rocks together. (Of course that's also true of curing hides and crafting cloths, so maybe my argument doesn't hold much water. That's never stopped me before!)

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"Flint Knapping", that is, the manufacture of bi-faced stone tools, is really difficult, and is basically on par with a modern trade skill (plumbing, carpentry, etc). It isn't something you can just "pick up", but instead learn over a long period of time, and to be honest, being taught the skill by someone else that has already mastered it is probably the best bet.

In the Neolithic (at least, in Europe, although I am sure it happened worldwide), good Knappers were essentially the "master craftsmen" of the period, and products made by these knappers would be traded across entire continents. Axeheads that were knapped from Wallachian (basically Transyvania) flint have been found in Britain, and vice-versa. Not every settlement had someone that could knapp (or, knapp very well), and axeheads, spearheads, arrowheads and knife-blades (all made from flint) were used as trade-goods across the European continent. Yes, we had intercontinental trade routes back in the Neolithic.

HOWEVER:

As a "survivor", we don't need bi-faced beautiful projectile points. A piece of flint/glass with a sharp edge and point will bring down a deer or wolf almost as well. In real life, I prefer glass to flint, as it tends to be 1) much more available, 2) FREE, and 3) just as easy to knapp as flint. A glass arrowhead is literally the same thing as obsidian/flint.

Take a piece of glass, and strike the edge with a rock or piece of antler. Pick up (CAREFULLY) the little flakes that get chipped off the edge. These flakes can be used as knives, as arrowheads, anything where you need a sharp edge or point. And when they get dull, go to the nearest window and hit it with a rock. BOOM! More knapping material!

Replace the flint miroblades from the above video with shards of glass. It is literally the same thing, no knapping skill required. One of those microblades can easily butcher an animal, or strip bark from trees or cut up clothing.

Take a larger flake, and make a decent knife (called a "Hoko knife"), by hafting it in a split stick.

Those Hoko knives are REALLY easy to make, by the way. With a piece of broken window glass,a length of birch branch, and some twine, in 5 minutes I made a knife that I then used to butcher a rabbit and cut down pine boughs for a shelter.

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I really enjoyed reading all your knowledge in regards to knapping. Thank you for the spelling correction, forgot the extra p in there. I like all your ideas here. It's just hard to say how much of these ideas will actually be implemented. The Long Dark seems to be a game that will lean more on story, assuming they continue story mode beyond one season. I think of minecraft as an example of a game that leans almost entirely on crafting and gaming mechanics. The Long Dark has the potential to find that sweet spot of story telling combined with crafting and other survival mechanics. Maybe sandbox mode can continue to be a place where certain features exist that you will not find in regular story mode.

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I like the idea of flint knapping for arrowheads. Now it`s only way to get arrowheads is to recover metal arrowheads from broken arrows. If the character could make stone arrowheads - bow hunting could be more affordable. But then you need to look for the new material - flints... But I suffer from overload already...

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I like Boston's ideas. Personally I think flint knapping is too difficult and involved a process for TLD. That said, improvised, cruder arrowheads made of smashed glass or bone shards are could still be effective and fit with the general feel of TLD, IMO - it doesn't need to be especially tidy, just roughly symmetrical and sharp. I've even seen people make arrows from tin can lids, and my guy gets through plenty of those!

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I've even seen people make arrows from tin can lids, and my guy gets through plenty of those!

About that ...

They are pretty narly, and REALLY easy to make. They are perfectly fine for use on small game. I am not sure how they would do on large game (mainly for bone penetration, the thin metal of the lid tends to bend real easy. The actual wound channel of the broadhead is rather large), but in an actual survival situation, I would totally use them on deer and wolves.

Best yet, since they are so easy to make, you don't really care when they get dinged up by a rock. One tin can lid makes around 4, so you can go to town.

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  • 1 month later...

I didn't really find a posting devoted to flint knapping. I plan to elaborate the stages in the process at a later time but found a reference that gives y'all an idea of how complex and fascinating the process is. You can make a huge assortment of tools using knapping and as your skill increases, you can make larger and more beautiful tools. Typically you get a core and large pieces first (spalls), then you get small flakes that are sharp enough to be used like razor blades, then you get the rough shape, then the thin symmetrical biface and finally the small pressure flakes to sharpen the edge and then notching and optionally adding the long thin longitudinal flakes that create a fluted Clovis point.

Tools, selection of materials and basic summary of the process: http://www.wikihow.com/Flintknap

This is a great summary of the process here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithic_reduction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_point

http://press.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta25/html/ch03s02.html

http://press.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta25/html/ch06.html

450px-Levallois_Preferencial-Animation.g

 

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Blade Core Technology

Many paleo cultures around the world focused entirely on blade and core technology.
Blade cores maximize the resulting cutting edge available from any type of knappable stone.
Blade edges are typically much sharper than bifacial edges.
Very few modern knappers make blade cores.

 

PROJECTILE POINTS MADE ON BLADES & FLAKES

Quote

COPYRIGHT JUNE 30, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

     This picture shows twelve examples of projectile points that were made on blades and flakes. At least eight of them are made on lamellar blades. They represent the simplest forms of finished points. None of them are bifacially flaked. They all have at least one intact flake removal scar on one side. Most of them were edge trimmed into shape and both sides still retain their original flake surfaces. The following is an inventory list of each point.

1. This edge trimmed projectile point is from Panama. This point measures 3 3/16 inches (8.1 cm) long.
2. This is a transverse arrow point from northern Europe. These were made from short segments of core blades. This point measures 1 7/16 inches (3.6 cm) long.
3. This edge trimmed stemmed arrow point was found on a site in Denmark. It was made from a blade and measures 2 1/8 inches (5.4 cm) long.
4. This Solutrean shouldered point was found in the Garrone River Valley in southwestern France. It's a unifacially flaked point that was made from a blade. Previous core blade removal scars are still evident on one side. This very early projectile point dates to sometime between 22,000 and 18,000 years ago. It measures 2 7/8 inches (7.3 cm) long.
5. This Mayan projectile point was found on a site in Belize. It's made of Colha chert and most of the edges still remain sharp from the original flake. This point measures 3 11/16 inches ( 9.3 cm) long.
6. This Obsidian side-notched projectile point was probably once attached to a dart or spear. It was collected on a site in either Mexico or Belize. It was made from a large blade. This point measures 4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm) long.
7. This three sided blade point was found on a site in northern Europe on the Island of Lolland in Denmark. It dates to the Neolithic period sometime before 2200 B.C. It was made from a long narrow blade that was struck off a prepared core. Two sides and more than half of the third side was skillfully pressure flaked into a three sided point.
8. This projectile point dates to the Neolithic period and it was collected on a site in Denmark. It was made on a slightly curved blade that was edged trimmed with large notches and a stem for hafting. It measures 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) long
9. This "shouldered" arrow point is believed to have been found on a site in northern Europe. It was made on a blade that was edge trimmed into shape. It measures 2 1/4 inches (5.7 cm) long.
10 & 11. Both of these points were collected on sites somewhere in one of the countries in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa. They were both expertly made from flakes that were struck from cores. The cores were pre-shaped so a pointed triangular flake could be removed that did not require any further edge modification. The larger example measures 2 1/2 inches (6.3 cm) long.
12. This side-notched Klunk point was found on a site in southern Illinois. It was made on a flake that was struck from a prepared core. klunk points are the oldest dated arrow points from this area.

 

 

bladepoints12grouplarge.jpg

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Here is a great introduction to flint knapping by paleomanjim Jim Winn, a 30 year veteran flint knapper. He covers paleo tools including hammer stones, abrader stones, antler billets, antler tine pressure flakers, DSC_0130_zps5f3e0832.jpgand modern tools including copper and lead filled boppers, the copper tipped ishi sticks. spearthrowers.jpg

He covers the three types of knapping strikes: percussion, pressure flaking and indirect percussion.maxresdefault.jpg

He covers the preparation of platforms for striking in great detail. This is a very important subject! He also covers basic safety: VERY IMPORTANT should you choose to try this at home!

He discusses fracture mechanics and the three main types of flake fractures.three major flake types based on the type of initiation – conchoidal, bending and wedging or compression.

fracture_inititiation.jpg

He covers the flake termination types . Flake terminations may be feathered, hinged, stepped, or plunging. Termination type is a characteristic indicating the manner in which the distal end of a flake detached from a core. A feathered termination is usually desirable since it is the sharpest edge. An overshot flake is useful for quick thinning of the piece. Steps and hinges are less desirable and may be caused by insufficient force, thickening of the piece along the ridge or internal imperfections.

This is the best introduction I've found so far. Take your time to watch with perhaps a break.

Well worth taking the time to watch!!

 

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In a situation like TLD, I would probably be making arrowheads from glass, specifically, the bottoms of glass bottles. They are everywhere (which flint is not), are already the "right size" to make arrowheads from, and are relatively easy to work with. I have made a....... "servicable" (wouldn't win any awards for beauty, for sure, but it would definitely kill an animal) glass arrowhead in about half an hour with little more than a piece of shingle (to protect my legs) and a spare nail.

In order to "balance" the metal arrowheads vs glass ones, make the glass arrowheads behave like they would in real life. In real life, when you shoot a glass arrowhead (this goes for flint/stone as well), into something, 9/10 times, the arrowhead will break (usually the tip, which is thinner and therefore more fragile).  When loosed at an animal, the head will break when it hits bone.

 

This is why when practicing shooting targets with stone/glass heads, you either 1)don't put the heads on the shaft , or 2) don't shoot at things, like wood, that can break the head. I shoot at a cluster of grass wrapped in hide, suspended off a branch.

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1 hour ago, Boston123 said:

In a situation like TLD, I would probably be making arrowheads from glass, specifically, the bottoms of glass bottles. They are everywhere (which flint is not), are already the "right size" to make arrowheads from, and are relatively easy to work with. I have made a....... "servicable" (wouldn't win any awards for beauty, for sure, but it would definitely kill an animal) glass arrowhead in about half an hour with little more than a piece of shingle (to protect my legs) and a spare nail.

In order to "balance" the metal arrowheads vs glass ones, make the glass arrowheads behave like they would in real life. In real life, when you shoot a glass arrowhead (this goes for flint/stone as well), into something, 9/10 times, the arrowhead will break (usually the tip, which is thinner and therefore more fragile).  When loosed at an animal, the head will break when it hits bone.

 

This is why when practicing shooting targets with stone/glass heads, you either 1)don't put the heads on the shaft , or 2) don't shoot at things, like wood, that can break the head. I shoot at a cluster of grass wrapped in hide, suspended off a branch.

That's all very true! Most of the time you have to work with what you find. Working glass is always a little bit tricky until you've mastered the basic techniques of knapping. I think there are two major strategies for paleo knapping; using blades and cores and later on, when supplies became more abundant with trading, bi-faces. Bi-faces are less efficient use of material. If we design a knapping mechanic, I think it should deal with several issues including:

  1. selection of suitable stones
  2. removing cortex material, choosing where to start to build platforms
  3. platform preparation and importance (abrading and shaping flakes)
  4. tools (weight of boppers and indirect percussion and pressure flaking, abraders)
  5. strikes (point of impact, direction of force, amount of force and weight)
  6. pressure flakes
  7. overshots and shaping flakes for bi-face tools
  8. failures and mistakes
  9. notching
  10. hafting
  11. fletching for arrows and darts

I think there should be a progression of skill levels from core-blade to bi-face points, to bi-face tools and to fluted points like Clovis. The simplest and most common tool would simply be the small micro-liths for cutting.

I think we should really cover the basic principals of knapping before diving into the complex process of making an improvised biface from bottles. That is an advanced skill requiring mastery of several techniques and considerable judgment. The lack of flint or other suitable material in the game is an artificial constraint, perhaps striving for too much realism. Modern knappers prefer the bi-face because of it's beauty. I do like the approach of an evolutionary development of skills that gives Hinterland opportunity to develop flint knapping in iterations or stages.

@Boston123 did you watch the video on cores and blades? Very interesting commentary on that. I found these videos to be highly illuminating because they focus on the processes and not simply watching a knapper take several minutes to chip out a blade without understanding the underlying physics. It's hard to explain and teach flint knapping. I would resist the urge to say the only way to learn knapping is to practice it. We have the opportunity to expose people to a fascinating hobby that is gaining great interest. TLD could be the first game to treat this in depth.

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