How can I make an obsidian knife?
I have some obsidian and I know that it can be made into knives and other sharp objects such as arrowheads. Historically this was done for a long time in the United States before there were steel blades.
Steel has a lot of advantages, but I think that it would be a fun project to make one and it could even come in handy in a survival situation.
What would the process be for making an obsidian knife?
1 answer
You have to chip it. Primitive hand axes were very slowly and carefully shaped using another stone to chip away at the tool bit by bit until the desired shape was achieved. They were then sharpened against another stone in a similar fashion to using a modern wet-stone today. The process for shaping obsidian is known as flint-knapping. One method of flint-knapping is to use lead filled copper boppers. You need lots of patience to complete the task, go too fast and you could ruin your tool by taking off too big a chip or flake.
This guy shows one method to knap an obsidian blade: Flint Knapping a Far Cry Primal Inspired Dagger Blade.
This is another method from a different part of the world; this guy is making a danish dagger: Flintknapping the Type IV Danish Dagger
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/18025. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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