THE PLATFORM
-a publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
Editor: Gene Altiere
712 MEDICAL ARTS BUILDING
DULUTH, MN 55802
VOLUME 5, NO. 4
November, 1993
DUES
THIS IS THE LAST ISSUE FOR 1993. MKG DUES, INCLUDING A SUBSCRIPTION TO THE NEWSLETTER,
"THE PLATFORM", (4 ISSUES) WILL BE $7.00 FOR 1994. MANY OF YOU HAVE
ALREADY SENT IN YOUR PAYMENT FOR 1994. IF YOU HAVE PAID YOUR DUES, THE NUMBER
"94" WILL APPEAR ON YOUR MAILING LABEL. IF YOUR LABEL DOES NOT HAVE
A "94" ON IT, THIS IS THE LAST NEWSLETTER YOU WILL RECEIVE UNTIL YOUR
DUES ARE PAID. PLEASE MAKE ALL CHECKS PAYABLE TO: GENE ALTIERE, EDITOR, "THE
PLATFORM". DUES SENT
AFTER DECEMBER 31, 1993 WILL HAVE TO INCLUDE A $1.00 LATE PAYMENT FEE (TOTAL $8.00).
PLEASE DO NOT SEND IN PAYMENT FOR DUES BEYOND 1994. THE EDITOR COMMITS
HIMSELF TO ONLY ONE YEAR AT A TIME!
GUILD NEWS
One of the new knappers
who visited the Pine City Knap-in this summer has decided to join the Guild.
Rick Krenik, Rt 1 Box 104, Kilkenny, MN 56052 is the newest member of MKG.
Welcome, Rick!
Don't
forget to mark your calendars for the 6th Annual Minnesota Knappers Guild Knap-in.
Once again the event is being co-sponsored by the Guild and the Minnesota
Historical Society and will be held at the Society's Northwest Company Fur Post
three miles west of Pine City (take Pine City exit off I-35 and head west to
the Fur Post). The dates of the 1994 Knap-in are June 25 & 26.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY !
With this issue,
"the Platform" celebrates its fifth birthday. Happy Birthday to
you all and thanks for the many positive comments about the newsletter and the
Minnesota Knappers Guild. Because of some personal problems last year, it was
nip and tuck as to whether I would be able to continue as editor. We had a couple
of very late issues and for that I offer my sincere apologies. I'm just glad
we were able to pull through and continue to present a quality newsletter.
I
thought for sure that
'93 would be my last year as editor. It had become impossible for me to keep up
with the amount of effort needed to publish at the quality level we had reached.
However, after talking it over with a few of the charter members of the Guild,
I have committed to another year (1994) and another four issues of "the
Platform". If I am to continue, however, there will have to be a couple
of changes in the newsletter. First, I will have to drop some of the time consuming,
desk top publishing techniques
that we have been using. When there is time I may be able to use these
techniques but for the most part, the articles will be printed as received.
Second, I won't be able to spend much time looking for material. In the past we
have worked diligently to publish eight full pages. Next year we will print
only what we receive from our contributors. Basically, the newsletter will become
more like a newsletter in format rather than a magazine. If our members continue
to contribute as they have
in the past, it is unlikely that we will see a decrease in the quality of our
newsletter. "The Platform" and the Minnesota Knapper's Guild has gained
respect across the nation. I'll try my best to help the newsletter keep
this respect. Despite the fact that the newsletter is designed to be regional
as to events, archaeology and news, we greatly appreciate the interest and input
from around the country as well as the wonderful support we have received from
Minnesota knappers. Thanks for
asking me to write your newsletter and thanks for supporting it.
Gene Altiere, editor
"the Platform"
MINNESOTA KNAPPERS GUILD
"The Beginning"
by
Gene Altiere
Even though
it has only been five short years since the founding of our Guild, we currently
have many active members
who aren't familiar with the early history of our organization. So, to commemorate
our fifth anniversary, I thought I'd tell the story of how we got started.
Sometime
between 1985 and 1986, Nobel Isley, who was aware of my interest
in bowhunting, showed me the book "The Art of Flintknapping" by DC
Waldorf. A few months later, I bought a copy and skimmed through it. It perked
my interest and provided me with some background information on flintknapping
but I didn't pursue it any further.
In June, 1986 I happened to be on a fishing trip with a couple of dozen
dentists, one of whom ways Tony Romano. I had met Tony before that time but we
really didn't know one another very well. I had, however, heard that Tony was
very knowledgeable in the field of archaeology and knew something about flintknapping.
We spent a considerable amount of time together on that trip and discovered
that we had a number of common interests. Because of my interest, Tony
invited me to visit him at his
home in Pine City in order to show me the basics of flintknapping. I didn't make
it to Tony's place until February of 1987 but under his patient guidance I
was fortunate enough to produce an acceptable projectile point with my first effort!
It was a 1 & 1/4" corner notch made out of mahogany obsidian.
I was hooked. Sometime in the next two years I met Dan Bera at a knapping class
he was conducting at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Coupled with what
Tony had showed me, I was soon
turning out some respectable (for me) work. I met Dan's brother Frank Bera at a
rendezvous demonstration in Duluth and picked up some more information. By now,
it was the Fall of 1988 and I was beginning to see that there was a need for
some sort of organization to serve as a clearinghouse for information about flintknapping.
We needed to share ideas and resources but at the time we weren't
aware of any publication that was available to serve as a vehicle for this type
of activity. I've always been
an organization nut whether it involved by vocation (dentistry) or my advocation
(bowhunting) and was very active in many organizations that served these two
areas. Why not flintknapping? So, on Sept 27,1988 I sent a letter to Tony,
Nobel Dan and Frank to feel them out about forming a state knapping organization
and newsletter. I volunteered to serve as the editor until the organization
got its feet on the ground. The reaction was fast and positive. Dan Bera sent
me the first article before the
end of the year but I wasn't confident enough yet to get it going and spent the
next few months doing more talking with Tony. Something happened in the early
summer of 1989 that finally triggered the birth of the Guild.
Tony called
me to tell me about an announcement he had seen in the newspaper talking about
a flintknapping demonstration at the Northwest Fur Post in Pine City. He
knew he hadn't agreed to a demonstration and he was wondering if I had anything
to do with it. At this point,
I should put things in proper perspective. For one thing, Tony and I thought
we knew every person in Minnesota who was trying to make arrowheads. As far as
we were concerned it was a rare and unusual hobby and except for a few weird experts
like Waldorf and a guy out east named Callahan we doubted if there were
more than a few score of people in the country who new anything about knapping.
We had heard rumors of "flintknapping meetings" that were supposed
to be held once a year somewhere
out east but as far as we were concerned, the flintknapping world stoped at the
end of our noses. So, who the heck was this guy who was going to demonstrate
at the Fort? With an air of superiority, Tony and I put out knapping tools in
the car and drove over to the Fur Post. We figured we should help this fellow
out a little since he was probably just some archaeology student that had picked
up a few basic skills and was more into talking about knapping than actually
producing points like we were
doing. Now you all know the Lord watches out for little children and fools.
He must of been watching over the two of us as we decided to leave our tools in
the car when we got to the Fort. The tools (and our pride) stayed in the car
the rest of the day. What we had found was someone who really knew what was going
on in the world of flintknapping. That was the afternoon we met Jim Regan.
Jim
was a wealth of information. He knew where to get stone and tools
and how to heat treat. He had
been to those "flintknapping meetings" (called "Knap-ins")
at an exotic place called Fort Osage. Go ahead and laugh but that's exactly how
naive we were! Well, one thing led to another and with my penchant for organization,
Jim's knowledge of what a Knap-in was all about and Tony's contacts at
the Fur Post, we soon had our first Knap-in scheduled for September 23, 1989.
It was attended by four knappers. Tony, Jim and myself along with Nobel Isly.
Frank and Dan Bera were already
committed to another activity on that date so they couldn't make it. The knap-in
was held concurrently with the Fur Post's "Voyagers Rendezvous"
so there were a lot of people standing around watching what we were doing. With
Tony and Jim's encouragement I published the first edition of "the Platform"
in November of 1989. A small excerpt from that issue is as follows:
THE
PLATFORM
__________________________________________________________________________________
-a
publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
__________________________________________________________________________________
VOLUME
1, NO.
1
November, 1989
Well, the first annual Minnesota Knap-in
is now history. On September 23., 1989 four of our members got together
at the Voyagers Rendezvous held at the Northwest Fur Post in Pine City.
Jim
Regan displayed some of his
beautiful knife blades made of Burlington chert, Tony Romano demonstrated his
indirect percussion techniques, Nobel Isley frustrated all of us by letting us
try to work some of the gawd-awful chert he brought back from Michigan and Gene
Altiere sat there taking it all in and pretending that he knew what he was doing.
We
have made preliminary arrangements with the Fur Post to hold the
second annual Knap-in sometime next (1990) summer. Most likely it will be in
July, we'll let you know as soon
as the date is confirmed.
****
Some of you are aware that this
newsletter and the knapping organization is an idea that has been flapping
around in the editor's brain for almost two years. Well here is our first effort.
The proposed name of the newsletter and the organization are posted above.
Let me know what you think.
****
Nineteen copies of the first issue
were sent out to people in Minnesota who had expressed interest in flintknapping.
Of those original nineteen
the following individuals have stayed with the Guild through its first five
years:
GENE ALTIERE, FRANK BERA, KEITH MATSON, GORDON PETERS, JIM REGAN,
TONY ROMANO AND MARK SIGNORELLI. Copies of all correspondence and electronic
copies of all the issues have been kept so the history of the Guild is intact following
the first publication. Just thought you might be interested in how it
all got started.
About the following article:
Minnesota may be divided
into three raw material
resource regions; west, northeast and southeast - each containing a different set
of raw materials. Each region contains different kinds of lithic raw materials,
and different kinds of raw material sources. The Platform is the first publication
to provide descriptions of the raw materials in each of these areas.
Tony Romano, a MKG member, provided the first installment with a description of
"Northern Lithics" in 1991. Leroy Gonsior continued the series with
"Lithics of Southeast Minnesota"
in 1992. This paper by Kent Bakken completes the series and was
published in four parts in Vol 5. In Vol 6. we hope to continue publishing new
data that is being revealed about the lithic raw materials of Minnesota. -Ed.
LITHIC RAW MATERIAL RESOURCES IN WESTERN MINNESOTA
PART IV
by
KENT BAKKEN
Rhyolite is a different sort of material than
the cherts discussed above. It is more closely related chemically to obsidian,
granite and other igneous or volcanic
rocks. If molten rock (lava or magma) of this formulation cools quickly,
the result is obsidian--a natural glass. Obsidian contains no crystals. If
the same high silica molten rock cools somewhat more slowly, microscopic crystals
form. The resulting material is rhyolite. If the rock cools much more slowly,
large, visible crystals form, and the result is granite.
Rhyolite
occurs in outcrops in parts of southeastern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario,
including the Lake of the Woods
region. Its distribution in glacial till in the western lithic region is not
well documented. It may be more common in the northern part of the state.
In an earlier paper where I discussed the distribution and identification of lithic
raw materials in northwest Minnesota (Bakken 1985), I mistakenly identified
this material as siltstone. Access to better information and additional raw
material samples led to the recognition of this material as rhyolite. Whether
or not siltstone actually occurs
in the western lithic resource region is a question that needs to be reexamined,
based on a review of the samples from that earlier study and on additional
field collection.
Rhyolite is commonly greenish grey in color, occasionally
white and very rarely transparent and colorless. Streaks and patches of
orange brown are common. Otherwise the color is relatively homogeneous. It
is always slightly translucent. The most distinctive feature of this material
is the presence of phenocrysts--transparent,
colorless crystals scattered in the finer background matrix of the
rock. These phenocrysts may be as large as 2 or 3 mm in diameter.
Rhyolite
often resembles siltstone, at least superficially. The most dependable
way to tell these materials apart, if phenocrysts are not present, is to hold
them up to a lamp. Rhyolite is always at least slightly translucent. Light can
be seen coming through the edges of a flake, and sometimes through more transparent
parts of the body of the
flake. In contrast, siltstone is highly opaque. Light will not pass even through
the edges of the flake.
Rhyolite can be a moderately good quality
flaking material. Again, however, it seems to have been rarely used for making
scraping tools and is more common as points, knives or large bifaces.
Quartz
is fairly common not only in the western lithic region but throughout
most of the state. It is normally colorless, although cobbles and other larger
pieces will look white. Quartz
may also have a pale pink, yellow, blue-grey or violet tint. (Violet tinted
quartz is called amethyst.) Rarely a piece will be found that is almost black.
Quartz can often be recognized by the character of its fracture surface. Its
fracture is not truly conchoidal. Unlike the materials described above, which
have a microscopic crystal structure, quartz has a large-scale crystal structure
(although individual crystals are not normally apparent). It tends to break
along crystal plains, so the
fracture is hard to control. The resulting break is very irregular, and may have
areas where the break is flat rather than curved. The broken surface also
has a very glassy appearance.
Superficially, quartz and quartzite may
be mistaken for one another. A closer examination, however, reveals the sand
grains from which the quartzite is formed. The fracture pattern of the two materials
is also normally quite different.
Because of its crystal structure,
quartz is not well suited
for knapping. It is rare to find a point or other patterned tool which is made
of quartz. Still, quartz flaking debris is relatively common in archaeological
sites in Minnesota. Apparently quartz was used chiefly for an "expedient"
or "disposable" technology. Breaking open a quartz cobble
produces a number of usable flakes with very sharp edges. These can be used for
various cutting tasks and discarded as they become dull. They can be discarded
so casually because an absolute
minimum of time and effort is put into their creation.
Other Materials:
Quartzite is also fairly common in glacial till in the western lithic region
and throughout most of the state. Although many types of quartzite are suitable
for flaking, this till-derived quartzite is not. It is very brittle and
cannot be worked with any degree of control or success. Therefore this material
will not be discussed in any further detail.
Other flakable raw materials,
including silicified ("petrified")
wood, jasper and chalcedony are found in the western lithic
resource region. They are rare, however, and usually occur only as pebbles
which are too small to flake. An occasional piece of Knife River Flint may also
be found in the till in this region. These pieces are also small, and rarely
of flakable quality.
Conclusion: Although the western lithic resource
region contains a variety of raw materials, it does not contain an abundance of
good quality materials. Prehistoric
flint knappers no doubt had to search diligently to find an adequate supply
of flakable stone, and in general had to make do with what they could find.
It is not surprising that they often resorted to importing high quality stones,
such as Knife River Flint, from outside the region. Modern flint knappers,
who enjoy the luxury of having some of North America's best quality cherts delivered
in the mail, might gain an even greater appreciation of the skills of the
prehistoric flint knapper by
trying their hand at working a few cobbles of Swan River Chert picked out of a
local gravel pit.
A TECHNIQUE FOR BIFACE THINNING
by
Jim Regan
One
of the most difficult flintknapping techniques to master techniques is that
of percussion flaking, especially the thinning of larger bifaces without breaking
them. I have tried many different ideas in pursuit of the "thin biface"
and have found one that
works well for me. You may wish to try it and see if it also works for you.
When
thinning bifaces I like to lay the workpiece on my padded left leg,
rather than holding it in my hand. This provides better support, which reduces
breakage and allows more accurate work, since the left hand does not create
an unsupported moving target which is more difficult to hit. After knapping for
a year or more, I discovered that I could get even better results by gently pushing
the biface into my padded
leg, prior to striking the platform. The flakes run longer and wider and seem
to terminate with more of a nice feather edge. Just be sure you leave the striking
platform sticking out a bit so the billet can get at it without hitting
the pad first (see Fig. 1).
The next problem comes when you get your biface
nice and thin but want it still thinner. Because it is already fairly thin,
you will find that when you gently push it into your leg, you no longer have
enough of the platform sticking
out to get a good whack at it with the billet, The billet tends to hit your leg
first with little of the energy going into the biface to produce a nice clean
flake (see Fig. 2).
What I came up with to solve this problem was another
leather leg pad. What I found was a nice piece of split moose hide, which
was fairly thick but quite pliable. I cut a round hole of about 2 1/2" right
in the middle of this pad. Then I placed the pad over my regular leg pad and
positioned it so that the hole
was in the normal striking area. I position the biface so the striking platform
overhangs the edge of this hole and gently push the biface against my leg
as before. What I have now is a clearance pocket which allows the billet to cleanly
contact the stone before hitting the leg pad which allows me to detach a
nice, clean flake (see Fig. 3).
There are probably many other ways to get
the same results. For instance, you could simply use a rectangular piece of
leather to place under your workpiece,
which would also space the platform up off of your leg pad. The one advantage
of my method is that a full leg pad with a hole in it stays put because
it is draped over my leg. A small rectangular piece would no doubt be slipping
out of position or falling off. If you can't find a piece of thick but flexible
leather, try several pieces of thinner leather stacked up and stitched together
before cutting the hole in the middle.
WE MAY LOOSE A FRIEND
It looks like we are going to loose
one of our sources of information in the flintknapping world. Jeff Behrnes,
editor of the "Flintknappers Exchange" has announced that he is stepping
down as editor of that publication. Jeff says that unless another editor
can be found, they will cease publication. We here at "the Platform"
have had the opportunity to share information with the Exchange on several occasions
and will miss the camaraderie.
Although "the Platform" is more of a newsletter than a magazine
like the Exchange or "Chips" we have always felt close to those publications
and will miss Jeff and the Exchange if they stop publishing.
