On Saturday, May 20, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., a workshop titled “Flintknapping I, Basics of Pressure Flaking” will take place at the Bement-Billings Farmstead Museum in Newark Valley. Registration for the workshop is required by May 3 by calling Leslie at 642-5412, and the cost is $40 for historical society members and $45 for non-members.
Like the young man in this story, have you ever looked or read with interest how flintknapping skills are used to make stone tools such as arrowheads, knives and spear points? Now is your chance to start this journey. Learn techniques in the making of small points with Mike McGrath.
As the newcomer’s well-bundled foot finally touched green tundra and grasses, the old master reflected on his long cold journey to arrive in this new land. He remembered those lost along the way that never got to see an end to the snow, storms, ice and cold. It saddened him that such good people had not survived the long journey to the new lands, which held the promise of a great new beginning.
His weathered hand reached into a tightly bundled pouch under his layers of fur and skin clothing and he grew concerned. He had only four pieces of flint left, which he had used to make stone tools while on this long journey. He was the sole surviving stone tool maker of his group, and their hunting gear was in bad need of new points and knives to process the game needed for clothing, food, and overall survival.
In his old lands he knew where the good materials hid themselves and how to find them quickly, but in this new land of large animals and large glaciers to the north he knew not where to look. Now his people looked to him and only him for their stone tools.
His weathered face of leather and determination looked across the landscape and he decided to take one other young man to explore the immediate area. To his surprise he started to see chunks of a grey and white mottled flint in the streams. He picked up a tight-grained quartz like stone and struck the material. Not since his old lands had he heard the virgin sound of a flake being struck off a piece of flint for the first time and it was like a greeting from an old best friend.
Was he the first to find this new flint and was there more of it? As he gathered up a small skin satchel full he thought of the young man with him and how interested he was when he took out his stone and bone tools to work the flint. He thought that now was the right time to teach this young man all he knew about how to find the finished point within the stone.
Join artist Michael McGrath, as he offers the basics of flintknapping at the Farmstead, located on Route 38 in Newark Valley. Tools and stone materials will be provided.
To learn more, visit www.susquehanna-wd.com/susquehanna_wd_home_page.html, nvhistory.org, or email to nvhistory@stny.rr.com.
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