WILTON KNAP-IN

James Harwood, a chip off the old core!



Flintknapper-Jimmy, from Paleo Planet fame, shows Grog his notching Style (above)



FLINTKNAPPING ABOVE




Wilton Knapp-in Review
March 27th, 28th and 29th
12543 Plum Lane
Wilton, California
Dave Sunderland sunwun@aol.com (916) 687-6370
I was coming home from our Anza Borrego Desert hiking trip, James was going back to Davis and we stopped off
In Wilton for one of the best knap-in’s I have ever been to. The first day knapping had already started; Jimmy from Paleo Planet was making his amazing Ishi Points Grog Verbeck, GaryPicket, Patric Aims and a host of others were bifacing . Dr. Susan Gleason was busy filling an arrowhead order.
James and I got a good camp down by the little lake near a pine covered knoll. The knapping and vitals neverslowed down. Wild game provided by John and Coral Piri, Patrick Aims and Dave Sutherland, a great host.


Grog and Patrick cook chow!


We were fortunate to have a real Chef, Grog Verbeck and helper Patrick Aims cookin’ the chow. I have to say we ate well all 3 days and all 3 meals each day.


Gary Picket's Class

Classes that I attended were:
Gary Pickett : Flintknapping, Biface basics.
Brian Barbier: Fire Making
Brian Barbier: Basket making
Patrick Aims: Arrow Straitening
Patrick Aims: Traditional Archery
Grog Verbeck: Clovis Fluting
Grog Verbeck: Giant Biface knapping








Brian Barbier's basket class, Above







ABOVE GROG VERBECK:


DAVE


Ray Harwood - night life was great!

Giant Blade Craftsman: Grog, the frog from Cedar Bog

As many of my blog readers know, I am writing a series called “big blade blogs”, I have covered Theodore Orcutt, Emory Coons, Cole Hurst and know, Grog Verbeck. Although my fellow Bakersfieldians were acquainted with Grog, I having been out of the loop for quite some time, had never heard of him. It was quite serendipitous; I was on a trip to Anza Borrego desert with my eldest son James , he was returning home to U.C. Davis and gave me ride to a knap in near Sacramento on the way. There in the center ring was Grog Verbeck knapping out very large, monster bifaces. Grog is a long time student of the master knapper, Greg Ratzat of Neolithics fame, in fact he cooks for the class up at Glass Buttes.

According to “Gogslithicart.com: Grog Verbeck was raised in the small town of Staatsburg, on the great Hudson River in New York. He is descendant of the Cherokee tribe by way of his mother's full-blooded great grandmother and his great uncle served on the Osage tribal council. Since Grog was a young boy he had an interest in Indian artifacts and life skills including bow hunting, tanning and fire starting. In college he pursued Native American studies and new world archaeology. He made his first arrowhead as a boy and has been addicted to flintknapping as an art for nearly ten years.” Grog knaps boulders and spalls and an occasional giant slab. Grog obtains his lithic material from the glass buttes area of Oregon with his long time friend and mentor, Greg Ratzat.


Links:
Grog Flintknapping video:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jharwood2686/AnzoBorrego2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCIiegdC9loTilgE&feat=email#5319217016479070066

Grog’s web Site:
http://grogslithicart.com/index.html

Grog article:

http://tahoeculture.com/2008/12/01/truckee-flintknapping-artist-grog-verbeck/

Grog article:

http://www.heychef.com/assets/FactSheet_Generic_FINAL_email.pdf






Grog a chef by trade and runs a private chef service, HeyChef.com, in Lake Tahoe, California.
“HeyChef! began serving Truckee in 1996 and focused on the private chef services of
accomplished chef, Grog Verbeck. For more than a decade before landing in Truckee, Chef
Grog served in New York as the private chef for Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas, where he
prepared meals for their celebrated dinner guests from the theatre and political worlds, including presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton.” {http://www.heychef.com/assets/FactSheet_Generic_FINAL_email.pdf)


Ballad of Grog Verbeck

Grog, the from Cedar Bog, lives in the moutains with his old sheep dog.


Grog flint knaps giant obsidian blades and the sword in the stone
If you want to by some lithic art call him on the phone.


As many of my blog readers know, I am writing a series called “big blade blogs”, I have covered Theodore Orcutt, Emory Coons, Cole Hurst and know, Grog Verbeck. Although my fellow Bakersfieldians were acquainted with Grog, I having been out of the loop for quite some time, had never heard of him. It was quite serendipitous; I was on a trip to Anza Borrego desert with my eldest son James , he was returning home to U.C. Davis and gave me ride to a knap in near Sacramento on the way. There in the center ring was Grog Verbeck knapping out very large, monster bifaces. Grog is a long time student of the master knapper, Greg Ratzat of Neolithics fame, in fact he cooks for the class up at Glass Buttes.

According to “Gogslithicart.com: Grog Verbeck was raised in the small town of Staatsburg, on the great Hudson River in New York. He is descendant of the Cherokee tribe by way of his mother's full-blooded great grandmother and his great uncle served on the Osage tribal council. Since Grog was a young boy he had an interest in Indian artifacts and life skills including bow hunting, tanning and fire starting. In college he pursued Native American studies and new world archaeology. He made his first arrowhead as a boy and has been addicted to flintknapping as an art for nearly ten years.” Grog knaps boulders and spalls and an occasional giant slab. Grog obtains his lithic material from the glass buttes area of Oregon with his long time friend and mentor, Graig Ratzat.


Links:
Grog Flintknapping video:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jharwood2686/AnzoBorrego2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCIiegdC9loTilgE&feat=email#5319217016479070066

Grog’s web Site:
http://grogslithicart.com/index.html

Grog article:

http://tahoeculture.com/2008/12/01/truckee-flintknapping-artist-grog-verbeck/

Grog article:

http://www.heychef.com/assets/FactSheet_Generic_FINAL_email.pdf






Grog a chef by trade and runs a private chef service, HeyChef.com, in Lake Tahoe, California.
“HeyChef! began serving Truckee in 1996 and focused on the private chef services of
accomplished chef, Grog Verbeck. For more than a decade before landing in Truckee, Chef
Grog served in New York as the private chef for Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas, where he
prepared meals for their celebrated dinner guests from the theatre and political worlds, including presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton.” {http://www.heychef.com/assets/FactSheet_Generic_FINAL_email.pdf)

The song link:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=55033732


Ballad of Grog, the frog from Cedar Bog
By Hank Ray

Grog, the frog from Cedar Bog, lives in the mountains with his old sheep dog.

Grog flint knaps giant obsidian blades and the sword in the stone
and small flakes of stone pressure flaked with bone.

Grog, the frog from Cedar Bog, lives in the mountains with his old sheep dog.


Grog, the frog from Cedar Bog, lives in the mountains with his old sheep dog.





"As of late many knappers are creating ever larger
pieces of lithic art in the form of huge bifaces.
Emery Coons reportedly percussion bifaced a 50 inch
preform and managed a 40 inch finished neofact. I
wrote the Coon's family and requested information and
a photo by received no response.
At the California knap in this year, large the key
word.
Many from other states, such as Coons in Oregon, are
also thinking large and obsidian suppliers are selling
more mega slabs than ever.
Named the Orcutt syndrome after an old time knapper
named Ted Orcutt, whom was known for his massive
biface work. More later..." Ray Harwood Aug. 30. 2000

Emory Coons; Big Blade Maker

Emory Coons; Big Blade Maker : By Ray Harwood

Emory trade mark eagle.



Emory, the young prodigy.
"I told that kid to leave my rocks alone, he would cut himself, he was 5 years old - DARN KID IS STILL BRAKING MY ROCKS!" - DAD



"As of late many knappers are creating ever larger
pieces of lithic art in the form of huge bifaces.
Emery Coons reportedly percussion bifaced a 50 inch
preform and managed a 40 inch finished neofact. I
wrote the Coon's family and requested information and
a photo by received no response.
At the California knap in this year, large the key
word.
Many from other states, such as Coons in Oregon, are
also thinking large and obsidian suppliers are selling
more mega slabs than ever.
Named the Orcutt syndrome after an old time knapper
named Ted Orcutt, whom was known for his massive
biface work. More later..." Ray Harwood Aug. 30. 2000







Emory's work. 2


Emory's work. 3


Emory 4


Two of my first flintknapping buddies were Jim Winn and Barney DeSimone. During the old days they starting going up to Glass Buttes and they would tell me stories of the great biface knappers they had up there. One such knapper was really good at the giant blades and he was just a kid.

His name is Emory Coons and he is one of the few big blade makers in the world. His biggest to date is 41 inches finished (mud sedimentary) and he has a 47 inch (world record) pumpkin blade in the shop waiting to be finished. Emory keeps his blades thicker than Cole’s because he transports them to a lot of shows. He sometimes makes them thinner or even pressure flaked. He has been chipping large blades since the 1990's and most have been 20 to 36 inches. If you are interested in purchasing a large blade he is only limited to what pops out of the ground for color and length. Most large blades are out of silver sheen obsidian, pumpkin or red are harder to find and several out of dacite it's a steel grey color. But you never know what color the next large chunk will be.



Above photo is a 42 inch flake. The 18 lbs billet (The billet he got from Dan Stuber) is sitting above the pit, he used this to strike the rock and remove the monster spall.



One of my favorite stories is when Emory traded a 21 and a 31 inch blade for a Winchester riffle with Leopold scope. To make these giant blades Emory Coons digs a ditch and makes sure there are no rocks left in there that can cause vibration. The 30 lbs billet to the rock then as it gets smaller the 18 lbs billet then the 9 lbs, then, use a 1 inch solid or copper cap to build a lot of platforms to take massive flakes. The first stages involves alternate flaking, driving massive spalls off with a 9 pound copper Billet. For finer work he uses a 2 and a half inch copper bopper to reduce end shock. Barney DeSimone introduced Emory to copper billet technology when Emory was 16 years old and Steve Allely taught his copper platform preparation and use. Brian James was a big influence on horn platforms. Emory was introduced to flintknapping by his father, another great knapper, at the age of five years. Emory met Jim Winn a few years back and Jim began making large blades as well.

Emory makes three to four giant blades a year, this since he was 18 he is now 38. which is about 54 mega-blades to date. Emory is so good at spalling that people nearly kidnap him to reduce giant boulders. He is getting a 43 pound billet and the late Rick Woodram left him a 6 foot drag saw, so who knows what monsters may emerge.

Emory 10, blades




Emory 11. dacite blade



Emory 8. knapping






Emory 9. Face off





Emory 12. dacite blade





Emory 13. blade




Emory with Jim Winn 14



Emory 15



Emory 7 A News Paper

Emory 7 B News Paper

Emory 6, NewsPaper.



Emory 5, in News Paper.


BIO:
Emory Coons was born in Burns Oregon in 1971 and started flintknapping at the age of five, 33 years ago. He has resided in Burns most of his life and attended Burns Union High School winning awards in the crafts department for jewlery two different years. He has been perfecting his skills as a artist ever since, flintknapping, silversmith, lapidary and teaching his craft to others. He has been on OPB on The Caveman at Glass Buttes and Channel 2 News Boise Idaho about the Nyssa rock and gem show multiple times. Several news paper articles have been written on his art from gem and mineral shows he has attended in Nyssa Oregon, Burns Oregon, Madras Oregon, The Dalles Oregon, Pendleton Oregon, Mission Oregon, Salem Oregon and the Oregonian in Portland Oregon and Golden Dale Washington. The Pendleton Mission papers had a mention for round-up as well as the blades he chipped were built into the Umatilla Veterans’ Memorial. He has taught classes in flintknapping at Indian Lake for the Umatilla tribe four years also the wild horse atl-atl demonstration as well as Pipestone Creek Alberta Canada and in Medicine Hat British Colombia Canada for the Jr. Forest Wardens, at Northern Lights out of Slocan Canada twice, also demonstrated flintknapping along the Oregon Wagon Train in 1993, Baker interruptive center, and Windows to the Past for the BLM and Forest Service. Then there's knapp-ins (arrowhead makers conventions) at Glass Buttes Oregon, Ed Thomas Golden Dale Washington knap-in, Richardson’s rock ranch knap-in and the Brad Boughman- Jim Hopper Knapp-in on the upper North Umqua some of the worlds best knappers come to these events to show there skills and teach. Emory attends gem and mineral shows like the Confederated show in Onterio, Nyssa Thunder Egg Days, Prineville Oregon, Hines Oregon Obsidian Days show his father started and the Madras, Oregon gem and mineral show. At these shows he can find most of the exotic materials from other countries, like fire opal from Australia, Brazilian agate, Condor agate from Central America, or crystals, Idaho star garnets and other gems to make arrowheads or jewlery out of. The Fire Obsidian is one of his favorites to find and work. His work can be seen at Boise University (display), Omsi (display), Great Basin Art in Prairie City, Oards 'War Hawk'(tomahawk heads assembled by Great Basin Art), The Edge Company magazine (War Hawks), or some of the local Burns stores. Most of his work has been sought after by private collectors and as gifts. His friend in The Dalles, Jason Hinkle, has oregonthundreggs.com and has put a web page up for Coons Lapidary with pictures and contact information for the selling of his art.

Notes:
Progression of age pictures are numbers 1,13,10,8,4,9,14,15,11,12,oldest to now, the eagle was made 3 days ago, the first picture, at the top of the article, knapped inbetween snow storms.

11 is silver scheen obsidian, the one pictured with Jim Winn is dacite and
picture 15 is the mud sedamentry.





Emory Coon's axes and Danish Daggers(above).'War Hawk'(tomahawk heads assembled by Great Basin Art)









BALLAD OF EMORY COONS

By Hank Ray

I once new a man named Emory Coons
He lived out in the woods just like- Daniel Boone.
He knew how to live out off the land
Just like Ted Orcutt and Ishi the Indian man.

Emory made giant blades out of obsidian and flint
He stayed out at Glass Buttes in a canvas tent.
He learned how to knap when he was very young
even Errett Callahan couldn't believe what he done.


I once new a man named Emory Coons
He lived out in the woods just like- Daniel Boone.
He knew how to live out off the land
Just like Ted Orcutt and Ishi the Indian man.



http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=54296085

Stone Tool, Bison Butchering Experiments

Stone Tool, Bison Butchering Experiments; By Ray Harwood






Zac Scida, Bill Eddy and John Piri-above photo.

Stone Tool, Bison Butchering Experiments

At the last Bakersfield Knap In, I was telling John Piri that I was planning on going out and collection some Coso obsidian the next week end, John said “no your not”. John went on to say that his wife Carol, he, and fellow knapper Patrick Aims had made arrangements to slaughter two 1,500 LBS bison at a ranch Northwest of Bakersfield. John said anything goes in regards to stone tool butchering experimentation.

All week, as soon as I got home from work until night fall, I was out in the yard flintknapping my heart out, making flakes and bifaced obsidian tools for experiments. I posted on the "Lithics List", to see if I could get some ideas from some of the worlds leading lithic specialists and I was not disappointed. All the suggested experiments were systematically undertaken to the best of my abilities.

All humane and spiritual aspects were considered.

Gary Picket burning white sage.



The experiments were conducted Saturday, March 2, 2009 at a Ranch NW of Bakersfield, CA.

Those participating were; ranch personnel, flintknappers: Gary Picket, Patrick Aims, John and Carol Piri and Patrick’s ever growing extended family, and myself.

Bison in corral


Cowboy drove bison into corral


Bison was humanely shot and bled out.



Bison was skinned and butchered with stone knives.

Ray Harwood with his buffalo knife.







Unmodified Flakes and the Bison Experiment




Gary Picket and I were able to do some fairly extensive experimention on the bison butchering experiment. Unmodified flakes worked well for slicing through hide backed by bone (legs, skull). Unmodified flakes did not work well for skinning, lack of serration, to sharp to separate hide from carcass, leaves to much meat on the hide. Unmodified flakes are very hard to hold and control the get slippery with fat and blood on them. They are awkward to hold during the cutting process without a bone support behind them. Unmodified flakes do leave striation cut marks on the bones, very thin and highly distinguishable from biface butcher marks. The first cut in the skinning process is to free the hide from the legs of the carcass; this is where the unmodified flakes were most effective. Furthermore the Unmodified flakes we very important in the separation of the liver from the gallbladder and other delicate operations requiring very precise surgical slicing.






Western Crescent Points, Experiments in Bison Butchering

John Piri and I were discussing the possible function of a strange artifact anomaly know as the Western Crescent point.In the western United States, as in most geographic regions, there are a few classes artifacts which pose inerpretive problems regarding their possible uses, In California and a few adjoining states one of these artifact classes is the "crescent point". I had published a paper in 1983 on experimental results using the crescents as pond skipping projectile points. Attached to an arrow the point is like a French guillotine on a stick, skipping across pond water lopping the heads off unsuspecting water fowl - don't laugh- it actually worked very well. John's vision was that the crescent was a stone "ulu" type knife blade for skinning and butchering. The crescent is similar to the Eskimo Ulu, which appears to be a multipurpose knife like tool.

Crescents, dated by modern methods, have been documented at the following archaeological sites; San Dieguito, Pauma, Lake Mojave, Borax Lake Fallon,Danger Cave and Scotts Valley. Acluster of radiocarbon dates from San Diego County, California range in age from 5,000 B.C. to 100 A.D.


This week I was able knap several obsidian crescent point replicas, this morning John and I were able to put his theory to the test during our bison butchering experiment. John states that the crescent was the best skinning tool he has used, and he is an expert in large game butchering. While the finest steel knives and pattern flaked flint blades separated the skin from the carcass very well, the crescent did the same job but left the hide cleaner and nearly blemish free. The crescent also cut much faster. The slightly wavy -alternate flaked blade edge- gave just enough serration to keep a speedy cut.






Historic Clovis Points Made By J.B. Sollberger and Errett Callahan in about 1985
Were Part of "Bison Butchering Experiment". The wide Clovis was made for me by Errett when he was in Denmark (circa 1985) and the slender Clovis was made for me by Solly about the same time,at his home in Dallas, Texas.

Sollberger was a famous flintknapper in the 1970s- 1990s. He was noted for starting the Texas "school" of flintknapping and mastered the lever fluted methods common today. He was very well published and is concidered to have been true master flintknapper.

Errett Callahan, of Virginia, is concidered a master at flintknapping many styles, including Danish Daggers and fantasy obsidian knives. He has published much on the stages and sytematic methodologies of knapping. He aslo came up with the "lithic Grade Scale".



I found that the more even the edge of the Clovis the better it was for perferation but not for cutting. Callahan's point was very sharp and worked well to slice. The bit of alternate flaking on the sollberger point made it better at cutting. The point first perferation on both points was outstanding. Callahan's was better for slicing but Sollberger's point cut better. Both points held there edge well during the butchering experiment. The blade edges will be magnified in future studies.





Here are the two historic Clovis points:


Above J.B. Sollber knapping the Clovis at his home in Dallas, 1985.


Above Errett Callahan works on a Clovis point.


Obsidian verses chert: As expected, the obsidian was sharper and seemed work but more effectively overall, but the bifaced knife that held its’ edge longest and did the brunt of the work
Was a hafted, Greenstone chert, knife. The theme of the day was, if a kinife has a slight, unintentional serration, caused by alternate flaking, the cuts much more effectively than an evenly knapped or unmodified blade edge, be it obsidian or chert. If I would have known this going into the experiment, I would have made my implements accordingly.



Above 3 photos John uses my green chert knife to skin bison. Below, obsidian.




Separating the joints with flint hand axe, We were so fatigued
By the time got to this experiment that we switched to a steel saw and will have to do it next time. Gary Picket had knapped a nice flint hand axe and used it effectively in the skinning process.

The day after the butchering, I noted that all my muscles were sore from the taxing physical requirements of task. To my surprise, insects and small animals had cleaned the knives fairly well. I had to re-glue almost all my handles and apply oil to the wood. I also had to re-glue beads on my large buffalo knives and re-tar the knives hafting. After some close analysis, pressure retouch will be needed for a fresh sharp edge, and I will be ready for the next butchering experiments. Another bison butchering experiment in 9 months, anything you want tested let me know, or maybe you can come along. The next one will be all Clovis tool kit replicas. (figflint@yahoo.com)