Friday, May 28, 2010

Cherry Lake Kayaking


Cherry_Lake_Stanislaus_National_Forest_USGS_TOPO_Map













May 2010, Kayak trip: Went out in the morning about 6 AM. It was raining a bit and I thought of aborting. The weather cleared up so I launched and sarted paddling out. About 40 minutes out a blizzard hit. I actually did not think I would servive. My hands were frozen and I had the beginnings of hyperthermia. I figured any little tip or submerged bourder, the lake would own my soul. Above me a bald eagle squeeled and lit in a near suger pine. The clouds were low and the snow turned to a burning ice and hail. I passed a waterfall on my right and suddenly I was at the damn and climbing out into the car, I turned the heater on and sat for 20 minutes before I stopped shivering. The banks are steep and the water was cold.

"Cherry Lake (upper) and Lake Eleanor (lower). Cherry Lake is within Stanislaus National Forest and is operated by the Turlock Irrigation District. Lake Eleanor is within Yosemite National Park and is operated by Hetch Hetchy Water & Power - San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Both lakes provide irrigation water and power to the Central Valley and provide drinking water and power to San Francisco and other Bay Area cities. "

FLKR



see also: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_s8jit_WcIPI/Sn3XPvOSmvI/AAAAAAAACiE/FBrTGqz4q_E/s400/darcy%2Blast%2Bcanyon.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kayakingkalifornia.blogspot.com/&usg=__CqJvExBqjmUe5RzqHb709RNHxo0=&h=300&w=400&sz=36&hl=en&start=28&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=KEk_NWZc8qmCiM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcherry%2Blake%2Byosemite%26start%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1

AZTECNICS, THE ALTERNATIVE EDGE



















ERRETT CALLAHAN By: Ray Harwood



The Thinking Man: One of the most knowledgeable and talented
flintknappers of our time was a Virginia Flintknapper, whom has
influenced hundreds, if not thousands, Errett Callahan. We can sit
and wonder where Callahan came from and why he was such an influence.
The answer is this, Callahan came into knapping with a great deal of
skill, intellegence and strength, at a time when a whole new
generation of archaeologists were coming out of the old school with a
lot of questions. Crabtree had just released his book and was bumping
out students by the bus load. Archaeology was hungry and Callahan was
just what the doctor ordered. He had fresh ideas and an uncanning
knapping ability intertwined the craft and theory like no one before
or since.
In 1956, just out of high school, Errett spent the summer in
Yellowstone National Park working at the Old Faithful general store.
He was exposed to a lot of history at the park and had access to
obsidian, this gave him the start he needed and he began knapping
seriously then and has been doing it full steam ever since, later
combining his early grinding methods as part of his flaking strategy.
It started on a trip out when he was waiting for the train in
Montana. He went into a local library and found a book on various
point types. He was fascinated by this and it sort of plugged some
into his memory. In his spare time he would try to duplicate these,
using small pieces of obsidian and bottle glass and guided only by
the flintknapping picture in Holling's book. It was another 10 years
before Errett realized that there were other people flintknapping. Up
until then he thought he was the only one.
Errett read more and more of Bordes's works and met him several
times. Francois Bordes stayed at Callahan's house for several days in
1977. Bordes, as Errett, was inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs and he
published numerous science fiction novels. Callahan, as a college
student, had once been assigned to be Bordes's escort to a knapping
demonstration sponsored by the Anthropology department in D.C. for
the Leaky Foundation lectures. In 1977 Bordes spent four days
knapping there in Richmond. Bordes had plenty of money to visit the
U.S.A. because not only was he a master flintknapper and Europe's
leading archaeologist, but also one of the most popular science
fiction writers in France. According to Callahan Bordes wrote dozens
of novels under the pen name of Franci Carsac. Callahan was
influenced quite a bit by Bordes. At the same time Errett was also
reading the works of Don Crabtree. Errett was Fascinated by Crabtree,
they met in Calgary in 1974 and Crabtree gradually became a heavy
influence on Errett's knapping. J.B. Sollberger was another major
influence and led Errett to bigger and better things than he could
have without that input. Gene Titmus of Idaho, a friend of Crabtree
was also a major influence on Callahan, mostly his notching and
serrating techniques. Errett stayed in close contact with Gene for
many years, Gene a master knapper of percussion and, like Don, about
the nicest and humblest guy he'd ever met.
Some other overseas influences on Errett were Jacques Pelegrin and Bo
Madsen. Pelegrin had been Bordes number one student in France,
working under him for years. Pelgrin first trained with Bordes over
six summers, for three weeks each summer. Pelegrin worked with a
hardwood billit, which he learned to use from Bordes's friend in
Paris, Jacques Tixier, whom was one of the Masters of flintworking of
the time. Pelegrin became very good with boxwood. Jacques Pelegrin's
father built a cottage in the French woods, here Jacques reflected on
archaeological concepts and flintknapping. At this time, in the
1970s, Pilegrin was writing a bit back and forth to Master Don
Crabtree in the USA and Jacques had begun to read and interprit
Crabtree's publications. Pelegrin did public flintknapping
demonstations in the Archeodrome, which is on the main road between
Beaune and Lyon, France. He is concidered one of the best
flintknappers in the world. Pelegrin and Bordes learned English
together and spend years flintknapping together and learning, master
and student became knapping partners. Jacques Pelgrin went through
almost all the Paleolthic French technologies while learning his
craft- Levallois, blade making, different kinds of Paleolithic tools,
different kinds of flint cores, and leave points, including Solutrean
pressure material. It is an interesting fact that Pelegrin learned to
flintknap standing up and only changes after his first exposure to
other knappers and text.
Bo Madsen is Denmark's premier flintknapper, a grand- master of the
Danish art. Madison is an expert on Danish lithics and earned his
Ph.D. at Arhus in Jutland, Denmark. Madsen's dagger research
influenced Callahan greatly and this spread to America and in this
era many knappers were attempting dagger production: Waldorf, Patten,
Stafford, Flenniken and Callahan in particular. Errett spend a good
deal of time in the 1970s in Scandinavia and returned again in August
of 1984. Madsen had moved over to the University of Arhus and was
teaching a talented portage, Peter Vemming Hansenat at the University
of Copenhagen, the two had co-wrote and published a paper on the
replication of square- sectioned axes. While in Scandinavia Callahan
gave several flintknapping workshops sponsored by the Archaeological
Institute of the University of Uppsala, Sweden, he was assisted by Bo
Madsen and Dr. Debbie Olausson. According to Callahan, the Copenhagen
area has several talented non-academic knappers as well Thorbjorn
Peterson, Asel Jorgensen, and Soren Moses.
In later years Errett's biggest influence was Richard Warren. Richard
was completely underground and out of contact for most of his
knapping life, he became a lapidary knapper that had an exclusive
clientele. Richard Warren's work was incredibly precise, much more
than anyone at the time thought was possible. Errett had to
reconstruct the Warren technique entirely from scratch. Richard
Warren showed Errett one important thing- perfection is possible- and
that's all he needed to know. Richard Warren died a few years ago,
Warren's curiosity was to know what could be done with flint if
someone picks up where the best stone age knappers abandoned the
craft for metal technology or extinction. In short Richard's quest
was for knapping for the sake of art-perfection, by any means
possible. Richard used the term "Teleolithics" to describe what we
now call lapidary knapping, flake over grinding (lap-knapping). After
Hannus' colon operation, in 1983, for which Errett made the obsidian
blades used in the surgery and observed the entire operation, two of
Callahan's students decided to start a company with him to market
these blades to the medical community. The one who was supposed to do
the marketing dropped out and little became of " Aztecnics".
Errett markets his obsidian art through "Piltdown Productions" in
Virginia. Callahan is best known for his published work The Basics Of
Biface Knapping In The Eastern Fluted Point Tradition A Manual For
Flintknappers And Lithic Analysts. This was published in Archaeology
Of North America, . He has also published many other books and
articles. Including: "Flintknappers' exchange" (the original
journal), "The Emic Perspective" and "Flintknapping Digest". The
Basics Of Biface knapping In The Eastern Fluted Point Tradition was
the single most influential lithic book ever written.
The Callahan biface book is Vol. 7, No. 1 of the journal Archaeology
Of Eastern North America. The book introduced many new techniques for
the study of stone tools, for standard and experimental archaeology.
The concepts, "the lithic grade scale, and biface staging, are widely
used in flintknapping circles to the point the most new knappers
didn't even know these concepts were fairly new and discovered by
Callahan.
As Crabtree before him Callahan was the only living flintknapper with
the confidence to have major surgery done with stone tools he crafted
himself. According to the news release on December 9th, 1998, Errett
Callahan had major surgery done to repair his right rotator cuff
tendon. The two hour landmark operation was done by Dr. Jay Hopkins
of Blue Ridge Orthopedics at Lynchburg General Hospital. Callahan's
rotor cuff tendon had become completely torn off the top of his
humerus bone and had to be extensively reworked. Dr Hopkins said that
it was as bad a tear as he had ever witnessed. All incisions were
made with Callahan's obsidian scalpels. Dr. Hopkins, after performing
the operation, was impressed with the great reduction of bleeding in
the initial incisions and states: I used the obsidian blade for a
shoulder operation and found them quite satisfactory. They performed
very much like a scalpel and the bleeding with the first cut through
the skin was minimal. Healing appears to be very much normal, if not
accelerated.
Errett Callahan was founder and president of the Society of Primitive
Technology for many years . The Society is an international
organization devoted to the preservation of a wide range of primitive
technologies. The SPT preserves and promotes this knowledge
principally by means of a remarkable magazine, the Bulletin of
Primitive Technology. Errett has now retired from his editor and
chief and president but he will stay an active member. For more
information contact Society of Primitive Technology, P.O. Box 905,
Rexburg, Id 83440. The Bulletin is now being edited and produced by
Primitive skills expert David Wescott. At this time Errett Callahan
is in the midst of writing a major book on flintknapping - everything
he knows...and he knows a lot..The book is going to focus a on Danish
Daggers. The book is addressed to both the archaeologist and
flintknapper a like. This book is a 20-year research project in which
200 daggers were replicated. The research was funded by a grant from
the King of Sweden and by Uppsala University. Callahan is cowritting
the book with Jan Apel, a PhD student at Uppsala and fellow
flintknapper. The new book will do for daggers what his biface book
did for that field. Callahan is also working on a book on
experimental archaeology.
Callahan still puts on his week long classes at Cliff Side on
flintknapping, traditional archery, primitive pottery, lithic
analysis, and more. Bob Verrey, a former student and long time
flintknapper, archaeologist and supplier of knapping tools offers a
scholarship to the school but it is very competitive. .
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Entry for June 03, 2006
Entry for June 03, 2006 magnify
Crabtree, often referred to as "the Dean of American
flintknapping". He was born June 8, 1912, in Heyburn, Idaho.
According to Harvey L. Hughett of the University of Idaho: Don spent
his early youth in Salmon, Idaho where he first became interested in
Indians and their tools. His mother would have him run errands for
the next-door neighbor and as a reward this woman would give Don an
arrowhead which her husband had gathered. Young Don became fascinated
with these tools and even at this early age began to wonder why and
how they were made. There were, at this time, many Indians in Salmon.
Thanks to Harvey Hughett, at the University of Idaho, whom is now
curator of the Don Crabtree Lithic Collection, we now know much more
about Don Crabtree's childhood. I spoke to Mr. Hughett a few in
October of 1999 (Val Waldorf had no problem either) he gave me
permission to quote his copyright article on Don Crabtree in Chips
Vol. 11, No.3, 1999.: "Young Don became fascinated with these tools
and even at this early age began to wonder why and how they were
made. There were, at this time, many Indians in Salmon. Their custom
was to sit flat on the sidewalk with their legs stretched in front of
them. Don found it great fun to jump over their legs and to talk with
them, for which he was severely reprimanded by his mother.
When Don was six, his Family moved to Twin Falls. This was desert
country and Don spent most of his time hunting for artifacts, Indian
campsites and building his collection of Indian tools. The family's
home was just a stone's through from the Snake River Canyon and Don
spent every possible moment hunting in the canyon, collecting from
campsites and caves and adding to his collection. He also collected
obsidian flakes and began to try to reproduce the artifacts. This
meant more trips to the canyon for knapping material. Soon, young
Crabtree had gathered a fairly large collection of artifacts and his
interest in experimenting with different stones and methods of
manufacture to achieve replication increased. He tried many
approaches to holding and applying force but with little success and
much failure. After interviewing many local Indians, he was
disappointed that he was unable to learn anything of how these
fascinating artifacts were made. Flintknapping was essentially a lost
art even at the time.
Don was constantly in trouble with his father for being away from
home so much, for the many cuts on his hands and the permanent
bloodstains on his clothing. He received many reprimands for coming
home after dark. Even this did not cure him of his quest for
knowledge of the Native Americans and their tools. At one point, his
father became so disgusted with Don spending so much time knapping he
offered to pay him $100.00 if he would promise never to make another
arrowhead. Don wanted a bicycle and a gun so badly that he considered
this offer for some time. However, the love of Indian lore won and he
told his father that he could not give up his attempts to make tools
as the Indians had.
In the late 1930's he was supervisor of the Vertebrate and
Invertebrate Laboratory at the University of California at Berkley,
this is also where Ishi's artifacts are curated. Also, Ted Orcutt
still lived not far to the North. Crabtree also worked in the
Anthropology lab with the well known Anthropologist Alfred Krueber,
whom was Ishi's friend and caretaker at the museum a few short years
before. According to Dr. Errett Callahan (1979), following a
flintworking demonstration at a meeting of the American Association
of Museums in Ohio, in 1941, Crabtree was employed at the Ohio State
Lithic Laboratory with H. Holmes Ellis and Henry Shertrone. He was
also advisor in Lithic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and
the Smithsonian Institution's museum.
During world war II, Crabtree was coordinating Engineer with
Bethlehem Steel in California. Between 1952 and 1962, he was County
Supervisor with the U.S.D.A in Twin Falls, Idaho. In 1962 and 1975,
Crabtree was research associate in lithic technology at the Idaho
State Museum in Pocatello."
Not only was Crabtree a master flintknapper and an inspirational
flintknapper , he was also an expert on the theoretical aspect of
stone tool studies. Crabtree published papers on replicative
flintworking and other aspects of lithic studies in such publications
as:
"American Antiquity" (1939,1968), "Current Anthropology"
(1969), "Science" (1968,1970), "Curator" (1970), "Tebiwa" (1964,
1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973,1974), and "Lithic Technology" (1975).
Crabtree's textbook, "An Introduction to Flintworking", was the main
publication readily available from 1972 on. The Crabtree book,
although 26 years old, is still a classic and is one of the most
referenced books in lithic studies today. The book is easy to read
and is full of excellent drawings and text. The book is available
through the Idaho Museum of Natural History, Idaho State University,
Pocatello, Idaho. They also have republished Crabtree's articles,
papers, and videos, his articles are better than ours decades later.
Crabtree was featured in many archaeological films in his day, many
were shown around the world in class rooms from elementary school to
doctoral classes. These films influence many up and coming
flintknappers. The film "Blades and Pressure Flaking" (1969) won best
anthropology film at the 1970 American Film Festival.
In 1972, the Idaho Museum of Natural History received a grant from
the National Science Foundation for the production of several 16mm
films featuring the legendary flintknapper. Just a few years ago
these films were dubbed onto VHS video tape and made available to the
public through Idaho Museum Publications. Though faded somewhat, this
footage still maintains its detail and shows Don Crabtree at his
best. In the Shadow of Man , Don is shown quarrying obsidian at Glass
Buttes in Oregon. The Flintworker discusses the basics of
flintknapping, stone tools are made using simple percussion
techniques, and the Hertzian cone theory is introduced. Ancient
Projectile Points covers the making of bifacial points. The hunter's
Edge covers prismatic blade making. The Alchemy of Time concerns heat
treating, and the manufacture of Clovis, Folsom and Cumberland
points. In 1978, Crabtree had open heart surgery with stone tools.
The blades Crabtree made were so sharp that Crabtree's doctor agreed
to use them on him after seeing how sharp they were. The first
surgery one of Crabtrees's Ribs and a lung section were removed, an
18 inch cut. Crabtree's stone tools were so sharp that there was
hardly a scar.
Don Crabtree flintknapped all types of artifacts including fluted
Folsom , parallel flaking, chevron flaking, notching, blade making
and even Ted Orcutt style large obsidian biface points. His large
points were very similar to Orcutts , some were so thin that they
looked like dinner plates, his obsidian arrow points were very
similar to those he helped to curate in Berkley made by Ishi.
While working agate Crabtree noticed that his had a satiny texture
and the Indian arrowheads out of the same material were like opal.
After much experimentation he rediscovered heat treating of flint
materials to improve knapping quality.
In the later part of his life Crabtree traveled the world meeting and
flintknapping with each nations leaders in lithic fields of endeavor
and really opened the door for all of us. During this time
flintknapping saw its heyday, "knap-ins", lithic conferences and
publications. Sort of what what is happening now but with the
academics.
Don Crabtree, Dean of American flintknappers, died on November 16,
1980 from complications of heart disease, within six months of
Francois Bordes . When Bordes and Crabtree passed away the 1970's
academic flintknapping heyday passed away with Them. THE PALEO
KNAPPERS : The Late Don Crabtree, of southern Idaho, is considered to
be the "Dean of American Flintknapping" not only for his fine
publications, but also for the vast amount of important information
he uncovered in a life devoted to the study of stone tools. Don was
most probably the first flintknapper in thousands of years to flute a
Folsom point, as early as 1941 Crabtree was employed at the Lithic
Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania and the prestigious
Smithsonian Institution. He had experimented with fluting in the
1930s but became quite famous for his studies into the Lindenmier
Folsom in 1966 . Don Crabtree passed away on November 16, 1980.
Jeffery Flenniken and Gene Titmus, students of Crabtree carried on
the studies and are still considered to be among the best
flintknappers in the world.
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Entry for June 03, 2006
Entry for June 03, 2006 magnify
ple times.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Way too much here to write and elaborate on further in this short of a space. Good luck all!













Photos are as follows:

#004 Exact replicas of Ishi's soft iron flake tool lashed on wood handle and his smaller retouch or notch tool
#006 My fine flaking tools, welding rod and a horse shoe nail with end cut off and inserted in wood handle which is a favorite of Jim Hopper.
#008 Close up of how welding rod tips look. Upper one is for super thin entry notching
#015 Point made from white novaculite and Montana banded agate full of "pepper" spot swirls
#010 Close up of back lit Montana agate point. Entry notches are slightly less than 1mm. The blue glass Ishi point was less than that.

Monday, May 3, 2010

2010, WESTERN LITHICS, WORLD FLINTKNAPPING CHAMPION, KING NOTCHER

2010 WESTERN LITHICS. KING NOTCHER WORLD FLINTKNAPPING CHAMPION TROPHY.







2010, WESTERN LITHICS, WORLD FLINTKNAPPING CHAMPION, KING NOTCHER, STEVE ALLELY














Steve Allely is knapper who began breaking rocks in 1967 and hasn't slowed
down much in the last 40 plus odd years of working stone. He specializes
in beautiful high color points of the Western US although he can make many
styles of points and knives. He is also an accomplished flat work artist
in painting and illustration. Additionally, he is a bow maker specializing in the
subject of Native American archery for over 20 years and has illustrated a
number of books and written the periodic chapter on the subject in the well
known Bowyers Bible book series with Jim Hamm of Bois d' Arc Press.
He has taken a number of deer with his sinew backed bows obsidian tipped
arrows and dressed them out with obsidian knives. He also replicates various
Native American material culture items for museums and interpretive exhibits.
When he's not breaking rock, scraping on bows or wielding paint brushes he
periodically plays Celtic music and doodles with several kinds of bagpipes. Steve and
his wife make their home in central Oregon, a "rock rich" area for a western
knapper.

ISHI, FATHER OF NOTCHING

This years runners up: Second place: Ray Harwood, third place: Joe Dabill.

Nocthing Ishi points #6 [-]

Posts: 3
(05/04/10 9:34 AM)
ReplyQuoteMore
My Recent PostsMessage MeBlockingIgnore User's Posts A few helpful hints on narrow notching is that first you have to make the area of the point you're going to notch, very thin to begin with. That will solve a number of problems before you even start and is essential. You'll need that part of your point thin so you're not fighting any thickness which is highly helpful. I use a filed down very flat and thin welding rod tip with the end having not a point but a tiny flat area as if one flattened off the end of a wooden popsicle stick but at a slight angle instead of at a 90 degree. This flat and thin tip is tiny and miniature is size and looks something like a tiny screwdriver tip for eyeglasses screws only its at a slight angle if that makes sense. You can use a horse shoe nail, regular nail or any other piece of mild steel or iron like Ishi did. I used a 7 or even a 10 power jewelers hood when doing this (its really hard to see it!) and it took several attempts as its very hard to do. I made a very tiny micro notch to start with using the flat thin flaker that I gradually went into the edge of the point a ways. Then as I got the notch started an in a ways from the edge maybe a 11/16" or so, I inserted the flat tool into the notch from the side, gently set up a little platform, and carefully pressed off a little crescent shaped notch flake to expand the notch outward and into the point but not too big, because if that flake is too large it circles back and tears open your tiny narrow notch entry and wrecks it. One has to "micro narrow notch" a little ways into the point from the edge, and then start to take off larger flakes a bit more aggressively. After you get away from the edge it gets much safer and a bit less of a risk to break it. As you notch you have to set up your platforms to the next side you take your flakes off of. I pop off a flake, very gently crunch my way in a ways but build the platform to the opposite side and very gently scrape (grind) it with my flaking tool which is setting up the platform for the next flake on the other side. Then the process repeats if all goes well. What you don't want is to get your edge to thicken up too much in the mid line of the notch and then you can start to get "stuck" and spin your wheels in taking a flake off as your platform is too far from either side stuck in the middle and it starts to get too thick so your tool keeps slipping instead of taking off a flake. You can sometimes power through and pop off a large one but you can wreck it very easily at that point and will be heard quoting Homer Simpson with a loud "D'oh!"...or worse... In short, it takes lots of practice and I've seen a number of Ishi's old points at the Hearst Museum where he "messed up" and popped his notches out wider than he wanted or had planned. That's essentially it, its just meticulous mirco notching. Its not a deep dark secret nor rocket science, just very careful tiny flaking with lots of practice (and many failures) This is probably the tiniest notched point I've ever managed to make with the entries under 1 mm but I was pushing the envelope even for me and it took several tries as I messed up somebefore I was successful. When I notch this way I work on my knee on an old green chain leather apron and hold the tool straight down when I get to the 'insert it into the inner notch" stage if that makes sense. The tiniest mistake of twisting your tool wrong can mess you up if you aren't super careful. Practice on glass or obsidian flakes a lot, the more you do it the better you'll get at it. I'll try to post some pics I have if I can ever figure out how to attach them as this web site doesn't seem to allow to pull a saved jpeg off my computer to post.



Way too much here to write and elaborate on further in this short of a space. Good luck all!













Photos are as follows:

#004 Exact replicas of Ishi's soft iron flake tool lashed on wood handle and his smaller retouch or notch tool
#006 My fine flaking tools, welding rod and a horse shoe nail with end cut off and inserted in wood handle which is a favorite of Jim Hopper.
#008 Close up of how welding rod tips look. Upper one is for super thin entry notching
#015 Point made from white novaculite and Montana banded agate full of "pepper" spot swirls
#010 Close up of back lit Montana agate point. Entry notches are slightly less than 1mm. The blue glass Ishi point was less than that.