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Flintknapping: Making & Understanding Stone Tools
A detailed, practical guide to the ancient craft of making stone tools, featuring an archaeological analysis.
Flintknapping is an ancient craft enjoying a resurgence of interest among both amateur and professional students of prehistoric cultures. In this guide, John C. Whittaker offers the most detailed handbook on flintknapping currently available and the only one written from the archaeological perspective of interpreting stone tools as well as making them.
Flintknapping contains detailed, practical information on making stone tools. Whittaker starts at the beginner level and progresses to discussion of a wide range of techniques. He includes information on necessary tools and materials, as well as step-by-step instructions for making several basic stone tool types. Numerous diagrams allow the reader to visualize the flintknapping process, and drawings of many stone tools illustrate the discussions and serve as models for beginning knappers.
Written for a wide amateur and professional audience, Flintknapping will be essential for practicing knappers as well as for teachers of the history of technology, experimental archaeology, and stone tool analysis.
“A mid-range user’s guide to flintknapping is long overdue. There have been some admirable attempts to produce such a volume, but these have been targeted at specific, fairly narrow audiences. Not so with Flintknapping. . . . [Whittaker’s] clear aim is to reach professional archaeologists as well as hobbyists. I believe he achieves this goal with incredible skill and humor. . . . I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in flintknapping.” —Plains Anthropologist
“Very attractive to readers interested in ancient crafts, survival skills, or the history of technology . . . . Far superior to anything currently available.” —James C. Woods, director, The Herrett Museum, College of Southern Idaho
Flintknapping is an ancient craft enjoying a resurgence of interest among both amateur and professional students of prehistoric cultures. In this guide, John C. Whittaker offers the most detailed handbook on flintknapping currently available and the only one written from the archaeological perspective of interpreting stone tools as well as making them.
Flintknapping contains detailed, practical information on making stone tools. Whittaker starts at the beginner level and progresses to discussion of a wide range of techniques. He includes information on necessary tools and materials, as well as step-by-step instructions for making several basic stone tool types. Numerous diagrams allow the reader to visualize the flintknapping process, and drawings of many stone tools illustrate the discussions and serve as models for beginning knappers.
Written for a wide amateur and professional audience, Flintknapping will be essential for practicing knappers as well as for teachers of the history of technology, experimental archaeology, and stone tool analysis.
“A mid-range user’s guide to flintknapping is long overdue. There have been some admirable attempts to produce such a volume, but these have been targeted at specific, fairly narrow audiences. Not so with Flintknapping. . . . [Whittaker’s] clear aim is to reach professional archaeologists as well as hobbyists. I believe he achieves this goal with incredible skill and humor. . . . I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in flintknapping.” —Plains Anthropologist
“Very attractive to readers interested in ancient crafts, survival skills, or the history of technology . . . . Far superior to anything currently available.” —James C. Woods, director, The Herrett Museum, College of Southern Idaho
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 1993
31 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
John C. Whittaker
4 books2 followersJohn C. Whittaker is an assistant professor of anthropology at Grinnell College. He has twenty years' experience in making and analyzing stone tools and has written many articles on the subject.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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June 2, 2007I love this book! if you want to be a flint knapper this is where you should start. gives people an idea of how complex our ancestors actually were.
May 2, 2020
This one took me a while to finish, because it's not one of those read-from-start-to-finish kind of books. This is closer to a textbook, in that you have to work through some examples along the way. And to make things easier for the student, Whittaker presents some material out of strictly-logical order, so that you can learn easier techniques first before applying them to later projects, despite the easier techniques representing ostensibly more sophisticated stone technology.
Although I've "finished" this in the conventional sense, I'm going to keep it handy for quite a while, as I've hardly begun to learn and apply the skills Whittaker teaches.
As was the case with the 90-or-so books I collected and read over the course of a years-long study of economics and human nature, this book is the first in a new study of mine, involving outdoorsmanship and survivalism. I expect that within a year's time, I'll be knocking out workable flint blades and arrowheads. The book certainly offers the detail and knowhow to accomplish that, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in either the archaeological or sporting aspects of stone tools and weapons.
Although I've "finished" this in the conventional sense, I'm going to keep it handy for quite a while, as I've hardly begun to learn and apply the skills Whittaker teaches.
As was the case with the 90-or-so books I collected and read over the course of a years-long study of economics and human nature, this book is the first in a new study of mine, involving outdoorsmanship and survivalism. I expect that within a year's time, I'll be knocking out workable flint blades and arrowheads. The book certainly offers the detail and knowhow to accomplish that, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in either the archaeological or sporting aspects of stone tools and weapons.
July 26, 2025
Very good, very easy to understand.
August 9, 2014
Purchased and read with the intention of giving it a try. After reading this (basically an instruction manual), I got scared off - [lots of warnings throughout!] and gave the book to a family member who I think MIGHT use it instead.
June 9, 2007
Please ask about the obsidian bifacial handaxe I made!
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July 12, 2012K is very interested in some books on making his own stone tools or pictures or stories about people making & using them as he has been designing & making his own this week...
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May 14, 20142 of 2
May 28, 2014
Covers a lot of information, and even if i didn't make a good point it was a good resource.
February 5, 2017
"Flintknapping: Making and Understanding Stone Tools," by John C. Whittaker, is a rich resource for those who want to make stone tools or just understand their place in pre-history.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews