Knapping

The blade is already in the stone. Your work is only to take away what is not the blade.

Strike flakes from flint to shape arrowheads and axe heads.

Knapping is shaping stone by striking flakes from it. It is the first craft. Most of the others begin with an edge you knapped.

What you need

• Flint. Only flint knaps clean. Other stones may look the part, but they will not take an edge.
• A hammer for your main hand. A flint hammer will do, and so will a flint knife.
• A chisel for your other hand. A flint chisel, a bone chisel, or a small bone.
• Open ground before you, where the stone can lie.

Starting

1. Hold the flint in your main hand.
2. Press Alt + right mouse. The stone is set on the ground before you.
3. Choose what to make. The flint is used the moment you choose.
4. Put the hammer in your main hand and the chisel in the other.

Until you choose, you can close the choice and keep your flint. Once begun, a knap cannot be set down. Finish it, or lose the stone.

Striking

The stone lies before you, marked where flakes must come away.

• Left click a marked place to strike a flake from it.
• Flakes left hanging, with nothing to hold them to the shape, fall away on their own.
• Only the edge needs your blows. Strike the places that touch the shape, and the rest will follow.
• A blow where the stone should stay whole is a mistake. Three mistakes and the stone shatters. It is gone.

When the shape is clean, the finished piece drops onto the ground where you worked. Pick it up.

What flint makes

• Flint Arrowhead. One flint gives two. A small point with a tang for lashing.
• Flint axe head. The head of an axe, wide at the bit.

Wear

Every flake you strike wears the hammer a little. See Tools and Wear.