The use to which were put the narrow, thin flakes so abundantly found in many parts of the world has caused some discussion. Schoolcraft says that the Dakota bleed patients by scarifying with these flakes; or sometimes one is fixed into the end of a piece of wood, held over a vein, and driven in as far as the wood will let it go,[192] the use being similar to that of the modern fleam. Harpoons in the Kurile islands are made of bone, with a deep groove along each side; in these grooves thin and sharp flat flakes are fastened with gum.[193] According to Evans, similar flakes were used for scraping,[194] just as broken glass is used among modern woodworkers. Flakes have been found in the Swiss lakes in wooden handles in the fashion of Eskimo knives; also in Australia with skin wrapped around one end to protect the hand.[195]
All the flakes in the Bureau collection are small, few of them being over three inches long. They are found elsewhere with a length of over a foot; but the nature of the flint occurring in the United States is seldom such as to allow flakes to be struck off equaling in size those found in Europe.
Evans says that blows with a pebble will form just such flakes as those produced by an iron hammer; the blows must, however, be delivered in exactly the right spot and with the proper force. Cores sometimes show markings of hammers when struck too near the edge. Flakes can be produced by using a pebble as a set or punch and striking it with a stone. The use of a set was probably the exception rather than the rule, for great precision may be obtained simply with a hammer held in the hand. The Eskimo use a hammer set in a handle to strike off flakes, or strike them off by slight taps with a hammer of jade, oval in shape, about 2 by 3 inches, and secured to a bone handle with sinew.[196]
According to Tylor, the Peruvian Indians work obsidian by laying a bone wedge on the surface of a piece and tapping it until the stone cracks;[197] while the Indians of Mexico hold a piece of obsidian 6 or 8 inches long between their feet, then holding the crosspiece of a T-shape stick against the breast they place the other end against the stone and force off a piece by pressure.[198]
Nilsson says that the Eskimo set a point of deer horn into a handle of ivory and drive off splinters from the chert,[199] and Redding saw a Cloud river Indian make flakes thus: Holding a piece of obsidian in his hand, he placed the straight edge of a piece of split deer horn, four inches long and half an inch in diameter, at a distance from the edge of the stone equal to the thickness of the arrow he wished to make; then striking the other end with a stone he drove off a flake.[200] Schumacher observed that the Klamath Indians heat a stone and break it into fragments at a single blow.[201]
According to Stevens the Shasta Indian lays a stone anvil on his knee, and holding on the anvil the stone which he is working,[202] strikes off a flake one-fourth of an inch thick with a stone hammer; but Powers says the Shasta Indians heat a stone and allow it to cool slowly, which splits it into flakes,[203] and Bancroft that they place an obsidian pebble on an anvil of stone and split it with an agate chisel to the required size.[204] The Shoshoni or Snake Indians of the northwest work in the same way,[205] and certain California Indians strike off flakes from a mass of agate, jasper, or chalcedony with a stone hammer,[206] while the Apache break a bowlder of hornstone with a heavy stone hammer having a twisted withe for a handle.[207]
Schoolcraft says experience has taught the Indians that some varieties of hornstone (flint) are less easily fractured than others, and that the conchoidal form is found best in softer varieties; also that weathered fragments are managed with greater difficulty than are those freshly quarried.[208]
Evans points out that in making gunflints much depends upon the condition of the stone as regards the moisture it contains, those that have been too long exposed on the surface becoming intractable, and there is also a difficulty in working those that are too moist. Some of the workers, however, say that a flint which has been some time exposed to the air is harder than one recently dug, yet it works equally well.[209]
It is related that in former times white hunters in Ohio and Kentucky, when they needed a gunflint, would select a fragment from the surface, where practicable, and soak it in oil for several weeks “to make it tough;” otherwise it would shatter to fragments when struck.
