The hunter's edge : prehistoric blade making

From the "Tools of Early Man Series" by Don Crabtree

The hunter's edge : prehistoric blade making demonstrates the blade-making techniques as practiced by early man. Includes discussion of both the pressure and percussion techniques, as well as information on how cores were held in crude vices for pressuring-off flakes.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1972 with National Science Foundation Grant.

Don Crabtree (1912-1980), a renowned flint knapper, paved the way for scientific analyses of archaeological stone tools around the world. Born in Heyburn, Idaho in 1912, he moved to California in 1931 and soon became the supervisor of the vertebrate and invertebrate laboratory at the Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley. In 1939 he was diagnosed with cancer and returned to Idaho, where he focused on the craft of flint knapping, the reduction of stone to form tools. Crabtree practiced making arrowheads, spear points, and eccentrics by the hour.