I thought I'd let the gang here know about the day I spent in Norfolk with John Lord last weekend.

You see John is one of the best flint knappers in the world and held in high regard indeed! As soon as we got settled here I started wondering if I'd be able to spend some time with him. I was lucky enough to get a day set aside from his busy schedule for some fun rock smashing.

John has in his posession some origional paleolithic hand axes that were found at a mammoth butchering site. They are a thing of beauty and function and it's an indescribable feeling to hold something that was made and used 50,000 years ago by another hunter like us.

So my origional intention was to learn to knap arrowheads because I'd like to kill a deer with primitive gear someday. My focus was quickly turned to making a hand ax and after some very good instruction and a quickly applied bandaid (plaster to you folks) I had one! It's not as nice as the 50,000 year old one but it's functional and I'm proud of it.

We then turned to arrowheads and I learned some fast and some skillful ways to make heads, depending on the outcome needed.

John then showed me how to form a cone that I could strike flint blades from and they are armazingly sharp, you can get many, many blades from one rock with the technique.

It was intersting talking to John's neighbour who owns the inn that we stayed in. She had no idea what an international reputation he has and I doubt that many in his area realize it either. Sometimes we just don't get to know our neighbours enough.

On another note there were rabbits and pheasants everywhere I looked, what a great population of game.

Now I'm pestering a friend in Canada to try and get a bit of elk or moose antler sent out to do some rock smashing on my own. Can anyone tell me how difficult it would be to get a "shed" antler from a red deer?

the chef

Very interesting. For a long time I did't know traditional archery had such a following in the UK but watching the history channel has shown me that there are plenty of guys keeping the English longbows alive.

Some photo's would be real nice.

Whats the story on bow hunting in the UK. To my knowledge it's not done but theres a lot I don't know.

It's illegal Ak, in the case of Deer specifically outlawed in the Deer Acts.

Archery is quite popular here, it's easier to find a place for it than with guns I suspect.

Calgary,

You can buy Red antlers fairly easily, especially in Norfolk.

Failing tht I have some Fallow antlers I could let you have.

Chef,

I can sort you out an antler from a Norfolk Red deer in fact from one shot not far from Grimes Graves. What sort of thing are you looking for?

Where abouts in Norfolk did you go flint napping?

Strangely I was near Grimes Graves, Kings Lynn to be exact. Apparently that area has some of the best flint. What I'm looking for is the heavy end of the antler as well as one or two points for pressure flaking. I wish I had brought some with me from Canada it would have made life a bit easier! By the way John's son makes gun flints and has taken over from Tom fuller who has retired. Toms flints were known as the fest anywhere and were prominently sold by Track of the Wolf.

Moose antler billets are the best antler to many of us. Extremely dense. If you need a source for knapping materials, email me and I'll send you a link.
LDK

About 3 years ago a friend took me to a country fair. One of the main attractions was the flint knapping tent. At the tent there was a large pile of flint shards liberally splattered with blood, blood soaked tissues with a liberal blood trail leading away. Combined with a hand written sign reading 'flint knapping cancelled owing to injury'

Sharp things flints - I'm afraid it appealed to my perverse sense of humour.

Right I have sorted you out some antlers a couple them have quite big bosses, and a coulpe have good points, whats the best way to get them to you?

I'm a little taken aback that a stranger would go to that kind of effort to help out another hunter. Thanks!

I'll pm you with some details