Is the trip half finished or half started?

Knapping with the BAS in Provost

I'm at the midway point of this flintknapping tour of Alberta and Saskatchewan and things are going great. Yesterday afternoon I was talking with students at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton and the night before that I was knapping with members of the Bodo Archaeological Society at the museum in Provost.

Some last minute fletching

Right now I'm going through some final preparation for this evening's slideshow-and-tell with the Red Deer branch of the Archaeological Society of Alberta.  The talk will focus on three of my favourite Palaeoeskimo artifact reproductions; the Independence I driftwood arrow, the Groswater harpoon from L'Anse aux Meadows, and the Late Dorset drums from Bylot Island.  I finally got around to tying a couple feathers on to the driftwood arrow in my hotel room a few minutes ago.  I just need to pop a few more slides into the powerpoint and then I should be ready to hit the road for Red Deer (I'm in Edmonton at the moment).

I am making out like a bandit in the swag department.
Highlights include a Bodo sweatshirt, mug, and
 calendars.  I'm especially grateful for the timely gift
of the Grant MacEwan University laser-flashlight-pen.
I feel like James Bond heading into my talk tonight.

I must thank everyone again for organizing all of this.  I've been able to show up at the locations and have everything ready and waiting for me.  Volunteers, staff, and students with the Bodo Archaeological Society(Christie, Courtney, Peter), Grant MacEwan University (Franca), the University of Alberta, and especially Kurtis Blaikie with the Strathcona Archaeological Society have taken care of all the logistics of gathering the flintknapping supplies and rock as well as organizing and advertising the events and handling all of the registration details.  I really appreciate all that effort.

The highway sign at Provost, Alberta.

The museum had a great ambiance for a flintknapping workshop and we had a very good turn out, with about a dozen new knappers joining us from the surrounding area.

A local collection donated to the museum and put on display.  Its nice when folks keep track of where they find stuff, and let local museums, archaeologists, and the public know about it.  It also serves as good inspiration for a flintknapping workshop.

A couple of the first time points made on Monday night.  Some real talent there.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

This little piggy went to St. John's...mostly

How could I leave this face behind?

It seems like a lot of things are shifting around this week. After a month or more of travelling, workshops and demos, I'm done with that side of the business for the time being and beginning next week I'll be back in the studio filling spring orders.  And by studio, I mean shed.  The day before I left St. John's for the flintknapping workshops in Calgary and Edmonton, I found out that the farm had sold and that this would be my last chance to go through my belongings and collect what I wanted to keep.  I had to make some hard choices.

I took a picture of my pallet in Calgary before it shipped.  The big green trunk was my mom's hope chest. My dad was a farmer and both my mom and stepmom worked in hospitals, so even the herbicide and adult diaper boxes that my stuff is packed in are oddly nostalgic.  The box monogramed with my intials "TR" is just a coincidence.

Grandma Rast's sewing machine

The week that I spent on the farm was a busy one, sorting and packing boxes and then shipping a pallet of keepsakes back to Newfoundland.  This morning, Lori's dad was in town with his truck so we darted out to the freight depot and I brought home my boxes.  I've started sorting through them, and so far I've only spotted a single cracked plate, so I'm counting the shipping as a success.  Its mostly photos and papers and books.  I've been bringing back stuff a suitcase at a time for the past few years, but this time I shipped out a big trunk that my mom always had filled with linens and keepsakes at the foot of her bed and an old Singer sewing machine that belonged to my dad's mother.  I'm not sure exactly how old the sewing machine is, but I believe this model started production in the 1890s.

He was too good of a friend to abandon, so I gutted him and kept his skin.  I might leave him as a throw rug in front of the fireplace or taxidermy him back together again.  I do have a sewing machine now.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Alberta Wildlife and Homesteads

Short Earred Owl.  Since I've been returning home to the farm as a visitor, I've been paying a bit more attention to the wildlife in the area.  This is my first time noticing short earred owls.

Seeing the elk was a bit of a surprise.  I can't ever remember seeing elk near the farm growing up, and a dozen wandered through on my second last day on the farm.

Fences really don't slow them down.

The Ferguson Place. I can remember going for supper with Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson in this house as a very small child.

I had to stop and take some photos of the frosted trees and buildings on my way out of southern Alberta heading to Edmonton.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Knapping with the Archaeological Society of Alberta in Edmonton

Hafting workshop

On Saturday, I had the good fortune of leading a flintknapping workshop in Edmonton sponsored by the Archaeological Society of Alberta.  This was the second of two workshops organized by the Strathcona Centre of the ASA, with Sean Lynch teaching a beginning knapping workshop the weekend before.  Each workshop had a dozen or so people in attendance.  This was my first time in Edmonton since I was a child and I loved the city and had a great time meeting and working with everyone.

A productive bunch.  Sean Lynch is billeting in the middle in the light blue shirt.

"Hoko Knife" from the workshop

We focused on hafting techniques in the workshop, with most participants leaving with multiple hafted flakes and tools.  We started with the simple, clever, and effective "Hoko Knife" based on an artifact recovered from a well preserved site along the Hoko River in Washington.  Throughout the day, the students used their Hoko flake knife to whittle and carve other hafts and handles for their knapping projects.  We worked with different natural glues and binding materials and, of course, there was plenty of knapping throughout the day as well.

Peter grinding ochre for the the spruce glue on his arrow.

Kurtis, standing, organizing

There is some good volunteer energy behind the Strathcona Centre right now.  I don't know everyone working to build the Society's presence in Edmonton, but Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt deserves a lot of credit for organizing these workshops with Sean and I.  The scope and scale of the session reminded me a lot of the first "Advanced Workshop" that I was invited to lead at Calgary four years ago, and I've seen a lot of growth there in the time that I've been involved with those workshops.  I'd love to see similar growth in Edmonton over the years.  For more information on the Strathcona Centre, visit the Archaeological Society of Alberta's website.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Flintknapping with the Archaeological Society of Alberta in Calgary

Alberta archaeology, hands-on

This past weekend, the Archaeological Society of Alberta sponsored its annual flintknapping weekend in Calgary. The Calgary Centre organized it and the event was held in one of the large classrooms in the Archaeology Department at the University of Calgary on Saturday and Sunday. This year was the best attended and most diverse flintknapping weekend that I’ve seen in the four years that I’ve been invited to help lead the workshops with Jason Roe.

Early on Saturday - the tarp didn't stay this clean for long.

A toolkit taking a break

On Saturday, we packed the room with 32 participants who were there to learn the basics of stone tool making. Jason and I walked the group through the basics of pressure flaking, hard hammer and soft hammer percussion. There is a core group of 8 or 10 diehard knappers who come out every year and they make a tremendous contribution to helping out the newcomers by answering questions, providing advice, donating materials, rounding up participants and demonstrating different flintknapping techniques, tools, and strategies. I always try to take advantage of their knowledge and come out of the workshop with new ideas and inspiration for my own work. But on the first day, it’s all about the new knappers. It’s always fun to see someone strike off those first few flakes in their knapping career as the bug begins to take hold.

Rick demonstrating correct biface reduction strategy on Saturday afternoon

Jason setting up the barrel hoop for Allan.

On Sunday, we continued with a casual ‘Knap-In’ day where we covered more advanced topics and gave the students an opportunity to try their hands at number of projects using the skills that they had learned the day before. This session used to be called the “Advanced Workshop”, but we found that name to be a little misleading, since you don’t have to be a very experienced knapper to get a lot out of this day. This year we called it a Knap-In, in order to encourage more people to take part and it worked. It’s an opportunity for everyone to just have fun, work on problems, or just hang out and chat with other folks interested in stone tools and archaeology in the Province.

Obsidian point, red ochre and spruce resin pitch with sinew and hide glue binding on a hand carved willow shaft.

Tyler mixing the ochre and
spruce gum on the hot plate
 to haft his point shown above..

There were about 20 of us on Sunday and we had a number of activities and materials for students to try, including pounding points out of copper pipes and iron barrel hoops, interactive demonstrations in pressure flaking reduction strategies, hafting, glues, arrow making, ochre grinding, and more. Jason led a group of students in a game of “Goat” where everyone sat in a small circle and took turns talking strategy and knocking flakes off of a core one-by-one until someone broke it an became the “Goat”. It looked like a lot of fun and I think on whole this was probably one of the most instructive knapping weekends that the Archaeological Society of Alberta has ever put on.

The room was hopping on Sunday.  Different stations and activities evolved around the tarp throughout the day.  

Dawn's First Arrow.  Awesome.

I want to pass along a huge thanks to the ASA and especially the volunteers in the Calgary Centre for organizing the event and allowing me to participate.  In a couple of days, I’m off to Edmonton to do a workshop on Saturday at the University of Alberta for the Archaeological Society’s Strathcona Centre. It should be a lot of fun and everyone is going to leave with their own hafted tools.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

March Flintknapping Workshops in Edmonton

Hafting stone tools

The Strathcona Archaeological Society is sponsoring a pair of flintknapping workshops at the University of Alberta in Edmonton during the first half of March.  On Saturday, March 9th, Sean Lynch will be instructing a day long Beginners Workshop (I'll be in Calgary) and on Saturday, March 16th I'll be leading an Advanced Workshop focused on making and using hafted stone tools.  You'll pick up the skills you need in the beginner workshop on the 9th to participate in the advanced workshop the following week.  Its going to be modeled along the same lines as the advanced workshop that I did in Calgary in 2010 - with a quick tutorial on making a Hoko knife and then you'll be using that simple flake knife to create a more complex haft for one of your stone scrapers or knife blades.  (Incidentally, I'll be offering an evening version of this workshop through MUNArch here in St. John's later in March or early April... details to follow.)

Beginners Workshop, March 9, Facebook Page.

Advanced Workshop, March 16, Facebook Page.

Contact Kurtis Blaikie (kurtis @ treetime . ca) for more information and to register.

Photo Credits:
1) Michael Turney
2) Poster, Kurtis Blaikie

Besant Atlatl Dart Reproduction

Besant dart reproduction

The Besant Phase was an interesting time period on the Northern Plains of North America, that began sometime around two thousand years ago and saw the introduction of pottery and the spread of the bow an arrow into the region.  The bow and arrow replaced the atlatl during the Besant Phase, with earlier, larger points likely tipping atlatl darts and smaller, later points likely hafted onto arrows.  This reproduction is meant to accompany a Northern Plains style atlatl that I made last spring, so it uses a larger Besant projectile point hafted onto a dart shaft.

Straight with real world imperfections

To the best of my knowledge, there haven't been any complete Besant darts recovered, so I used darts found in arid caves in the Great Basin region of the US and on caribou ice patches in northern Canada as my templates.  I wanted a fairly light dart, but I could afford to give it a bit of length.  The atlatl that it is designed to accompany has a stone weight attached to it, which will help balance a long or heavy dart while in use.  I don't have access to the actual atlatl and my atlatls at home don't have weights, so there is a bit of guess work involved, but I think it should be close to being in balance.

The dart is 5 feet long, including the foreshaft, which is approximately 12 inches long.  The atlatl in the picture is the same length as the Plains atlatl this dart is designed for, but lacks a weight.

The general shape of the foreshaft and the foreshaft/main shaft socket are based on Great Basin atlatl darts.  I used this design because its the same style of foreshaft and socket that I use on my cane darts at home.  If the client decides to order additional darts or different point styles mounted in different foreshafts, then I can match them to my darts here in St. John's and be confident that they will fit with this dart in Calgary.

The foreshaft tapers to a simple, conical point that fits into a drilled socket in the mainshaft.  Its held in place by friction. The sinew lashing is there to prevent the mainshaft from splitting.

I added sinew over the pitch and ochre

I used darts found on ice patches in the Yukon as my references for the mainshaft and the glue used to attach the point to the foreshaft.  I used pitch mixed with red ochre to glue the point into place and to smooth the transition between the stone and the wood foreshaft.

Melting and mixing the ochre and pitch.  I wanted to duplicate the ochre staining found in the hafting area of ice patch projectile points and give it a colour and texture that matched the rough and ready feel of many Besant projectile points.

Scarfed join bound with sinew and hide glue

I straightened the the long shoot that I used for the main shaft using dry heat, but there was a sharp kink in the middle that I couldn't work out.  It wasn't so severe that it would have had a big impact on the aerodynamics of the dart, but it didn't look very pretty.  I cut the shaft at that kink and scarfed it back together.  The scarf joint matches the joins found on many of the atlatl darts recovered from the Yukon ice patches.

  Most of the other features of the dart are shared between both the Great Basin and the Yukon ice patch archaeological reference darts.  They both have shallow sockets at the feathered end of the dart to fit the spur on the atlatl.  The feathers are tied fairly close to the socket and the sinew binding serves double duty to attach the feathers and prevent the socket from splitting.  I wanted a utilitarian looking dart, with real life wobbles in it so that it doesn't look like it was made on a store bought dowel.  I used a long shoot that I found in my wood box. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but willow or lilac are the most likely candidates.  I tossed it a few times with a blunt foreshaft just to see how it flies and it works very well.  This is intended to be a display piece, but I want it to be a fully functional and as accurate as possible display piece.

I went with dark brown goose feathers for no particular reason, other than I felt they were a complimentary colour to the dark point and bookended the light coloured dart nicely.

Chert point, red ochre and pitch, sinew bindings, poplar foreshaft, wood mainshaft (willow or lilac shoot), goose feathers, , hide glue

 Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Lots of Travel, Demos and Workshops this Winter

It looks like you will find me on the road rather than in the workshop this winter.  Starting in January, I'll be conducting artifact replication workshops in Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord in Nunavut on behalf of Parks Canada.  It looks like I'll be returning to Calgary a fourth time for the Flintknapping courses sponsored by the Archaeological Society of Alberta at the end of February/early March.  If all goes well,  I'll get out to some other centres in Alberta during that trip.  Later in the winter, I'm hoping to get to Labrador to work with collections, colleagues, and students there.  Watch this blog for updates.

  

Yesterday I was working with grade fives participating in the Open Minds program at The Rooms.  Always great energy.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Red-Winged Black Bird

Red-Winged Black Bird near Vulcan, Alberta. July 2012.

Photo Credit: Tim Rast

Sunrise and new plans

I'm back home and back at work in St. John's.  I'm mostly scanning and digitizing site maps from the summer.  Hopefully I'll get back into the workshop soon and have some new artifact reproductions to show.  Its time to settle into a new fall routine and get some work done around the house.  We're going to try to get the back deck built and maybe a few other home improvements done before the winter.  

Before moving on to new things, here are a couple last photos from Alberta.  Our last morning on the farm had a magnificent sunrise and light showers with a perfect rainbow over the yard.  Hard to leave those big Alberta skies.

Can you identify this piece of farm equipment?  The top photo has a different view.

 Photo Credits: Tim Rast