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Rating: 
Summary: From rough rock to finished points
Review: Doctor Whittaker, currently teaching at Grinnell College in Central Iowa, is a passionate advocate of stone tool technology methods. He tries to spend each Friday afternnon working with interested students of the flintknapping craft, has a very active role in atl-atl manufacture and contests, and Lord only knows what else! But more important to me, he is a real person, not a glory-hound or scholarly intellectual snob. He is willing to share patiently with his students not just his experience and knowledge, but the tact that allows them to learn flintknapping at their own pace until they recognize their own need for his further tutelage...rare attributes for this day and mind-set. After receiving the book for a Christmas gift,Iwas fortunate enough to witness a demonstration by one of his students held at the Des Moines Lapidary Society Meeting that led me to Professor Whittaker's Friday "knap-ins". Within a few weeks I too was capable of smacking rocks together then poking at them with pieces of deer antler and producing a serviceable facsimile of a stone dart or arrow point. As I continue to observe Dr. Whittaker and several of his more proficient flintknapping guests and students, I am encouraged to keep improving my skill and knowledge, not just about stone toolmaking, but of the early peoples who mastered that and other survival skills thousands of years ago. It is also a link to the field of archaeology/anthropology that has always fascinated me. The book was well-researched, edited to be easily understood by a larger audience than most of the pedantic, overly technical works of similar nature, and contains little nuggets of wisdom that, upon review, hold the keys to successful flintknapping. I would recommend this work to teachers, students, others of similar interests.
Rating:
Summary: A ten star book
Review: Fantastic book for a beginer or advanced person in this craft. It has much information on all aspects of stone tools. If you only buy one book on the subject this should be the one.
Rating:
Summary: A complete guide to the processes of flintknapping
Review: This book is useful in that it teaches you about modern and ancient flintknapping. It helps the reader to understand how flintknapping works and how to do it yourself. It also demonstrates how to identify lithic flakes from an archaeological deposit. A must have for flintknappers and archaeology students interested in the study of ancient lithics.
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