How to Forge Stone Carving Tools
The best materials for stone carving tools are generally rock-hard but manageable to forge, such as obsidian, flint or jasper stone materials. Flint requires heat treatment before you can work with it, which is a more extensive process, but you can forge obsidian and jasper using a hard granite hammerstone and a strong pointed tool. Once you have made a stone-carving tool, you can use it to carve and chip into hard, stone surfaces to create lasting designs.
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Things You'll Need
- Block-chunk of obsidian volcanic glass, flint or jasper stone material
- Granite hammerstone
- Antler or steel point-tipped tool
Instructions
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Acquire a stone material from a rock shop to get good pieces of obsidian, flint or jasper for your work. The pieces you want to work with will generally be classified as "cores."
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Begin to trim down the stone material using a method called direct percussion. In this process, you use a granite hammerstone to begin to remove the unnecessary material from the piece of core stone material. Begin to make glancing, angled hits to the sides of the stone core, gradually chipping away the sides. Do not hit the material directly head-on because this may shatter the stone core.
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Continue to chip away at the stone core, using a method called indirect percussion to remove smaller bits of unwanted edges on the core. Use your antler or steel pointed tool and place it on the small area that you desire to chip away. Strike the end of the tool opposite the rock with the granite hammerstone to remove work away the excess edges of the stone core.
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Begin working your carved stone core into a pointed tip that you will use as the main point of your carving tool. You can make more precise chisel cuts into the stone core by using smaller antler tips, and continue the process of flaking off unwanted edges by hitting the antler tip into the stone core using the granite hammerstone.
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References
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