Knapping Association enjoy the sharing
They're always busy, shaping, pressure flaking, tapping and trading all kinds of rock and glass.
They make spears and arrowheads and knife blades — akin to those used by American Indians and Stone Age people to hunt, kill and skin their daily food.
There are approximately 75 to 100 members of the official organization.
They gather at monthly meetings (on the first Saturday of each month at Hutchings Museum in Lehi) and they make things, tools that shine and pierce and resemble finely crafted weapons of indigenous peoples.
"We usually have between 40 and 50 at a meeting. Our members range in age from 7 to 80, and they include men and women and kids," said Bo Earls, the group's president and the director of intramurals at Utah Valley State College, busy shaping a piece of novaculite that used to be part of a glass table into a knife blade.
Earls sells some of his work on eBay, but he mostly knapps for fun.
"It's just a hobby that the wife doesn't mind if it brings in a little bit of money," he said. "How much it brings depends on how pretty the piece is. Arrowheads usually sell for $5 to $10. This piece (he hefts a turquoise-colored, glass spear point) probably I'd sell for $25."
"We go and hunt for a lot of the rocks. There are places you can go where there's a whole mountain of material," Earls said.
"This is something disabled people can do. It takes a while, but mistakes are part of the deal. We call it rabbit-knapping, because if you break it, then you've got two!" said Rich Power. He and his wife run the club's Web site, www.utahknapping.com.
Eric Rubio says working with rock and stone helps a person sort life's priorities. He started to learn knapping after he broke his back and was laid up.
"If your priorities aren't right, you don't succeed. It's the same with this — you have to learn to be patient and to adjust. And it's something you cannot ever master. There's always more to learn."
Rubio has an impressive collection of flaking and topping tools, most carved of antlers from moose, deer and elk.
"If the Indians didn't have moose, they used elk. If you're hungry enough, it doesn't matter what you're using," he said. "I've been doing this for five years, and I'm only an intermediate level knapper. I've always liked primitive arts. You really can't respect anything until you go back to the basics."
Jamin Wankier, 10, and his sister BreAnne, 12, are trying to learn knapping from their dad, Brian.
"You just have to concentrate. If you hit yourself, which I do sometimes, you just get over it," said BreAnn Wankier.
"I wanted to do this ever since I was his age," said Brian Wankier, nodding at Jamin chipping doggedly away at a big piece of black obsidian. "I didn't realize there were resources until I found the association.
"I've hunted with some of the points I've made, and they work just fine. Why wouldn't they? They worked for the Indians," he said.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com
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