BRYAN REINHARDT, FLINTKNAPPING HALL OF FAME FLINTKNAPPER; # 11

BRYAN RIENHARDT

gray Edward's Plateau chert Grey Ghosts (Lithic Casting Lab Photo)

The Gray Ghosts of Gustine (Harwood) . It was a warm day in Gustine, Texas, a small town in Comanche County. It was 1949 but in Gustine it could have been 1849, a town know for rodeo and cowboys, a town of only 584 acres and less than a person per acre. It was a quit, sunny, summer day . A slight breeze had come up as Bryan Reinhardt, a large, burly German, clean shaven, World War Two Vet with tattoos on his forearms, was polished up for the day and heading to town. Taking the trash out of the back porch on the way out, he tells his wife he'll be back in an hour or so. He checks his receipt and his wallet as he pulls his keys out of his pocket and climes into his truck. He pulled up in front of the hardware store in a nearby town, excited at what he knew would change his life. As he passed through the front door a tiny bell on the upper frame alerted the proprietor of his entrance. "I know what yer here fer Bryan, It's out back" They two men made small town small talk as they shuffled into to the poorly light musty back room. The proprietor pulled on a tied together string with frayed ends, a hanging light bulb with no shade brightened up the room. Recently swept wooded floor, slatted wooden shelves on either side. There, half cover in the shadow of the shelving resting on an old oak pallet, was a large cardboard box with the image of a lapidary saw. Bryan suppressed the excitement, he was not the kind to express emotion. "Yup, that's the One," said Bryan. The Clerk asked Bryan what he plans on doing with the saw and Bryan replies, `cuttin' some stone". The two men load the saw in the back of the pick up and off he went into the history of modern flintknapping lore. Bryan Reinhardt had developed a method of mass producing large flint spear points, none under nine inches long, (known by collectors as Gray Ghosts, for the color of the flint he used) with the use of a rock saw and complex lever flaker (fulcrum and lever). Reinhardt quarried and processed 100s of tons of gray Edward's Plateau chert. Armed with a crowbar, shovel and wooden creates Bryan would quarry material, drive it back to his home in Gustine, slab it and trim it on his lapidary saw. In the yard of his nicely kept middle class ranch house Reinhardt had an old fashioned trailer, with a wooden addition. In this trailer was his lapidary shop, the place where gray ghost blanks were cut and trimmed. Out behind the house, on the back 1/4 acre were several huge flint piles, a chest high pile of rejected slab cutoffs, a couple truck loads worth, a supply of raw flint, and a giant debitage pile of waste flakes, this testified to by Callahan. Several years later Charlie Shewey flew over that part of Texas in a plane he was piloting and confirmed the flint piles, they were plenty large enough to see from the air. Once he had the slabs cut and trimmed he would heat treat the material to the point that the flakes would remove with less effort but not enough to make them too brittle for the next stage of reduction. For the actual "flintknapping" stages, Bryan removed the first stage of conchoidal flakes, this was done with an elaborate jig set up. The jig was an elaborate set of holes and pins that allowed Bryan to apply fulcrum and lever pressure at any angle and from any direction to any size or shape piece of flint. The edging was done with micro-lever and shearing techniques. This gave the early Gray Ghosts their characteristic steep margin double bevels. Eventually Bryan had several saws buzzing and once, and piles of waste flakes accumulated daily, hence the massive debitage dumps. . His production was so successful he sold his flint work by the gross. Bryan began making good money, in the 1960s he was getting paid 25 cents an inch. According to Dr. John Whittaker (1999) , archaeologist and flintknapping historian, " the lore among Texas knappers is that Reinhardt only sold in orders of 10,000 inches, (to dealers) at a dollar per inch, and demanded payment in gold coins." Ads could be seen in the classified sections of lapidary journals, and The Farmer's Almanac for "ceremonial spear points" and most gift shops along Route 66 were fat with them. It is estimated that Bryan Reinhardt produced nearly one hundred thousand Gray Ghosts from 1950 to 1982. There is a Gray Ghost in nearly every collection of lithic art in the World. Charlie Shewey, world renowned arrowhead collector, collected dozens of Gray Ghosts, and even befriended Bryan Reinhardt and purchased his best work. In the Shewey collection is one Gray Ghost point over 23 inches long. Bryan Reinhardt had been a loner up through the 1960s, until he met three other knappers that had sought him out. It was the late 1960s when Errett Callahan, (a young graduate student from Virginia at the time) J.B. Sollberger (the father of Texas flintknapping), and Norman Jefferson (then a student of Callahan) ventured into Gustine to meet Reinhardt. At first Reinhardt denied being a flintknapper, and told the three men that he was simple a rock collector. The three wise men went into Reinhardt's living room and he was quit pleasant. On the walls in his home Reinhardt had dozens of magazine photos, each with images of artifacts, the articles claimed the items were authentic, but Reinhardt's, after finely admitting he was a knapper, insisted he had made them all. Even though he admitted that he was a knapper he never divulged his methodologies. Reinhardt had moved, and his old house was down street and around the block, Callahan and Sollberger, went and explored Reinhardt's previous dwelling and found massive amounts of debitage there. Sollberger, having experimented with fulcrum and lever methods, new immediately upon inspecting the debitage how the Gray Ghosts had been made, fulcrum and lever. Slab cut-offs were a dead giveaway as to lap-knapping (Callahan 2000). Callahan and Sollberger were very interested in Reinhardt's knapping as they could relate it to possible applications into prehistoric knapping technologies. Also, Reinhardt took an interest in the knapping styles of Sollberger and Callahan and after there acquaintance Reinhardt's knapping products had a more traditional look. True Gray Ghost collectors can see 3 distinct phases of Reinhardt's work: 1. His early years are very angular. 2. After meeting Sollberger and Callahan, a more traditional look. 3. After meeting two later knappers, Nelson and Warren, a more patterned and eccentric phase. Callahan and Sollberger met with Reinhardt off and on for several years and kept in touch by mail. Then Reinhardt, perhaps in fear of being arrested, became reclusive to the point of chasing Sollberger and Callahan off with a shot gun. The two men waited around and on Sunday morning Reinhardt went off to church, while he was gone the two men got a good look around the Reinhardt place, this when the first site of the "new home" debitage and cut off plies. Callahan was even able to secure some photos of this (Callahan 2000). On an earlier visit Callahan was out in the front yard with Reinhardt and the sheriff pulled up in his jeep, Callahan was sure that this was the end for the Gray Ghost, when the officer opened the tail gate and dumped a load of flint in Reinhardt's front yard. "Those German's stuck together" said Callahan of the occurrence. Callahan and Sollberger had traveled 142.7 miles from Dallas to Gustine several times, but this was the last trip. A few years later Callahan received a Christmas card from Reinhardt stating he had been reborn, and he was sorry for his behavior, Callahan phoned Reinhardt and told him he never understood why he did that, Callahan had been Reinhardt's only advocate. In the mid to late 1970s Bryan befriended two other "lapidary- flintknappers", Larry Nelson of Ironton, Missouri and Richard Warren of Llano, Texas. Warren, was inspired by Reinhardt, and later would produce a great many Gray Ghost type points himself. Warren's Ghosts were of black novaculite. According to Charlie Shewey, Warren's father-in-law was a wet stone miner and was able to provide him with perfect slabs for knapping. Warren learned the basics of knapping years earlier by Larry Nelson, a world class traditional knapper whom had a graduate degree in engineering from the University of Denver. 0rginally Warren would make the blanks and Nelson would finish them, much like a micro-factory or cottage industry, similar to what is speculated to have transpired by prehistoric Danish Dagger knappers. Warren was latter known as the founder of "teliolithics" or art knapping. Art knapping involves not only slabbing the flint and heating, as Reinhardt did, but taking the next step of power diamond grinding the shape and contour of the point. The only thing left to do is a final series of pattern flakes. Warren, an ex -Navy man, was going to be a doctor like his brother but dropped out in his final year to pursue knapping (Shewey 1999). According to Dr. John Whittaker (1999) Jim Hopper, who was largely responsible for spreading "lap-knapping" (short for lapidary knapping) among the early Fort Osage knappers, Hopper was inspired by Richard Warren. Warren also inspired two traditional Virginian knappers; Errett Callahan (considered the father of modern stone knife making) and Scott Silsby whom were responsible for the popularity of early pattern flaked knifes, they were the first to perfect the Warren style on hafted blades. Jack Cresson a traditional knapper from Moorestown, New Jersey credits Silsby for spreading art- knapping through the eastern United States, and notes that Silsby refereed to lap-knapping as "cheat and chip". But Callahan's Piltdown Productions catalog gave pattern flaked knives a world wide exposure. Callahan went on to show that pattern flaked knives could be accomplished without modern tools and later began a traditional knapping movement. While Silsby and Callahan turned Warren style points into knives, a southern knapper was fluting the Warren style points. Steve Behrnes, an acquaintance of J.B. Sollberger, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana had created a steel jig that could flute the wafer thin Warrens without breaking them. Steve eaked out a fair living knapping at his old style Cajun home. Jim Hopper, Steve Behrnes and Richard Warren met at Warren's place in 1992, within two weeks of the meeting Warren reportedly shot himself to death, however there were rumors that he moved to a ranch his wife inherited in Calgary, Canada. A few rumors of Warren and his wife sightings in Winnipeg have also been noted (Did they see Elvis there too?). According to John Whittaker, he met a man named Charles McGee, McGee had an "arrowhead making jig", McGee told John that before W.W.II McGee had been friends with another lever jig knapper, it turned out to be Bryan Rhinehardt. The Jig is quite elaborate and has a hinged lever and movable holding pins. It is obvious a lot of thinking went into these machines. Robert Blue of Studio City, California was inspired by a collection of Reinhardt's points , Reinhardt had been long dead but Blue did find fellow Gray Ghost collector, Charlie Shewey in Missouri. Robert offered to buy all of Shewey's Gray Ghosts and Richard Warren points and that money was no object. Charlie refused Blue's offer, but directed Robert to Richard Warren. After Robert bought a fair number of points, Warren shared some of his secrets with Robert Blue and introduced him to Jim Hopper, whom Warren had taught. Jim Hopper and Robert Blue became good friends and Robert became very good at art knapping. Barney DeSimone, couched Robert through his early years of knapping. Later Robert inspired Barney to return somewhat to lapidary knapping. It was Robert Blue that taught Ray Harwood to knap in the lever style of Reinhardt, Ray produced dozens of "Raynish Daggers" with the lever flaker. The Raynish Daggers were simply slab points in the form of 10 inch Danish Daggers ("2-D daggers" -not 3 dimensional). These were what Callahan called the ugliest Danish Daggers he had ever seen. After Robert's death and some prompting from DeSimone and Callahan, Harwood returned to traditional flintknapping. One interesting bit of knapping lore I overheard at a knap in goes like this:" Steve Behenes had invented this steel fluting jig that could flute supper this preforms. Steve was close to Robert Blue at the time and he sent Robert a thin Folsom and the detatched flutes, Robery returned the detached flute -and he had fluted them ! Knapper, Billy Joe Sheldon a slab knapper from Folsom, New Mexico has produced a video on the lapidary method of flintknapping and he is really good. Many California knappers that I know have adapted his methods. Sheldon's methods intail using the Ishi stick as a lever on one's leg and slab knapping on a bench. Back in the 1970s Reinhardt, Warren and Nelson shared ideas and Bryan's work showed some change, some fancy pieces and a bit more of a traditional looking work product. But even then when a man commented to Bryan that his work did not look like "Indian points" , Bryan Replied; " I'm note trying to make Indian points, I make Reinhardt points!" It was true, Bryan, in inventing and producing the Edward's Plateau Gray Ghosts had not only invented a new point type and a new craft style, he would change the face of flintknapping forever. Bryan Reinhardt passed away in 1982 from either emphysema or cancer, but the legendary flintworker of Gustine and his Gray Ghosts will live on forever. The International Flintknappers ‘ Hall of Fame and Museum is encouraging individuals of all ages to “Be A Superior Example,” through a new education program as part of a new curriculum to promote healthy habits, while encouraging everyone to live free of drugs and other such substances or vices. It serves as the central point for the study of the history of flintknapping in the United States and beyond, displays flintknapping-related artifacts and exhibits, and honors those who have excelled in the craft, research/ writing, promoting events, and serving the knapping community in an ethical and wilderness loving manner.

D.C. WALDORF, HALL OF FAME FLINTKNAPPER # 6

When I was a kid I was very interested in arrowheads. I used to find them once in a while when hunting with my dad and brother. Like many folks dabling in flintknapping I eventually came upon Waldorf's book, "Art of Flintknapping". The books has sold many thousands of copies and is considered a classic. I never had enough flint around to learn his method, but I used to read it and gaze at the photos often. Waldorf also wrote in the original "Flintknappers Exchange" - the classic knapping publication that brought knappers together from academic and folk communities. I met D.C. Waldorf in 1984, through my old newsletter, "Flintknapping Digest"

At eight years old old D.C. became interested in Indian traditional technologies. At about fourteen years of age he discovered the a nail could pry flakes from the edge of broken glass and flint spalls. Later he found that ciopper and deer tines worked better for the pressure knapping method. D.C started percussion knapping about 1968 after reading Howell's book "Early Man". H was, at the time one of only a hand full of knappers on the planet. He joined the Archaeological Society of Ohio. His point become so well made that he was banned from selling or displaying them at the meeting.

Waldorf uses antler and stone for percussion and copper and antler for pressure. D.C. and his wife Val took over the "Flintknapping Digest",at my request, and turned it into "CHIPS" - this was a huge success. He also wrote many other books, including
novels out of his rural Missouri cabin. D.C. and Val made a good living with "Mound Builder Books". Later D.C. Waldorf became one of the pioneers of the new Danish Dagger movement. He worked with other dagger knappers on occasion such as Callahan and Stafford.

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The International Flintknappers ‘ Hall of Fame and Museum is encouraging individuals of all ages to “Be A Superior Example,” through a new education program as part of a new curriculum to promote healthy habits, while encouraging everyone to live free of drugs and other such substances or vices. It serves as the central point for the study of the history of flintknapping in the United States and beyond, displays flintknapping-related artifacts and exhibits, and honors those who have excelled in the craft, research/ writing, promoting events, and serving the knapping community in an ethical and wilderness loving manner.

I was born in Norwalk, Ohio on April 29, 1951.  My father told me that I came into this world at dawn after the passage of a violent thunderstorm.  He and his best friend Leo were sitting on the front steps of the old Memorial Hospital, watching a glorious sunrise through the receding clouds when they got the word.  I sometimes wonder how this event would have been interpreted had it happened in a hut beside the Huron River 10 or more centuries earlier!           Even as a young kid, I felt that I was somehow different, I believe that those around me referred to it as "odd." My love for history and things-old manifested itself very early and indeed, my Great Grandfather Floyd Hill was a collector of all sorts of relics, old swords and guns mostly, with a few arrowheads thrown in.  Perhaps I inherited his "bad gene".  I still have a worn out drill made of shiny black Coshocton chert that my grandmother gave me when I was about 8 years old.  She told me it was all that was left of his great collection.           I never did very well in grade school, too much daydreaming about cavalry and Indians, racing chariots in the Circus Maximus, sailing with the Vikings, or the occasional caveman versus mammoth scenario.  By the time I managed to make it to Jr.  High, I was totally "wacked out".  The summer of 1965 saw me experimenting with a nail trying to pressure chip beer bottle bottoms into some kind of point I could haft on a dowel rod and shoot with a bow I made from strips of split bamboo.  To say the least, my parents were none too happy about the way things were going, and just short of severe lashings and solitary confinement, did everything they could to discourage me.  Don't forget, this was the mid-1960s and if a father had a good business going, his son was expected to follow in his footsteps.  After all these years, those who have come to know me couldn't possibly imagine me as a maker of rubber stamps working in a dingy little factory in New London, Ohio.  My stubbornness saved me from that fate, along with some help from the "wrong crowd" of fine people I hung out with, rockhounds, Indian relic collectors and old gun cranks.            In high school I reached the "height of academic achievement" when I took my science fair project "Early Man and his Tools and Weapons" all the way to the state level with perfect scores.  I bribed the judges with arrowheads I made during my presentation.  Obviously my flint working skills were improving! The only "higher" education I received came from two years as a part time student at the Firelands Campus of Bowling Green State University.  There I took a few courses in English composition, Geology, and Anthropology, hoping someday to transfer to a bigger school that offered a degree in Paleo-Anthropology.  By then my interest in archaeology had pretty much won out over all the others due in part to my flintknapping, in which now I had progressed to where I could make a passable replica of just about any point type found in my home state.  However, this dream never came true.  My family had disintegrated in a nasty divorce, and while working for my dad I was moonlighting in the flintknapping business, the profits of which I could not ignore.  And it soon became evident that I could make it on my own, practicing the trade I had taught myself.           In April of 1974, I married Val, my best friend and confidant.  If she, with her patience and talent as a fine artist, had not been with me, those early years would have been very lonely and a lot tougher.  I was 23 and she was 19, when we packed up the old Hornet and headed for the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri.  Here was a place where old time craftsmen were respected for who they were, and mine was the oldest craft of all.  There was plenty of free raw material to boot.  Those hills were loaded with chert, a rock the locals hated.  In some places there was more of it than soil, and they told me I could have it if I took it all and left the dirt for them! Of course, only a small fraction of it was workable and that came in angular blocks of odd shape, the same as the old Flint Ridge material.  So I didn't have much trouble with it, and it was eagerly added to my stockpile, along with the Ohio stuff and the cantaloupe size Indiana Hornstone nodules I used to have delivered to my booth at Friendship, Indiana.  Up until the advent of the first knap-ins, this was the big muzzle loading shoot we used to attend, along with a few of the smaller rendezvous.           As a "base camp" we rented a booth at Wilderness Settlement on Hwy 76, it was then at the edge of the city of Branson.  We worked in the "The Flint Shop" for about a year and a half, and finding out how cheap the tourists were, we supplemented our income with mail order and more trips to shows.  Our first catalog featured a tin type of the wife and I on the front cover.  Finding out that there was already a Flint Shop in Texas, who made gunflints from sawed slabs, in order to avoid confusion we had to change our name.  The Hopewell Mound Builders were my favorite prehistoric people, who did a lot of fine artwork and traded extensively, the same thing we were doing.  So we became Mound Builder Arts and Trading Co.  Shortly after our name change, we came out with our second catalog, and published the first edition of "The Art of Flint Knapping" under the Mound Builder Books label.  Over the years, this book was to go through 4 more revisions and today it is a affectionately referred to as "The Flint Knappers Bible" by those who first learned to chip using it as their only reference.            "The Art of flint Knapping" was followed by "Flint Types of the Continental United States" in 1976, and we moved to our own place 10 miles east of Branson in 1978.  The moving and rebuilding of a 150 year old log house and the construction of other outbuildings occupied a lot of our spare time.  So it wasn't until 1985 that I wrote the first edition of "The Art of Making Primitive Bows and Arrows," and Val finally finished the drawings for "Story in Stone." This volume went to press in 1987, replacing the first flint types book.  Now out of print and a collectors item as well as the early editions of our other books, this one set a new standard for lithic illustration and made Val famous in that field.           Furthering our endeavors in the publishing business, we took over Ray Harwood's newsletter, "Flint Knapping Digest," and in 1989 we renamed it "CHIPS." From humble beginnings it became a full fledged magazine that effectively served the flint knapping community for 23 years until its last issue came out in October, 2011. Due to competition with the internet, the economy, and declining subscriptions it was no longer profitable to keep it in print. However, all the magazines are still available on three CDs in The Complete CHIPS Archives, and the "The Best of CHIPS" series has been revised and reissued,  keeping in print the most useful and entertaining articles. Look for them in the products page of this site.            With the advent of inexpensive home video cameras and recorders, we also entered that field in 1989, making a couple of knap-in tapes, which we had to copy one at a time.  This got old when we had to make multiple copies of our first instructional tape, "Caught Knapping." Not to be confused with Craig Ratzat's later production, this one was made in 1992 on old VHS equipment.  When we went to a local "dubber" to have multiple copies made, we ran into technical problems with time codes and quality control.  So we had to get a new Super VHS camera and accompanying editing decks, a considerable investment at the time.  With this new equipment, we produced "The Art of Flint Knapping Video Companion" in 1993.  This was designed to accompany the book, and has become something of a "cult film." Recently, it has been digitally re-edited and re-mastered on our new computer equipment and is now available on DVD.  We have a complete suite of production facilities that allows us to make multiple copies all in house so we have total control over the process.           Also, with similar advances made in Desk-top publishing, all of our writing, editing, typesetting, graphics, layout and even some of the printing is done by ourselves.  So the costs are kept down and the savings can be passed on to our customers, who have found our publications to be well done and reasonably priced.           Since losing Val to a brain tumor in April 28, 2005, and retiring from "CHIPS" magazine in 2011 I am busier than ever running the business trying to maintain the quality of service you all have come to expect. However, I still manage to find time to do some chipping, and I am doing more of it! To view the pieces I have currently available click on Flint Jacks Gallery.  By the way, the original Flint Jack, AKA Edward Simpson, was a well known English flint Knapper in the 1850s, who learned how to reproduce early stone tools for a then thriving relic market.  However, unlike my predecessor, since 1983, my work has been signed with my initials, two digit year date and a serial number for that year.  The daggers and axes I make are numbered consecutively from 1983 and bear D or A prefixes.

DC Waldorf about 8 years old. The boy never grew up! Here he is as alias "Flint Jack" SASS badge no. 36147. Drill point  given to DC Waldorf by his grandmother. It was originally in the Floyd Hill Collection.                   The first "perfect" point found by   D.C. Waldorf  in 1966. Still on the original shaft, one of the first points made by DC Waldorf from the bottom of a Pond's Cold Cream jar, circa 1965.   The old Flint Shop at Wilderness Settlement, circa 1974.   Tin type of newlyweds, DC and Val.  Circa 1974. Our second catalog, circa 1975.   First edition of The Art of Flint Knapping, 1975.

J.B. SOLLBERGER, HALL OF FAME FLINTKNAPPER # 4

By Ray Harwood



THE TEXAS MASTER; In the states of Texas was a long lean bloke, it
wasn't Johnny Smoke, it was paleo flintknapping pioneer, J.B. ( Photo By Thompson)
Sollberger. I was aquatinted with Mr. Sollberger and know that he was
a true master flintknapper and influence to hundreds.
Though they were contemporary, Carabtree and Texan, J.B. Sollberger
spurred on two separate schools of thought. Crabtree the obsidian
school and Sollberger the Texas flint school. Though both are
flintknapping, the methodology is very different.
In the realm of thought and mental visualization, deep in the mind is
the perfect visualization or pure idea, the mental template. For most
craftsmen by the time this idea becomes a piece of work it has lost a
bit of perfection. On rare occasion it is manifested in a piece of
art work, this was the case with the magnificent flintwork of J.B.
Sollberger, of Dallas, Texas.
Sollberger was a true flintknapping pioneer and a legend in his time.
Not only was Sollberger a master knapper, he was truly a gentleman
and humble as well. He was very analytical with his theoretical
papers and articles being the best in the field. His literary works
were of the highest quality where he published in many journals
including American Antiquity, Lithic Technology, Flintknappers'
Exchange, Flintknapping Digest, and The Emic Perspective.
J.B. Sollberger started flintknapping when he was middle aged, some
time around 1970. He always had a curiosity about knapping but didn't
get the "lithic erg" until he observed a scrapper making
demonstration at the 1970 Dallas Archaeological Society meetings.
Ironically Don Crabtree came to Dallas to the meetings but J.B.
Sollberger had to work so he missed the opportunity to meet Crabtree.
The next week he tried to make up for it buy going on his first flint
hunt and ordering Crabtrees book. Upon reading this, Sollberger got a
basic tool kit together and began experimenting.
Sollberger recalled seeing a forked stick in a museum in Texas as a
boy and began experimenting with his famous "fork and lever" knapping
style. Sollberger was very successful in his experiments and was soon
making fine arrow heads with his rig.
According to Sollberger (1978) " back in 1933 I suppose, we were just
boy artifact collectors. We made this trip to San Antone to see the
Witte Museum and inside they had a forked stick a little over a foot
long with something like 3/4 of an inch gap between the two forks. It
struck me that pressure flaking could be done with leverage by laying
the biface material across this forked stick and using the fork as a
fulcrum for a lever".
In 1990, John Wellman spoke to Solly and said that Solly was really
interested in the East Wenatchee Site in Washington and he had made
several large fluted points including an eight inch Cumberland he had
spend eight hours preparing and fluted off the tip. This was really
advanced work for the year and to me Sollberger's work remains
unsurpassed.
Bob Vernon, an old time Texas knapper once conveyed this story about
Sollberger to me: " If any of you ever had the privilege of sitting
alongside Solly at a small knapping session, you'll remember his dry,
but gentle, humor. Like the times when he would say, " That platform
looks a like a strong `un- guess I better drag out ol' "he-poppa-ho"
(his mega-moose billet)."
Almost all Sollberger's work was in flint or chert, I have only seen
one item made by Sollberger of obsidian. The obsidian point is in the
collection of Steve Carter, a master flintknapper from Ramona,
California. The obsidian point was very nice and very delicate, this
shows the diversity in craftsmanship Sollberger had. The last time I
spoke to J.B. Sollberger he was crafting a set of masterful flint
Folsom points out of Texas flint. He had made quite a few thousand
points in his time and was using 1,000 pounds of flint a year. Even
when Sollberger was quite old he continued being very active in
knapping and writing. In a letter from Sollberger to Steve Behrnes
Sollberger described this incredible expedience, " My house, on
Monday nights, is known as the Sollberger Clovis Factory. Joe Miller
and Woody Blackwell made Tee Shirts to that name which we often wear.
Dr. Ericson, David Hartig,Gene Stapleton, Jess Nichols, are regulars
who concentrate on fluting." J.B. Sollberger died on Sunday, May 7 at
Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas from emphysema. He was 80
years old. Many rumors have surfaced in the years after his death,
that Solly died of silicosis, this is simply untrue. According to the
Dallas Morning News, Solly donated his collection to the University
of Texas, where they will be used for study. In my collection I have
several Sollberger points, the one that is my favorite has written on
it "to my friend Ray Harwood from J.B. Sollberger," I use that point
as inspiration for my own knapping.










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THE TEXAS MASTER; In the states of Texas was a long lean bloke, it
wasn't Johnny Smoke, it was paleo flintknapping pioneer, J.B.
Sollberger. I was aquatinted with Mr. Sollberger and know that he was
a true master flintknapper and influence to hundreds.
Though they were contemporary, Carabtree and Texan, J.B. Sollberger
spurred on two separate schools of thought. Crabtree the obsidian
school and Sollberger the Texas flint school. Though both are
flintknapping, the methodology is very different.
In the realm of thought and mental visualization, deep in the mind is
the perfect visualization or pure idea, the mental template. For most
craftsmen by the time this idea becomes a piece of work it has lost a
bit of perfection. On rare occasion it is manifested in a piece of
art work, this was the case with the magnificent flintwork of J.B.
Sollberger, of Dallas, Texas.
Sollberger was a true flintknapping pioneer and a legend in his time.
Not only was Sollberger a master knapper, he was truly a gentleman
and humble as well. He was very analytical with his theoretical
papers and articles being the best in the field. His literary works
were of the highest quality where he published in many journals
including American Antiquity, Lithic Technology, Flintknappers'
Exchange, Flintknapping Digest, and The Emic Perspective.
J.B. Sollberger started flintknapping when he was middle aged, some
time around 1970. He always had a curiosity about knapping but didn't
get the "lithic erg" until he observed a scrapper making
demonstration at the 1970 Dallas Archaeological Society meetings.
Ironically Don Crabtree came to Dallas to the meetings but J.B.
Sollberger had to work so he missed the opportunity to meet Crabtree.
The next week he tried to make up for it buy going on his first flint
hunt and ordering Crabtrees book. Upon reading this, Sollberger got a
basic tool kit together and began experimenting.
Sollberger recalled seeing a forked stick in a museum in Texas as a
boy and began experimenting with his famous "fork and lever" knapping
style. Sollberger was very successful in his experiments and was soon
making fine arrow heads with his rig.
According to Sollberger (1978) " back in 1933 I suppose, we were just
boy artifact collectors. We made this trip to San Antone to see the
Witte Museum and inside they had a forked stick a little over a foot
long with something like 3/4 of an inch gap between the two forks. It
struck me that pressure flaking could be done with leverage by laying
the biface material across this forked stick and using the fork as a
fulcrum for a lever".
In 1990, John Wellman spoke to Solly and said that Solly was really
interested in the East Wenatchee Site in Washington and he had made
several large fluted points including an eight inch Cumberland he had
spend eight hours preparing and fluted off the tip. This was really
advanced work for the year and to me Sollberger's work remains
unsurpassed.
Bob Vernon, an old time Texas knapper once conveyed this story about
Sollberger to me: " If any of you ever had the privilege of sitting
alongside Solly at a small knapping session, you'll remember his dry,
but gentle, humor. Like the times when he would say, " That platform
looks a like a strong `un- guess I better drag out ol' "he-poppa-ho"
(his mega-moose billet)."
Almost all Sollberger's work was in flint or chert, I have only seen
one item made by Sollberger of obsidian. The obsidian point is in the
collection of Steve Carter, a master flintknapper from Ramona,
California. The obsidian point was very nice and very delicate, this
shows the diversity in craftsmanship Sollberger had. The last time I
spoke to J.B. Sollberger he was crafting a set of masterful flint
Folsom points out of Texas flint. He had made quite a few thousand
points in his time and was using 1,000 pounds of flint a year. Even
when Sollberger was quite old he continued being very active in
knapping and writing. In a letter from Sollberger to Steve Behrnes
Sollberger described this incredible expedience, " My house, on
Monday nights, is known as the Sollberger Clovis Factory. Joe Miller
and Woody Blackwell made Tee Shirts to that name which we often wear. The International Flintknappers ‘ Hall of Fame and Museum is encouraging individuals of all ages to “Be A Superior Example,” through a new education program as part of a new curriculum to promote healthy habits, while encouraging everyone to live free of drugs and other such substances or vices. It serves as the central point for the study of the history of flintknapping in the United States and beyond, displays flintknapping-related artifacts and exhibits, and honors those who have excelled in the craft, research/ writing, promoting events, and serving the knapping community in an ethical and wilderness loving manner.