Source of copper for flint knapping hammer

[tombear]

It occurred to me ar the car boot on Sunday, long after I'd finally found a piece from another source after a lot of faffing, that the heads of the big old school soldering irons that nobody wants anymore are big lumps of copper riveted to long steel handles. I didn't pick any up myself as I have a few unused army surplus jobs already if I need to make another hammer but thought I'd mention it in case any one else was looking for suitable copper to reshape and mount on a handle for whacking flint.

ATB

Tom


My apologies if this has been mentioned before

[Hugo]

I changed a fan from my computer, and when I took the old one apart there was a hefty piece of copper that would be just right for that job.

[ateallthepies]

Are we talking about copper boppers? I have been using some 22mm coper pipe with stop ends and filled with lead.

What shape hammer do you use?

Steve

[BareThrills]

how do you seal the stop ends onto the pipe steve and does it stand up to abuse. ive just got some 22mm ends but need to get pipe and am curious as to reliability?

[ateallthepies]

The stop ends are just soldered on as normal and they come pretty rounded off to start with so make an ideal bopper. The tube is filled with scrap lead like fired pellets etc rammed in. Molten lead would have been better. As to durability I'm not sure but I don't think it could ever break but would imagine the ends would wear through eventually as you only have a couple of mm of copper?

Steve.

[BareThrills]

Nice one. ill grab some pipe and have a bash

[ateallthepies]

Made another copper bopper today as a mate got me some lead so I melted some down and filled some 22mm copper tube...











After work hardening one end by tapping it on the hard floor a bit it works very well and has some nice heft to it and took a nice flake off a flint nodule. The tube is 20cm long.

Steve.

[BareThrills]

that looks a beast .

[calgarychef]

I've been using a lot of different boppers lately and here's what I've found/learned.

I take the copper pipe caps and hammer the ends over a piece of steel rod until they are sufficiently rounded, lots of info on the net regarding that so I won't belabour the method. Then I clean the inside of the cap with emery cloth and also clean the end of the copper pipe until both are nice and shiny. Then use some soldering paste on each piece. I melt the lead in an old (used be new!) soup ladle over a small butane torch then add some soldering paste and stir it around with a stick until all the impurities have floated to the top and skim them off with the stick. Then pour the lead into the pipe, you'll notice it draining out from the joint a bit and that's a good thing as it's "tinning" the joint which means it's actually being pulled into the joint between the cap and the pipe. These last really well because the lead filling the end "consolidates" both pieces of copper.

A word of caution. Melt lead in a well ventelated area, wear safety goggles-a face shield is even better. When you pour tihe lead into the pipe tilt the pipe away from yourself. If there's even a tiny bit of water inside the molten lead will spatter out the end and into your face. I've never seen it but the possibility is there. I repeat don't tilt the pipe towards your face. Wear gloves and use pliers or vicegrips etc. to hold the pipe.

I've made some boppers where the whole pipe is filled with lead but i find that they are too heavy and "brutal" and really crush the flint platforms-that aint good! A couple I made are only filled 1 1/2"-2" with lead and have about 3" of bare pipe. These I whittled a wooden handle to slip into the pipe and glued it in. The wooden handled ones have great balance and I can get a lot faster swing to them. I think most knappers realize that a fast swing is what's required for good long thinning flakes.

[BareThrills]

Ive just finished mine. Managed to borrow a Dapping kit so got my ends to dome quite nicely. the grip is just a badminton racket wrap

[mountainm]

Where'd you put the batteries?

[BareThrills]

Very funny Mike. It does look a bit wrong though lol

[ateallthepies]

That is nicely domed! Are these boppers better the more rounded they are?

I shortened mine after I took the pictures and wrapped a hand-grip in twine as it was far too hefty! Also in the mail arrived a 200x25mm copper round bar that I forgot I ordered, not sure what to do with it now I made a bopper out of pipe? Suppose it could be cut down and hafted into handles?

Steve.

[BareThrills]

Hi Steve. Im not honestly sure what the dome is supposed to do but i understand it allows more of the bopper to stay in contact with the nodule and produces a brushing stroke that give a better deeper flake. I only did it as i had access to the tools. I also only filled the bottom inch with lead so it gives a weight forward feel rather than solid all the way. If you could get the end of your rod milled into a dome you would have a solid copper billet but i guess what you already have should work just as well.

[ateallthepies]

I would love a metal lathe but could not justify the cost especially with the hole size (arbour)? I would like. I can always file the end round and will probably make something up if this rain continues?

Steve.

[BareThrills]

Yea its lashing down here too. Im currently banned from the shed on account of spending most of last week in there lol