Scarline: Flint Knapping

Scarline turns flint knapping into a game of geometry, force, and irreversible decisions. There is no carving brush and no undo button for a poor strike. You shape each tool by removing one flake at a time, reading the surface that remains and deciding where the next fracture should begin. The stone core is represented by a radial profile of 240 samples. When you strike, the fracture model reads the platform angle from the profile's local curvature. Force, hammer material, and stone quality then determine the flake's length, depth, and termination. Five outcomes can follow: Feather — a clean flake that thins smoothly toward its end. Hinge — a rounded termination that leaves unwanted thickness behind. Step — an abrupt break that creates a difficult platform for later work. Overshot — a flake that travels across the piece and removes the opposite edge. Crush — a failed strike that collapses the platform itself. None of these results is cosmetic. Every detached flake changes the profile of the core, alters the available striking angles, and affects what can still be made from the remaining stone. READ BEFORE YOU STRIKE An angle ring helps you inspect the selected platform. Green marks an angle below 90 degrees. Red warns that the edge is too steep. Strike above 90 degrees and the platform crumbles instead of carrying a useful fracture. A stronger blow may drive a longer flake, but it can also travel too far. A softer hammer provides greater control during delicate stages, while a harder hammer removes more material when the core is still heavy. Success comes from matching the strike to the stone in front of you. 25 FORMS ACROSS THOUSANDS OF YEARS Work through 25 archaeological tool forms, beginning with the Oldowan chopper and progressing toward increasingly controlled pieces such as bifaces, projectile points, the Clovis point, and the Danish flint dagger. Each form asks for a different balance of outline, thickness, symmetry, and usable edge. Removing more stone is not always better. The challenge is knowing what must remain. YOUR MATERIALS Experiment with eight types of knappable stone and four different hammers. Material quality changes how reliably a fracture travels, while the selected hammer affects the character of the flake it produces. A strategy that works on one core may ruin another. KEEP THE SCARS The best example of every completed tool is mounted on its own collection card. The displayed piece is not replaced by a generic illustration. It is redrawn from the actual profile you created, including the negative scars left by your individual flakes. The finished object records the entire sequence of decisions that shaped it. Find the platform. Read the angle. Choose the force. Let the stone break.