Virtual Instructor — Your Online Learning Center

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Part of our mission at Practical Primitive is to provide skills teaching that is accessible to everyone. To that end we have been working hard to learn filmmaking & editing techniques that will allow us to bring you quality instruction in a virtual environment. We hope you'll enjoy them, and learn something new along the way!

NOTE: These videos are connected to the YouTube website using "Active Content". If your computer automatically blocks this, it is safe to run the needed scripts and allow the Active Content to play.

Flintknapping — Popsicle Stick Drill #1:
Force & Accuracy

One of the most difficult aspects of flintknaping to teach (and to learn) is just how hard to hit the rock. Eddie struggled for years with how best to get this concept across to new knappers, and it used to be a matter of hitting a whole lot of rock until the student "got the feel" of things. No longer!

Thanks to an "a-ha" moment while trying to teach Julie how to knap a few years ago, the popsicle stick drill was born. Through the use of cheap and readily available popsicle sticks, leaning the proper force needed for flintknapping is now a much less frustrating — and much less expensive! — process.

For several years now we have been using this technique to teach Proper Strike in our Flintknapping workshops and have seen students make amazing improvements to their abilities in a very short time. Whether you use this exercise as a learning tool or as a way to warm up before you start hitting on rock, try it. You WILL see an improvement in both your strike and your accuracy!

Flintknapping — Popsicle Stick Drill #2:
Using the Correct Part of the Billet
& Reducing Overstrike

Striking your rock too far into the piece, or "overstrike", is one of the most common reasons for breakage in flintknapping. Many new knappers don't realize exactly how small a section of billet should actually hit the rock — it's just the very tip!

Building on the accuracy you are developing through Popsicle Stick Drill #1, this second exercise will help you learn to use only the very tip of the billet when striking your piece, and dramatically reduce your instance of breakage due to overstrike.

Students who have attended our 9 Step Knapping workshops and participated in our Secrets in the Stone Intensive Skills Program will be familiar with this drill, and those who have continued to make this exercise a part of the skills practice will tell you what an amazing difference it makes! So grab some popsicle sticks and give it a try!

Bowdrill Fire — Proper Form

When it comes to making friction fire with a Bowdrill set, proper form can make the difference between a long and tiring struggle to "power through" to a coal, or easy and effortless success in a minute or less.

Once you understand the principles of proper form, you will discover just how simple and reliable bowdrill can be, no matter what types of wood make up your kit. It is the use of these techniques, along with carefully carved kits, that allows us to teach bowdrill to almost anyone in less than 30 minutes.

Combine the information provided in this video with our step-by-step photos and instructions on How to Carve a Perfect Notch and you'll go a long way toward improving your speed, efficiency and reliability with bowdrill fire.

Flintknapping: Arrow Points from Bottle Bottoms

While not all of us are fortunate enought to live near good sources of flintknapping rock, there is one thing we can always find plenty of: glass bottles!

Glass is a fantastic and inexpensive material to knap, as it flakes (almost) exactly like obsidian and can be found in almost every dumpster and recylcing can around.

This video takes you step-by-step through the full process of turning a glass bottle bottom into a finished arrow point. The entire reduction process is detailed so you won't miss a thing. Now get out there and raid your recyclables, and give it a try!

Shooting the Longbow
June-09

This past June three students came to our 1 day Shooting the Longbow workshop without any significant previous experience shooting a bow. When they arrived, their major goal was to be able to hit the target consistently by the end of the workshop.
What they got was so much more! After just a single day, check out what they were able to do!

The Timberhitch

There's an old saying, "If you don't know knots, tie lots!" Luckily, for those of you who would like to learn, there are a few basic knots that will cover almost every situation.

Since knots can be difficult to learn via written instructions, we shot this video as a companion piece to our August 2009 Skill of the Month.

The Timber Hitch, also known as a Bowyer's knot, is extremely versatile, and a great knot to secure a line or begin a lashing. We use it tie on on bow drill cords, tie on bow strings, tie up a hammock, and of course it can be used to drag big logs, which is where it got it's name.

(Interested in having free, step-by-step instructions for a new skills project come to your inbox?
Be sure to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter, Practically Speaking.)

Natural Camouflage

During a Stalking & Natural Camouflage workshop we held down in Texas our friend Michel (who happens to be a professional film maker) brough his camera along and shot some very cool footage. This is a brief compilation of some of that footage that he put together for us.

There is at least one person "cammoed up" in every shot but the last one. How many can you spot?

Flintknapping: Improving Your Strike Accuracy

If you want to begin to increase your skill level in Flintknapping, one of the most important things you must do is work on your Strike Accuracy. As Eddie always says in the 9 Step Knapping workshop, the rock will do exactly what it's supposed to do every single time. And if you hit it where you intend to, it will do what you want it to do too!

This video contains a simple exercise that will, with practice, greatly improve the accuracy of your flintknapping strikes. Eddie is using a copper bopper billet, but you can use traditional tools such as antler to the same effect.

Matt Neary — Archery Pimp

July 2008: Our first 2-day Archery Fundamentals workshop. A New Yorker, a Jersey Boy, a Colorado mountain man and an Amazon Chick from Oz gathered to learn the art of shooting a bow.

By noon on the second day folks who had never done more than hold a bow in their lives were shooting pie plates out of the air!

Julie happened to have the little Kodak EasyShare camera on hand and snagged a couple of video snippets of our Brooklyn boy, Matt, as he shot his first (but definitely not last!) aerials.

(Sorry for the poor video quality on this one, but it was all we had at the time, and Ryan dancing in the background was just too great not to put on YouTube!)

Eagle Spring

In April 2008 we traveled to the Catskills to visit our good friend's, the Wrights. While hiking up near the top of their mountain our dog Hugo found a muddy puddle to drink from, and an idea took hold. Eddie & Mark found some digging sticks and proceeded to dig out a hole about the size of a basketball. The water came pouring in, and our mountin-top seep was born.

The following day we returned with some proper tools, enlarged the hole and lined it with some of the flat stones that are everywhere up there. After scooping out all of the water a few times to get rid of the mud and other flotsam, the water ran as clear and as sweet as any you've ever tasted.

Just as we were finishing up a great Eagle flew overhead — the first eagle Julie had ever seen in the wild. We christened the place Eagle Spring, and it has become a rest stop and water haven for all the animals (2-legged & 4-legged) that live there.

(Want to try this yourself? Here are step-by-step photos & instructions on How to Dig A Seep.)

Building a Log Cabin Fire Structure

Often overlooked, the log cabin fire is an excellent structure to build under almost any circumstance. More stable and easier to construct than a teepee fire, the log cabin will provide you with plenty of heat, lots of light, and a great bed of coals.

And it's easy! Just remember that you always want about twice as much of the "small stuff" and tinder as you think you'll need.

(Follow these step-by-step photos & instructions on How to Build a Log Cabin Fire Structure.)

Bow Drill Fire with Night Vision Eyes

Using our night-vision video camera, we filmed Eddie spinning up a bowdrill coal on a very dark, moonless Spring night. So dark that he could not even see when his notch was full, or if a coal was there!
You can hear Julie, Seth & Mark, who are watching on the Night Vision monitor, directing Eddie as to how the coal is coming along.

Watch as the coal comes alive, becoming visible via the Night Vision several seconds before it can be seen with the naked eye. Very Cool!!

(Special thanks to Seth for putting this video together for us.)