Interview with Jake Webster

I first noticed Jake Webster's gallery on Flintknappers.com in August 2011. His unique designs and different style points immediately caught my eyes. As I have wrote before, I believe that thinking outside of the box and making your own new designs is the nature and a sign of a true artist. This is one of the basic tenants of our philosophy at Modern Flintknapping, thus our motto "Keep Pushing the Boundaries of Flintknapping".

In reading his bio on his gallery I seen he credited fellow knapper Ed Mosher as being a big help to him in his knapping development. I am friends with Ed and knew he would be attending the Flint Ridge knapin the following month, so I hoped I could meet Jake there. I meet Ed shortly after arriving at the knapin and he said Jake was coming but I left Ed's booth before Jake arrived. But before I left, someone mentioned in a discussion among several people that Jake was a flintknapping prodigy.

The next day while at my booth two guys came up that I did not know and started looking at our table display. I heard one(who turned out to be Aaron Lincoln) refer to the other as "Jake". I asked, are you Jake Webster? He replied yes. I told him I had been admiring his work on his gallery. I also told him that I had heard someone say he was a flintknapping prodigy. Jake seems like a modest person and I think this embarrassed him a little. 

Please visit Jake's gallery on www.flintknappers.com and check  out his unique work. 

Below is my interview with Jake.

I see on your gallery bio that you started knapping when you was 12 yrs. old and you have been knapping for 11 yrs now, do I have this right?      So you are 23 yrs old now?

Yes I am currently 23 and been chipping off and on since I was 12. Field flakes with an antler tine at the start, till walking around the Johnny Appleseed festival I saw a knapper. I was appalled by all the precious flint material he had that in my eyes at the time looked more valuable then gold! I watched and watched until my parents grew tired of the monotonous routine, they had to practically drag me away. Before I left this very generous knapper (Who I don't know and remains anonymous in my memory) grabbed a bag and started piling in the flakes at his feet for me! I remember hearing each "tink" as the flakes collided and thought it was a heavenly sound. The main thing that I took away from watching him was he was "beating" the stone with a large antler! I had to improvise. So one day while shooting my bow in the woods where I live. I found an old butter knife and had an "Ah ha!" moment I instantly ran back to the house grabbed my bowl of material and began striking away. Little did I know this was my first time doing percussion work. So like any kid who gets into mischief as did I because as soon as the back end of my improvised "butter knife bopper" would warp or get to chewed up to continue on, I'd go retrieve another. FROM OUR SILVERWARE DRAWER!! haha.. Mom wasn't very pleased about that one .So I waited until I was able to get my first antler billet from an auctioned off knapping kit. I was very excited.

My first drive in making these points was shear fascination and wanting to know how the heck these ancient guys where able to send a flake scar any where and every where on there points. This was all around the same time that I was getting into traditional archery and was always curious if one of these stone points would actually "do the trick", of course since man had been using them for thousands of years there was no doubt in my mind that they were stone hard killers. I then started toying with the idea of wanting to try to haft up a point and actually try. but had no knowledge of where to begin really.. Around age 15 I was able to produce thick, wavy, unstraight points that I was very proud of yet couldn't seem how to thin out my works.. It took me one more whole year just to learn how to do the "thinning" process and it just happened. Flintknapping was on my mind 24/7 I had the "bug" and so it wasn't uncommon for me to wake up in the morning and while laying in bed think of new tactics and avenues of approach in this challenging time. Most ideas ended in frustration and never panned out, but the few that did lead me further down the rabbit hole in getting a little better.

And you started out making points to deer hunt with, is this correct?

So at age 16 I decided it was time to try to kill my first deer with my 50# Slim Line Red Wing Recurve bow. I made the tough decision to pick out my very best point at the time (which was still VERY primitive) and haft it up. I told myself if i'm going to attempt this the deer is owed my very best point it was the most "ethical" thing to do anyhow when I could have been using a perfect modern steel point. So I used a ban saw to cut up three of the arrows that I put together and cut a slit and hafted them with epoxy and artificial sinew and a few days later there I was opening day of archery season with an Indiana Hornstone flint point arrow knocked.When a 6 point buck came trotting in and stopped 20yds broadside to me, I raised my recurve aimed at his arm pit and let her fly. My arrow landed in its designated parking spot that I assigned for it and that deer bucked fell over and took off running. I COULDN'T believe my eyes! I instantly wanted to go see what happened but waited a grueling 30 minutes. Dad and I looked for blood and found none. I instantly felt sick that my point didn't do the trick.. upon following where I'd seen my deer run towards I found my arrow! about 8 inches of blood on the shaft and the point plus some shaft was missing. I took a few more steps and saw my deer dead in front of me 20 yds up! WOW I was excited! I never did retrieve the point however.

You state in your bio that 6 months ago you meet Ed Mosher and Aaron Lincoln and they have helped you improve your flintknapping skills greatly. How did you meet them?   In what ways have they helped you?

I met Ed about a year ago at the Johnny Appleseed festival and the battle of 1812 festival. I was 22 at this point and had been entirely self taught only seeing one live knapper when I was a kid. I knew there was still much to learn and just knapping with someone else would greatly help. I watched Ed for awhile and then got a business card from him. I contacted him maybe once every two weeks so I didn't feel like a bother to him and finally asked if I could just come knap with him and get lessons. So Ed was the first other knapper I ever knapped with and I was hooked! He answered so many questions to various things I wanted to do whether by just watching or asking. Upon my departure he gave me a coffee can and bag full of flakes and material. Truly generous. He gave me a contact for Aaron Lincoln who lives in Fort Wayne close to me and since I met him we have been knapping 2 days a week together on average sometimes more or less. Aaron helped me out with learning how to keep my notches from rounding out on me and boosted my confidence in every way! He constanty challenged me to do things I thought way above my skills. But I could never refuse a good challenge and would always strive to meet his request if not that day then I would continue until I achieved what I wanted to achieve. He gave me the skill set to never give up or stop trying.

You have many uniquely designed pieces that I would like to ask you about. Basically my questions for all of them is what is your inspiration for your point designs, do you go through a process to develop these designs or do they just come to you?

First, are the "ghost" points, these were the first to catch my eye on your gallery. You have several variations of them, snyders, corner, heart, and an eccentric. Where did you get the idea for these?

Typically my thought process in designing my points is what would turn heads. I want to get attention and known among my fellow knappers and I'm not going to get that making the same thing every one else makes. So I came up with the "Ghost" point and label each with my name so that I have something out there that is somewhat original to me. Like a signature point in the knapping community. I learned how to do this point style while knapping with Aaron over the winter and fell in love with notching points mainly because I just learned and was still learning how to get them deep. Aaron challenged me to make a fish hook like one he made and I raced to start. I broke so many of those little things and frustration had sunk in.. UNTIL I learned what I was doing wrong. Little did I know that just the slightest torque or bending force you put on a point will snap it every time and thats what I was doing to these hooks! So I grabbed a paint stirring stick cut it to match my leather pad and was able to start cranking out fish hooks! This hollowing out process became very fun to me when the idea hit me. Could this work on a point? with notches?? I don't know how many casualties of nice points I lost through this learning and developing process but it was worth it.

The "Ghost" point style ideas just came through wanting to challenge myself because every time I do I learn immensely.

You also have some small eccentric points, the "watchyamacullit" and the flint ridge point. Is eccentrics some of your favorites?

I love doing eccentrics because they allow me to be creative in any way I want. Nobody can tell me that its wrong like they might if I were going for a replica. Its my own design and they are all almost totally original. That's why I would encourage EVERY flintknapper to try some eccentric work. You will learn a lot the more you do. It helps you understand the stone better because your being challenge more and have less room for error. That means you must be more precise and actually have meaning to why and how you take each flake. Every flintknapper is different and there work is different, no two knappers knap alike, thats why sometimes you can just see a point and say thats a "Mosher" or thats a "Lincoln" etc.. detail is key! Go the extra mile to make it look how you want it. take chance hits your work will show the extra love and pride put in and you might just surprise yourself with what you can do!

You do some animal effigy pieces such as an eagle and buffalo. I really like that you do some designs that aren't in a point design. Have you done other types of animals and any ideas for future ones?

I have done several animals sharks, buffalos, eagles, wolves, bears, indian heads, turtles and even a perched bird. They are time consuming but fun because of the amount of detail required. 

Other point designs that I like are the deep notched point, rocket point, crusaders shield and the neat pendant. Any comments on these points?

The "rocket" point is my newest favorite. I love the intricate sleek design and thoroughly have fun doing the fine work involved. I love deep notching as well because it keeps challenging me and my skills brushed up!

You also take some old artifact designs and add your artistic flair to them, such as the sallisaw, lake eerie, columbia and texas duran. Do you like to "amp up" old artifact designs?

Yes I love to "Amp" them up! I feel it adds a little modern in with the old and think it just adds that extra touch to my work. I know that my work doesn't and wont please every one, but as long as each piece appeals to me then im still having fun with my knapping. I find it very fun to push the boundaries of traditional points as well as modern styles. its good to do a little of everything. 

As a side note, I find it very interesting that Jake and my father have similar stories as far as how they taught themselves to knap at a young age and went years without any contact with any other knappers. I believe this helps a person to always think outside of the box in their future flintknapping endeavors, because they had to think this way while trying to learn on their own. 

I want to thank Jake for doing this interview with us here at Modern Flintknapping.