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Making stone tools sounds like an unusual pursuit, even for an archaeologist. How did you get into it?

As a kid growing up in Michigan I was fascinated by Indians and Indian artefacts, including all those beautiful arrowheads. I tried to make some but I didn鈥檛 have much luck. Then one summer we went west for vacation and I bought a big chunk of obsidian, volcanic glass, in a rock shop and just pounded the heck out of it with a geological hammer. Within a year I began to have some success.

What can flint-knapping teach you about the past?

It鈥檚 one of the few ways you can get into the same thought pattern as someone who lived long ago. Working on a piece of stone can provide a deep understanding. That is what grabs me about it. There鈥檚 a rhythm to it. Once you鈥檝e done the work with your hands and mind, you can spot things others might not. You get insights you wouldn鈥檛 get from just thinking about it. You can appreciate what people were doing and how sometimes they could have done it more efficiently but didn鈥檛, probably for cultural reasons.

At other times you can marvel at what they did with what they had. You get an appreciation of what the stone can do because you can imagine doing it yourself. Some of us have used this insight to design and undertake experiments to demonstrate just how complex flaking stone was, and how particular patterns are distinctive to specific places at particular times. I have also learned about things like spear-throwing and the penetrative qualities of spear points.

What do you love about it?

It鈥檚 almost a compulsion. It鈥檚 like I was born to knap. Just as some people have to sketch, or cannot really have a good day unless they鈥檝e watched a few birds, I have to knap flints. It used to be really hard for me even to cross a stony pathway without picking up some of the stones and trying them out. I seem to have an innate skill for it. I鈥檓 now good enough that I can make almost any stone tool I want. Humans have made stone tools for at least the last 2 million years: it was key to survival for so long that it鈥檚 not surprising there are some people with the ability to do it.

What are the basic skills you need?

Good hand-eye coordination, a good sense of geometry, patience and an ability to get the feel of the stone. An appreciation of angles and pressure points is crucial. You have to be able to see inside the stone and predict how the stone will behave when you do something to it.

Have you had any 鈥渁ha鈥� moments while knapping?

Yes, several, but not when I鈥檓 trying for them. One occurred while I was doing my PhD at the University of Cambridge. I was trying to reproduce Neanderthal technology. I was doing OK, but I knew I didn鈥檛 really understand it. Then one day, I hit the rock in a particular place and it went 鈥渂ang!鈥� and that was it, I knew how they did it. Neanderthals did it this way for 200,000 years, and it took one little movement to be slightly different and I had it. It was a wonderful moment. An odd 鈥渁ha鈥� moment was the discovery that I cannot knap with Irish music on. I love Irish music but the rhythm鈥檚 all wrong for knapping.

How have flint-knapping techniques evolved?

The idea that innovation is desirable lies at the core of our modern society, but that hasn鈥檛 always been the case. There are Mayan sites in Belize where they made pretty mediocre stone axes for 500 years. Given their skill with stone in other ways, they could probably have made better ones. But they kept on doing it that way because that was how it was done. It was cottage industry, not craft. Now that technology and commerce are paramount, the rules are different, but for the ancient past you could say that technology was not about perfection, it was about adequacy.

I鈥檝e heard that for some purposes stone tools are still the best. Is that true?

Yes. We have this huge cultural bias that tells us metal is always superior to stone. Yet you can make a stone blade from obsidian or chert or any stone that breaks with a glassy fracture and it has a weight and shape and edge that is hard to duplicate with metal. I鈥檝e been out elk-hunting with Native American friends where they have the latest carbon-steel knife for butchering and skinning, but when they see what my stone knife can do, they like them better and want one. They don鈥檛 know how to make them, so they get them from me.

How popular is flint-knapping today?

There has been a huge surge of interest in recent years, and in the US there are thousands of people who knap. Some are using bottle glass and things like that, but that is still knapping. If you consider the size of populations in ancient times, this means there are probably more active knappers now than when stone tools were in daily use.

Would you have liked to have been around when this was an important thing to be able to do?

In terms of how it helps us understand the past, I think knapping is important today. It used to be vital, a key part of what made us human. People sometimes ask me this because they think I would have enjoyed the status of being a good flint-knapper in ancient times, but it鈥檚 just as likely that in many ancient societies knappers were not accorded any special status. They just fulfilled their role within society.

Has flint-knapping ever got you into trouble?

A couple of years ago I was waiting for the shuttle bus between Heathrow and Gatwick, and it was taking forever. So I went off behind the bus shed and found this piece of garden with a whole load of lovely stones and I started to knap. A police officer came up and asked me what I was doing. She took my passport number and checked me out. She was satisfied but a bit bemused. After all, they鈥檙e not set up to detect a stone knife.