I was just looking at my knife collection and was wondering if I have more stone knives or steel knives.  Doesn't matter.  I'm like most knife collectors - I just like looking at them.  I have observed, though, that more serious knife collectors are adding flintknappped knives to their collections.  That's great!  They realize that no collection is complete without the flint knives that started it all.  Collectors are also realizing that flintknapped knives broaden their collections in another way.  Stone knives represent another whole set of skills and art within the world of knives, not to mention unique history, to boot.

But flint knives are not just for collectors.  Nope.  ...

So what's the deal with flint knapping opal?  I get asked that quite a bit.  Knapping opal is a way of turning rough opal into fine opal jewelry and it's totally different from the methods used in the opal jewelry industry.  Conventional opal necklaces or earrings begin with an opal cutter, cutting and grinding a piece of rough opal into a certain shape.  It may be for earrings, a pendant, etc, .  Most pieces of opal jewelry are referred to as doublets or triplets.  What?  Put simply, the opal is sawed into very thin slices.  Then a thicker layer of clear quartz is glued on top of the opal wafer containing the color or "fire".  Now it's ground into a domed shape,  ...