Pressure Flaking Purist Refuses to Acknowledge Percussion Technique Exists

Master knapper Vernon Micro has spent the past thirty years producing stone tools using exclusively pressure flaking technique and has publicly refused to acknowledge that percussion knapping — the method used by approximately 95 percent of practitioners — is a legitimate form of the craft. 'Percussion is not knapping,' Micro said, applying an antler tine to a piece of obsidian with surgical precision. 'Percussion is hitting a rock with another rock. A child can hit a rock with another rock. Pressure flaking requires finesse, control, and an intimate understanding of conchoidal fracture mechanics. They are not the same thing.' Micro's position has made him both revered and reviled in the knapping community. His pressure-flaked points are considered among the finest in the world, with edges so thin they are translucent. His interpersonal relationships, however, have suffered. 'He won't come to our knap-ins anymore,' said regional knapping group leader Patricia Hammerstone. 'He says the sound of percussion knapping gives him anxiety. He says it sounds like someone vandalizing geology.' Micro's social media presence, where he posts videos of his pressure flaking technique, regularly attracts comments from percussion knappers defending their method. Micro responds to each one with the same message: 'I hear what you're saying. I disagree. Percussion is not knapping.' 'He's alienated every knapper in the tristate area,' said Hammerstone. 'At the last regional meeting, he gave a presentation called The Death of Precision, which was just thirty minutes of him criticizing percussion flakes under a microscope. People walked out.' Micro remains unmoved. 'When the archaeological record judges our era's stone tools,' he said, pressing another perfect flake from the obsidian, 'it will distinguish between those who shaped stone with intention and those who simply bashed it. I know which side of that record I want to be on.'