Welcome to The Art of Ishi Website by Mike Cook, where you can purchase Flintknapped Stone Knives and Authentic Native American Jewelry. This site is dedicated to preserving the ancient art of flint knapping: making stone knives, spear points, and arrowhead jewelry out of mere rocks.
Flintknapping is one of the world’s oldest skills and arts. It’s a common heritage of all peoples of the world, regardless of where your ancestors came from. Though the creation of stone arrowheads and knives is thought of as a primitive technology, it involves surprisingly sophisticated and complex fracture mechanics. This means that so-called primitive people, such as Native Americans, were quite skilled at reasoning in order to have figured out how to plan and control the myriad fractures required to produce a flint tool of a predetermined shape, for a predetermined purpose. At a certain point, the practice of flintknapping actually rose to the level of an art. In fact, there are many examples of prehistoric, flintknapped artifacts that show absolute mastery of this many-faceted skill.
My name is Mike Cook. I am a modern flintknapper who practices replicating arrowheads, flint knives and artifacts from a broad span of prehistory. I also strive to expand the realm of flintknapping art that was practiced by elite, but unnamed prehistoric individuals from various parts of the world. The diversity of exotic stone that I procure from around the globe are treasures. Flint, agate, obsidian, jasper, petrified wood and opal are some of the lithic materials, and the medium, from which flintknapping art can be produced. The result is an artistic expression of the breathtaking natural beauty, using perhaps the most basic of mediums in human history: stone!
Whether it’s a collectible stone knife, spear point, opal arrowhead ear rings, or wearable art like an agate butterfly necklace, each creation is unique. Each exemplifies the incredible diversity and beauty of the stones from which they are flintknapped. Each recalls the saga of our human history from the most ancient times. In a very real way, The Stone-Age is Back!
