The event is being hosted by the Bald Eagle Chapter of the Susquehanna Valley Flint Knappers’ Association. The free knap-in is open to the public and includes demonstrations, hands-on activities and vendor booths.

Knapping, the art of shaping different materials into arrowheads or other tools Native Americans might have used, draws a large variety of people from throughout the area and the country, said association President Tim Jackson.

“We gather and share rocks and stories,” said Ken Burton of Huntingdon, who got interested in knapping after collecting arrowheads when he was a kid.

Arrowheads were often left behind when Native Americans moved through the area. Today, good places to find these artifacts include around creeks and rivers, Burton said. Plowed fields also turn up the pieces.

Ken Burton of Huntingdon shows a point knapped from a piece of bottle glass during the Bald Eagle Knap-in at Camp Anderson north of Tyrone on Friday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Burton said that while people call all the chiseled pieces of rocks arrowheads, “they are actually a lot of tools.”

Looking at the tents set up around Camp Anderson, Burton said most of the people taking part in the event grew up looking for arrowheads and then created groups interested in how Native Americans made the pieces.

Glass was Burton’s material of choice on Friday, where he used tools to chip away at the material until he achieved the proper shape.

While knapping is an art form, it also gives him the opportunity to meet other like-minded people, he said.

Through the years, he’s met a variety of people who enjoy knapping — from hobbyists to reenactors who are into the early period of trappers.

Mitch Yorks of Richfield, Snyder County, chooses stones of different types and from different locations from a vendor to be used on his future projects during the Bald Eagle Knap-in at Camp Anderson north of Tyrone on Friday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

“People still hunt and trap, so it gives people an interest in how it began,” Burton said.

Jackson said he got interested after hunting arrowheads as a kid.

“I always wondered how they made them,” he said. “Now I can make an arrowhead in about 20 minutes.”

Jackson’s tent features a display of the arrowheads and knives he’s made over the years.

Gary Beers’ display contained several cases of real arrowheads that were found around central Pennsylvania.

The Bald Eagle Knap-In features displays of tools and demonstrations of the methods used to make them. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

“Most of them were found in cornfields,” he said.

“Trader Joe,” aka Joe Graham, had a canvas tent with animal skins hanging around it.

Graham said he started out tanning fur and had an apprenticeship under a blacksmith for 11 years.

He learned flint knapping from people who were at the get-togethers throughout the summer.

“People like me get together here to sit around and teach each other,” Graham said.

Hand-made knives are displayed at the Bald Eagle Knap-in at Camp Anderson near Tyrone on Friday. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Graham’s work is similar to what Native Americans would do — he does a lot of trading of tools and materials.

“That’s how I got my name — I didn’t have a lot of money so I traded for things I needed,” Graham said.

Along with arrowheads, he also makes knives and said he can spend hours making the blades.

He favors obsidian, volcanic glass, flint, agate and coral, as well as uranium glass that glows under a black light.

Later this summer, he will be going to a knap-in event in Florida, he said, noting the events are like family reunions.

“If you’re willing to learn, they will teach you,” he said.

Mike Dull came from North Canton, Ohio, for the meetup and said he got into the hobby much like the others.

“We would go out in the fields to look at the old points,” he said.

Then he started going to events where people made arrowheads and became friends with the hobbyists.

“I like going because of the people,” Dull said.

Coming to Tyrone from Otego, New York, Scott Van Arsdale said it has been 15 years since he attended the Susquehanna Valley association’s event.

Van Arsdale doesn’t have a strong artifact background, instead, he read a book about knapping and found it interesting. That was in 1993, and he’s been working on perfecting his skills ever since.

“It was a bit of a challenge to learn, but it fit into my life really well,” he said.

He approaches the creative process in a modern way — his knives are an artistic representation of the tools, he said.

“They are not very practical for use, I just make them attractive to the eye,” Van Arsdale said.

Jim Fisher of Grand Island, New York, manned an atlatl station, demonstrating the atlatl, which he described as using throwing sticks to propel darts.

“They are like arrows on steroids,” he said.

Taking part in flint knapping and atlatl gives participants an understanding of how people lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago, Fisher said.

“It is so interesting to learn about people that lived here before us,” he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Cati Keith can be found at 814-946-7535.