Coastal Chumash Flintknapper Steven Saffold
Hello my name is Steven Saffold and I am a coastal Chumash descendant native to Santa Barbara.
I started flintknapping in 2004 while looking through my dad's book, "Traditional Bowyers Bible, Vol. 3". I read Scott Silsby's chapter on stone points. At the time I was attempting to make several traditional style arrows. I had made a few bone points and some steel trade points from old bandsaw blades, but then I was curious on how the stone points were made. After reading some reading from Scott Silsby's article, I started looking for flint to work with. I found some fused shale used as landscape stone from the neighbors house. I broke off a flake with a hammer and by chipping the edge against a flattened brass tube, I manufactured my first stone arrowhead and was immediately hooked to the art of flintknapping.
Ten years later, I'm still breaking rocks, which became a gateway to other Native American arts/skills such as beadwork, drilling soapstone/shell beads, atlatls, friction fire, and other primitive skills.
I have knapped many different styles of arrowheads out of many different types of materials, but I always love to work the local Franciscan and Monterey chert and make arrowheads similar to my Coastal Chumash ancestors.
To check all my work, look me up on instagram @truetotradition
Check out my youtube to see me in action TrueToTradition Lithics.