Despite the fact that stone hammers are more typical of the manufacture of wide and short flakes, used with mastery they can achieve very precise control of rock chipping. In fact, cases of blades manufacture with a hard hammer have been witnessed, mainly in the Middle European Paleolithic (almost always Levallois blades), but also in the Upper and Epipaleolithic. While the extraction of blades is more effective with other techniques, there are enough indications to affirm that it can also be done with a hard hammer. There are even exceptional cases of obsidian blade of more than 30 centimeters manufactured in pre-Columbian Mexico and ancient Ethiopia and greater examples in excess of 70 centimeters found in present-day California. Modern experimental carvers have not been able to recreate these methods.
Despite the fact that stone hammers are more typical of the manufacture of wide and short flakes, used with mastery they can achieve very precise control of rock chipping. In fact, cases of blades manufacture :with a hard hammer have been witnessed, mainly in the Middle European Paleolithic (almost always Levallois blades), but also in the Upper and Epipaleolithic. While the extraction of blades is more effective with other techniques, there are enough indi,cations to affirm that it can also be done with a hard hammer. There are even exceptional cases of obsidian blade of more than 30 centimeters m?anufactured in pre-Columbian Mexico and ancient Ethiopia and greater examples in excess of 7?0 centimeters found in present-day California. Modern experimental carvers have not been able to rec.reate these methods.