JJ Stone Craft creates handmade, one-of-a-kind obsidian knives, designed by flintknapping artist JJ Heo. JJ has crafted stone knives for 20 years, and his work can been found at Granville Island Public Market, online, and at various trade, craft, and art shows around North America for the last 12 years. The business is run by JJ and his family in Vancouver, with family members assisting in design, sales, e-commerce, and marketing. Their knives are a symbol of Vancouver’s rich history and culture. All knives are made using obsidian stone, also known as volcanic rock or glass. Handles are commonly made of antler, cactus, animal jaw, bone, horn, and wood – all sourced legally from Canadian hunters. Wood handles are decorated with carvings and wood burnings of images depicting Vancouver’s diverse culture. With the many assortments of obsidian stones and handle materials, every knife is unique.

“The historical significance of Obsidian Knives is derived from our ancestors who used flintknapping skills to survive for more than 2 million years, creating stone tools such as arrowheads, projectile points, and hand axes. The obsidian knife is a reminder of the wonderful survival tool inherited from our ancestors during the Stone Age. While humans have lost many survival skills since industrialism, flintknapping remains an important sustainable skill that is still used today. The depletion of natural resources today brings an increasing interest and focus on basic survival skills like flintknapping. This skill is mainly used today by outdoorsmen and hunters as a survival tactic, but also by hobbyists and archeologists to better understand how these tools were made during prehistoric times. At JJ Stone Craft, we’ve transformed this ancient tool into art pieces, both for practical use and showcasing.” – JJ Stone Craft

Flintknapping is the process of creating stone tools by chipping away small flakes of stone. It begins with knapping a piece of stone through direct percussion – striking a large stone with a tool, such as a hammerstone or antler billet, and removing large flakes to thin the stone. The next step is pressure flaking – applying pressure on the stone using an antler tine or copper-tipped pressure flaker, and removing thin flakes of stone to shape and refine the point. Finishing the blade can include notching, stemming, fluting, etc.