Unfortunately I can only hit the like button once...  wish I could hit it 20 times. The reveal at the end with the reconstructed stone was brilliant.

I’m an American college history professor and am fascinated by this topic. Phil is always a treat to watch…either here or on Time Team. Phil is one of the best human beings ever in my book. Fun story, several years ago, I emailed Phil and he sent a signed photo for my daughter. At 11, she still watches Time Team with me, and that picture still hangs on her wall!

Dear Phil, you have amazed me countless times on Time Team when you talked about your trenches to the point that I learn something new almost every time I re-watch. (I'm in my third go round.) I can't tell you how much I admire you, especially with this video. I confess that I've watched other videos about flint knapping, (I'm not a knapper but  I'm curious), but none of them made knapping as clear as you have. I watched your hand axe come into being with the same amazement I experienced when I saw the different colours of earth in your trench and understood what they meant in an earlyish episode of Time Team. I agree with Mr. Ray Roberts, I'm sorry I can't hit the like button more than once. Thank you, Friend Phil, and I sincerely hope you make more videos. ;-)

Beautifully done!  I got goosebumps at the end when Phil shows the flint opening up to reveal the completed hand axe.  A perfect teaching tool for the legend of how the axe is already in the stone and the knapper is charged with the responsibility to release it!  Thank you Phil and Wessex!!!!

I loved the video from the instant the famous hat was placed on the shelf!

That whole reassembled axe would make such an amazing display piece along with that video, in a museum, or on a tour of museums and classrooms and the like.

Phil, you are a great teacher and an inspiration. Don’t ever lose your sense of humor or depth of inquiry.

Sheer brilliance,Phil hatched a hand axe before our eyes. I hope all the shards of his knowledge are being collected in a blanket to amaze generations to come,and to spawn future Archaeologists.

My son grew up watching Time Team. Every time Phil spoke, he shushed everyone. Glad to say he's a fine knapper, learning from John Lord, but he'd loved the chance to meet Phil. Here's hoping! Massive thanks for this fab video. It's made our week. It's all chert around us, but we'll be knapping it anyway.

fantistic video. The axe just sort of suddenly appears, even though he is working his way through it the whole time.  What a great step back into history.

When I was a post-grad student in archaeology in Dallas, Texas, back in the 70s, my office mate went as part of a small group to continue an archaeological survey of the Negev desert in Israel. He later showed me photos he took of a site he’d come across, which had a large stone that one could sit on and at its base was a partially worked core, a hammerstone, and - arrayed in a fan shape in front of the stone - a series of unused  blades, with debitage scattered around the site.

Someone had been in the middle of flint knapping, must have seen something or been called away - and never came back. Based on the type of blades, the site where this guy had been working, never to return, was probably from about 20,000 - 25,000 years ago.

Who knows, but the site must have been buried and then exposed again, not too long before my friend spotted the dark colored stone on which the knapper had been sitting, clearly visible above the beige desert floor (where did it come from?), because there was no evidence of blowing sand burnishing the artifacts.

A site connecting us with a long ago snapshot in time.

I love Phil!!!  I love his enthusiasm, his love for what he does and his sense of humor.  OH and his smile and laughter.

Reminds me when I spent a day with John Lord and Val his wife.
He talked of releasing the axe from the stone too. I wore safety glasses, he didn't. Told me he knew when to blink.
He also described knapping as a blood sport. He was right!
We went over to Brandon where he helped me choose a lovely chunk of flint, which I still possess, but dont have the courage to knap it.

Aw, thank you for this! I've seen Phil do a little knapping, but not a full axe start-to-finish, so this was fascinating. He's such a good teacher!

And of course he kept the pieces to glue back together. 😂 It's honestly super-interesting to see exactly how it came apart, exactly where the fracture lines run. I agree that the piece is always hidden, just waiting for the artist to reveal it. And now he gets to reveal it over and over again!

Thanks, Phil and Wessex Archaeology. I always love learning from you. 💗

(And my often-sullen, everything-is-boring teenager sat and watched this with me, unbidden, all the way through, so....well done you! Even kept a teen riveted. 😁)

Now, that's entertainment! Phil just has a knack for explaining things.

You can’t beat a bit of flint knapping.

I was 12 when I first saw a sketch of a "Faustkeil" as it's called in German, in my history book. It kept me marvelling for a long time how it was made and how it was used. I'm 61 now and even though I have seen Phil Harding working with flint before, this is the first time I see it made from start to finish. Thank you so much, Phil for so many years finding out about skills and everyday life of long lost times. To me it's still as fascinating as it was for that wee girl living in a rural place in the alpine region of Bavaria. A region formed by the melting glaciers of the Ice Age. We are a "mottly crew" around here, a special cocktail of genes. We have remnants of Celtic settlements and the Roman Road passes right where I grew up. As a kid, I always wondered who lived here before them. Our history lessons gave a very general impression of that period (it was the time when we were still told Neanderthals and other humans of that period were dumb, primitive "one-dimensional" creatures). I'm very glad this has changed. It takes a lot of knowledge and skill to produce flint tools and everything else they needed to survive. It's for archeologists like Phil Harding we have a much better understanding of all this, now although there's way to go. So much more to learn.. Thank you so much, Phil. for the many years on Time Team and for all your great work beside and after the series. ❤Best wishes from the Bavarian mountains (to think the famous Amesbury Archer might very well have come from somewhere around here... 😀)

Fantastic to see Mr Harding is doing well and knapping away! Hope to see you on the new Time Team gathering! Stay well!

Lovely to see you enjoying yourself with the flint Phil. It is so calming to watch you work.  Wish we could get all the old Time Teamers together again.  It was a brilliant show every time.  Love and best wishes from an Aussie fan.

I have always enjoyed watching you on the Time Team digs. Your enthusiasm for archeology and flint knapping is contagious, and your skills in both are obviously top-notch. But when you showed the nodule reassembled with the hand axe inside, I literally got shivers up my spine... You are one amazing person, Dr. Phil Harding! Thank you for sharing your talents with us!