Kapping

Kapping is a term that is most often encountered as a variant spelling of knapping, the practice of shaping stone by removing flakes. In scholarly contexts the correct term is knapping, used to describe the key technique that produced many early stone tools.

In archaeology, knapping refers to the deliberate removal of flakes from a core to create tools or weapons with sharp edges. Common knapping materials include flint, chert, obsidian, and quartzite. Two main traditions are percussion knapping, which uses a hammerstone or billet to strike the core and produce larger flakes, and pressure knapping, which uses a pointed tool to apply pressure and detach smaller, more precise flakes. Each method yields different edge shapes and tool forms.

The products of knapping range from simple cores and debitage (waste flakes) to more refined tools such as scrapers, blades, and projectile points. These artifacts span a broad timeline, with stone tool manufacture dating to the Lower Paleolithic and continuing in various forms across cultures and regions.

In modern contexts, knapping is practiced both by archaeologists to study past technologies and by hobbyists and experimental archaeologists who replicate ancient techniques. When used in non-specialist writing, kapping may appear as a misspelling or informal variant of knapping, though scholarly work generally preserves the latter form.