We recently connected with Bruce Ryba and have shared our conversation below.

Bruce, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I’m a fiber optic specialist at Kennedy Space Center and a life long Flintknapper. That is creating stone tools from various materials, like flint, obsidian, chert, agates & petrified coral. Creating the tools always makes me reflect upon human history and culture and the past and current beliefs in magic.
Good quality stone has an audible whisper when rubbed and a china-like musical quality when struck. Reminding me of a time when humans believed everything had a life too it. And then the first religions may have been from the hunt when using stone tipped weapons.
One year I was requested to show autistic children how to flintknapp at a local “Archaeology for Autism” event.

I admit, I was a little nervous, because in my hobby addiction, I always cut myself on sharp flakes of stone..
So armed with band aids, safety glasses and gloves, I embarked on a journey of a lifetime.

As it turned out, teaching these curious children was one of the most rewarding projects I had ever done and did so for the next five years, with many of the children returning to break rocks.
Not only did I see myself in the joy and curiosity of the children, I saw the possibilities of all humans. There was a universal enjoyment of how the stone felt, of the noise that breaking flint created, and a satisfaction and enjoyment of “Making, creating something..” The children’s went wide when I showed how the tool they had just created, cut cut a weed or branch.
The kids reactions only reinforced my view of the “original art” by mankind, and my visualizations of a million years ago where toothless curious hominids broke rocks to slice meat before the predators returned. How much of Flintknapping was the cause and advancement of our ancestors, whit increased hand eye coordination, and early concepts of math-knowing angles of how to break rock, It was magic.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been a flintknapper for forty years. My first experience was as a diver for the United States Eastern Test Range in the Caribbean and south Atlantic.
Having to work and dive on Ascension Island, I discovered an obsidian lava flow and when not diving, began to self teach myself how to flintknapp. That resulted in some serious cuts but eventually some of my first work that still treasure even after creating thousands arrowheads and knives.
Though sheer luck, on Antigua I discovered that beautiful petrified coral could be worked and once employed a Kennedy Space Center, I discovered the Florida State rock, Agatized coral and that the Naive Americans of the south east prized Florida Coral for their spear points since the Ice age.
As I worked on the space center, whenever I had a lunch break, I would create an arrowhead and often drop it near the tourists to ‘make their day.’
For the last five years, I have had a booth at the Cocoa Art Fair, explaining the tool process, showing off my prized knives and explaining about the Florida state rock. Many people I meet know far more that I do, but most people are fascinated by the history, hobby, and of course the sound of the rocks being struck–the original music of mankind. And the original magic.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspects of being a flintknapper, is unleashing my imagination, of the past, present and future.
Flint tools have been found over two million years old. So the tools I created, may be discovered a millions years in the future or even a mere thousand years in future.
Unleashing my creativity, has allowed me to expand to pottery and painting, to writing four books so far and another book to be released in less than a month.
Unleashing my creativity has resulted daring and succeeding in wood carving and my kayak expeditions on the Suwanee River result in me carrying river worn wood and petrified coral for 70 miles with an eagerness to discover the next exciting piece of wood.
As mentioned, the chance to teach children the oldest art and spreading joy in them and myself has been life changing, Actually magic.
Unexpectedly, learning the skill to write books has resulted in improvements at my job at the space center and doubled the sheer astonishment working around the Artemis 2 rocket, when many of my co-workers have lost their imagination.
Past and present and future meld into daily activities.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Ascension Island, flintknapping obsidian. I was wearing leather gloves and had an additional leather pad on my palm while trying to remove the last bump on an otherwise perfect stone spear point, something a mammoth hunter of the last ice age would have been proud of.
The last bump. Careful not to break the point and press, harder, harder, press, almost, almost and snap, the bump came off and I felt a sharp pain in my palm.
I saw a hole in my leather glove and was dismayed when the glove slid off easily.
Other cuts and slivers had impaled obsidian slivers into my palm, and I had to remove the protruding sliver before the glove could come off.
The glove slid off to show a small hole in my hand, some pain, but not a lot of blood like I expected?
Pulling the flesh to the side, I could just see a piece of obsidian buried in my hand.
I went to my room and tried to dig it out and almost passed out from the pain.
With no choice I went to base doctor and he drove me to the capital of Ascension where I saw the Island doctor, he was Irish and x-rayed my hand with a needle jabbed near the obsidian.
I always joked of the Irish stereotype, that he was a drunk on a remote island, however he cut me open and removed the razor sharp rock. Excellent work. Despite that disaster, I kept up my addiction of flintkanpping.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Kayakingksc.com
• Youtube: Bruce Ryba

Image Credits

My photos