Editing Lithic flake (section)

==Production==
{{main|Lithic reduction}}
Flakes may be produced by a variety of means. Force may be introduced by direct percussion (striking the core with a percussor such as a rock or antler), indirect percussion (striking the core with an object, sometimes referred to as a "punch", which itself is struck by a percussor, similar to the use of a hammer and chisel to shape stone), or by pressure.  Additionally, flakes may be initiated in a [[Hertzian contact stress|Hertzian]], bending, or wedging fashion. When a flake is detached from its core in a Hertzian fashion, the flake propagates in a conchoidal manner from the point of impact or pressure, usually producing a partial Hertzian cone. The cone of force often leaves a distinctive [[bulb of applied force]] on the flake and a corresponding flake scar on the core. A bending initiation results when a flake initiates not at the point where the force was applied, but rather further away from the edge of the core, resulting in a flake with no Hertzian cone or bulb of applied force and few if any of the characteristics ripples or undulations seen on the ventral surface of conchoidally produced flakes. Wedging initiation is the result of a strong hammer blow. At impact, concentric radii emanate from the point of percussion, but unlike conchoidal fracture, the force travels along what would be the center of the Hertzian cone. The bipolar reduction technique is typified by its use of wedge initiation. Like bending initiation, no bulb of applied force results from wedging initiation, although in the bipolar technique, flakes may appear to have two points of percussion, on opposite ends, because the core has been fractured by a hammer and anvil technique. The core is placed on a hard surface or "anvil" and is struck above by a hammer, thus the fracture may propagate from both ends simultaneously.

The end which received the blow or pressure is referred to as the proximal end of the flake; the terminal end is referred to as the distal end. The side displaying the bulb of force but without flake scars (barring an errailure flake scar or additional working of the flake) is called the ventral (or interior) surface, while the opposite side, displaying the flake scars of previous removals, or the cortical or original rock surface, is the dorsal (or exterior) surface.

On most natural cobbles or nodules of source material, a weathered outer rind called a '''cortex''' covers the unweathered inner material. Flakes are often differentiated by the amount of cortex present on their dorsal surfaces, because the amount of cortex indicates when in the sequence of reduction the flake came from.  '''Primary''' flakes are those whose dorsal surfaces are entirely covered with cortex; '''secondary''' flakes have at least a trace of cortex on the dorsal surface; and '''tertiary''' (interior) flakes lack cortex, having derived entirely from the interior of the core. Primary flakes and secondary flakes are usually associated with the initial stages of [[lithic reduction]], while tertiary flakes are more likely to be associated with retouching and [[biface|bifacial]] reduction activities.

Prominent bulbs of force generally indicate that a hard hammer percussor ([[hammerstone]]) was used to detach the flake; flakes displaying this characteristic are referred to as conchoidal flakes. Hard hammer flakes are indicative of primary reduction strategies (e.g., core reduction, roughing of [[Lithic reduction#Blank|blanks]] and [[Lithic reduction#Preform|preforms]], and the like). More moderate and diffuse bulbs may indicate the use of a soft hammer percussor—such as [[bone]], [[wood]], or [[antler]]—which produces the bending flakes often associated with [[biface|bifacial]] thinning and trimming. The relative abundance of each type of flake can indicate what sort of lithic work was going on at a particular spot at a particular point in time.

[[File:Lithic blade and core.png|thumb| [[Prismatic blade]] and its core that made with prismatic reduction technology. The blade flake that marks with A can fit to where A' marks on this core. ]]

A '''[[blade (archaeology)|blade]]''' is defined as a flake with parallel or subparallel margins that is usually at least twice as long as it is wide.<ref name=Andrefsky/>{{rp|253}} There are numerous specialized types of blade flakes.  Channel flakes are characteristic flakes caused by the fluting of certain [[Paleo-Indian]] [[projectile point]]s; such fluting produced grooves in the projectile points which may have facilitated hafting. [[Prismatic blade]]s are long, narrow specialized blades with parallel margins which may be removed from polyhedral blade cores, another common lithic feature of Paleo-Indian lithic culture. Prismatic blades are often triangular in cross section with several facets or flake scars on the dorsal surface. [[Prismatic blade]]s begin to appear in high frequencies during the transition between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.This lithic technology basically replaces the Levallois reduction technology.