Flint knapper, leather worker keep history alive at Virginia Highlands Festival

AT THE FESTIVAL

TODAY

• Stroll through historic Sinking Springs Cemetery from 9 a.m. to noon; meet at the Rev. Charles Cummings’ cabin.
• Learn how salt is made at the Historical Society of Washington County from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• It’s “Kids Rule Day!” at Latture Field. The fun starts at noon.

 SUNDAY

• Learn about winemaking with a stroll through the Abingdon Winery and Vineyard from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Check out a one-room schoolhouse at Duncansville One-Room School on Stanley Street from 1:30-5:30 p.m.
• Get into the bluegrass mood at the old-time banjo workshop at Capo’s Music Store at 7 p.m.

ABINGDON, Va. – The items for sale beneath the canvas tents on the Fields-Penn House lawn have been traded and sold by humans for more than 300 years.

Amid the hustle and bustle of art, textile and jewelry sales at the Virginia Highlands Festival, one can step back in time and explore another set of wares at the Colonial Trade Faire.

One tent, shared by husband and wife, Vinson Miner and Jillian Knight-Miner, showcases handmade flint knives, bows and arrows, leather-bound journals and dyed silks.

“We make pretty much everything in this store except the clay pipes and the silver jewelry,” Miner said.

And the fossils, which he retrieves by diving into the Savannah River near their home in Savannah, Ga. They’re teeth from an ancient megalodon, a shark that would eat sperm whales, Vinson Miner said.

Building bows and flint knapping, or whittling arrowheads and knife points out of a slab of stone, has been Miner’s full-time job for the past 12 years. He said the art is “stuff I was just interested in since childhood.”

“Stone tools are one of the few links to our past,” he said. “They don’t rust, they’re always there.”

He quarries all of his own flint, and cuts his own wood for the bows.

“It’s pretty neat, taking a rock and making it into a tool,” he said. “In 30 minutes to an hour, I can have a 4- or 5-inch knife.”

Because flint has no grains or fracture lines, he essentially sculpts knives out of the stone.

His wife makes journals and sells hand-dyed ribbons and fabric, and got into the business because her parents were in it. After apprenticing with them for about six months, she started her own business.

“I average two hours working on each journal,” she said. “We have friends who have a tannery, so it’s all American raised animals, tanned locally. It is really neat just because it’s all sustainable that way.”

Most of the paper she buys, and for the beer and wine journals, she designs and prints the pages herself. Most of her journals are unlined, though.

Both Miner and Knight-Miner had their own colonial period stores when they met at a trade fair. Now, they take sides of the same store, and say they hope their nearly 2-year-old daughter, Kegan, learns to appreciate the trade as well.“I would like her to be able to do a little of everything,” Knight-Miner said. “She might find her niche.”

Until she learns her own trade, Kegan and other children might be able to play with some of the toys that Indiana-based Larry Ard makes.

His shop sells a little of everything, from furs to wooden utensils, and contains items made by Ard’s friends from across the country.

Ard said he got into the business because he went into the fur trader’s tent at a re-enactment and he knew more about the furs than the man selling them did.

“They asked me if I could come back the next day and interpret the cabin for them,” he said. “I’d done some trapping when I was a kid. ... I’m a history buff.”

Spring City, Tenn., resident David Kazmark organized the merchants for this year’s trade fair. He said he has been in the re-enacting business since the 1960s and in the leatherworking business for the past 20 years or so.

But he learned the trade when he was young.

“When I was a kid, this old fellow who used to come to town had a horse and buggy,” he said. “I would watch him repair the harnesses. He showed me a lot of stuff back then, and I just never forgot it.”

He said his bags, which include portmanteaus, or leather suitcases, saddle bags and cartridge holders are patterned after colonial-era items but are all different and bear his mark – an oval with a crown and a K.

He has made props for movies, the National Park Service, museums and he also sells at shows. “Over the years, things just fall into place,” Kazmark said. “I’m not getting rich on it but it’s keeping me young. I’ll come out here until the day I die.”

arobinson@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-3385