The manufacture sequence of Still Bay points has been divided into four main production phases.Högberg, Anders & Larsson, Lars (2011) Lithic technology and behavioural modernity: New results from the Still Bay site, Hollow Rock Shelter, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 61, 133–155. While hard hammer and direct percussion was used in the initial reduction phase (phase 1), followed by soft hammer and marginal percussion (phase 2), pressure flaking was only used during the final retouch phase (3), and a few points were also reworked by hard hammer percussion (phase 4). The Still Bay points from Blombos Cave represent some of the earliest evidence for pressure flaking, a technique more common in considerably more recent lithic techno-complexes. Experimental replication by Mourre et al. 2010 and microscopic study of Still Bay points from Blombos Cave indicate that some silcrete blanks were deliberately heat-treated, before pressure flaking was employed in the final reduction sequence, and thus improving the silcrete's flaking quality.
