"An experimental study assessing the utility of heat treating silcrete " by Carly Toddhunter
The adoption of heat treatment as a strategy to improve the workability of stone has long been observed in the archaeological record, commencing in Australia as far back as the late Pleistocene. Several studies have suggested that heat- treated cores tend to produce thinner and sharper tools, however the impact of this technique on their performance over extended periods of use is less well known. It has been hypothesised that the process reduces edge durability due to the increased brittleness of the raw material and the narrower edge profiles that it produces. When used to process hard mater...
Source: uow.edu.au