Here is my latest knapping and a couple of artifacts. The first artifact is what I first thought was a hand sickle that would have had micro blades set in pitch as a cutting edge but not sure. I think it could also be a reaper (used by dragging over ripe wild grain heads to knock out the kernels (wild grains drop their kernels when ripe rather then holding them onto the head like domesticated grains) and then to be collected in or on something). I got it at an estate auction (The owners of the items were from Germany and Scotland, so it may be from Europe.) in a bag of minerals and rocks so there is no history on it. It has been used because if you look closely at the hocked tip you can see that it has been worn smoother then the rest of the stone (hard to see in the pictures), and the other end looks like it has been snapped off square, as if it was ones longer and bound to a handle, and the use of it fractured it, then snapped right at the end of the handle. Do you guys have any ideas as to what it is?
Second artifact is a hand axe. The interesting thing about this hand axe is that its left handed, it feels really uncomfortable in your right hand. What type of stone do you think it is made from? It has layers in it but they didn’t seem to prevent a flake from traveling all the time.
Third artifact was a point of some type I think. The flake scars didn’t show up that great in the pictures. Most of the stone looks like it has been dried out and because of the drying, it has cracked. This made me think that it was a piece of common opal. What do you guys think it is for rock?
The spear point is made from computer monitor glass all done with a moose antler billet. Its still thick but I didn’t have enough width to thin it down. Also I had some step fractures on the one side so its dulled, guess it could be used as a thick knife. I didn’t want to try to get rid of the steps because I was afraid I would snap it in half. It was my first large point and first time I have used a billet so just left it as is.
The dart point is also made from computer monitor glass, I thinned it down with the moose antler billet again and used a deer antler tine for notching. Its too thick for mounting at the base but I just left it as is, second large point, and second time usin moose antler billet.
The rest are three arrowheads made from some ¼ inch thick glass that was a tabletop, they were all made with pressure flaking. The larger one of the three was made all with a deer tine, the other two I used copper to shape them. The second larger one I used the deer tine to sharpen it, the glass piece I started with was just slightly larger then the point so I wasn’t able to remove much thickness with out losing much width, so its thick, but its somewhat sharp, think I could re-sharpen it and get it sharper.
I think one of the reason I was having so many problems with my knapping was the material I was trying to learn on was inferior.
Thanks for everyone’s help and all the great posts on here I learnt a lot from everyone and gotten some good ideas, keep them comin.
Bushman
