Fractured during manufacturing??

[MAMucker]

Here’s a piece that I’ve been thinking about after reading posts and replies here from collectors knowledgeable in knapping details and methods.

What does this particular break tell us? Best guess??

 

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[MosesOfTheSouth]

material it is made from seems to answer the questions you are asking,

 

[Tdog]

Percussion lick took a dive and took the top off.

 

[MosesOfTheSouth]

Percussion lick took a dive and took the top off.

i was going to say the same initially.

 

[MAMucker]

Would that be an attempt at thinning from the base?

BTW, the material is a local lithic called Braintree Hornfels. It was a popular lithic used during the Archaic and Woodland periods in areas of New England.

It’s grainy appearance is more related to a pigment issue, rather than a structural weakness (generally speaking).

 

[Tdog]

Would that be an attempt at thinning from the base?

I think so.

 

[MosesOfTheSouth]

thinning would have been a flute or similar type flakes, from the base.

 

[uniface]

IMO it was made on an overshot reduction flake. He was already struggling with it before that (stacked).

 

[Garscale]

He gave it a hard strike right on the base. Likely with the tip rested on an anvil. The point flexed and the flake dove through and cut it in half. TDog right again.

 

[uniface]

Disagree. The late Bob Patton, working with Tony Baker, established that no flake thicker than around 40% of the mass of a preform could be produced.

The anvil supposition is ruled out by geometry and by the absence of flaking from the tip end.

And if padded sufficiently to avoid this, the force necessary to create that plunger would not be feasible.

It was made on a previously stacked overshot reduction flake.

 

[Garscale]

I have seen Clovis cut in half just like that from a flute attempt that dove. Same theory that would have produced that from over shot.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Sad to hear Bob Patton passed away. I knapped with him many times. I think Tony Baker is gone too. Never met him but communicated with him about knapping paleo stuff quite a few times. All the old time knappers are fading away. Gary

 

[Charl]

Would that be an attempt at thinning from the base?

BTW, the material is a local lithic called Braintree Hornfels. It was a popular lithic used during the Archaic and Woodland periods in areas of New England.

It’s grainy appearance is more related to a pigment issue, rather than a structural weakness (generally speaking).

Just an aside about the material. Yes, it looks grainy and a poor lithic, but, in fact, the Jack’s Reef folks insisted on using only the finest lithics for their distinctive points. Their preferences? Jasper and Braintree hornfels, the hornfels outcropping in several places in southern New England. Of all the metavolcanic tool stones used here, none flaked finer than hornfels. Here is a Levanna, and a JR Corner Notch, made from the dark phase of Braintree hornfels. Compared to our many varieties of rhyolite, hornfels flaked like butter. The JR folks chose it for good reason....

 

[Tony in SC]

Young guy got off to a good start and then "OOPS".

 

[MAMucker]

I really appreciate the knowledge, experience and expertise in the responses to this example. Every piece tells a bit of the story.

Charlie,
Those are gorgeous examples of the lithic and respective types.

 

[MAMucker]

Here’s a non typical, semi-unifacial projectile point made from a broad flake of the same lithic. I believe it was utilized by evidence of the small impact fracture at the tip.

 

[dirstscratcher]

I have seen Clovis cut in half just like that from a flute attempt that dove. Same theory that would have produced that from over shot.

Yep, that's a pretty classic type Clovis failure, but I have no idea if that's what this one is.