How flakes differ from scrapers.

[NC field hunter]

I thought this would be a nice topic to discuss. Many confuse flakes with scrapers, visa versa. Let's hear some knowledge on how to distinguish one from the other. Some larger flakes look like scrapers and some crude scrapers look like flakes. Here is a crude made scraper..., I think!



Here, a nicer one!



I'll post a flake in a few!

 

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[southfork]

Flakes to me are smaller pieces of waste material that show no worked edges . Most scrapers are easy to identify you can easily see how the piece was worked . Here's a few from the Great Basin one with graver spurs .

 

[southfork]

Here's some hafted scrapers .

 

[Tnmountains]

My guess is that "some" flakes were used as a quick tool for cutting,notching and so forth.A flake could possibly be the sharpest tool you can have. Expedient and expendable. A scraper will have secondary flaking for longer use. That is my guess.

 

[quito]

I thought this would be a nice topic to discuss. Many confuse flakes with scrapers, visa versa. Let's hear some knowledge on how to distinguish one from the other. Some larger flakes look like scrapers and some crude scrapers look like flakes. Here is a crude made scraper..., I think!

View attachment 1067291

Here, a nicer one!

View attachment 1067292

I'll post a flake in a few!

Umm, all your scrapers are made on a flake.

I've got highly detailed thumb scrapers that are less than half an inch long, and even less wide. I have some that are three inches long as well. I have many many flakes with a scraper evident on at least one side. They are all made on a flake. Not sure what your point really is ol friend. Just about every point, knife, hoe, and scraper is made on a flake.

 

[quito]

I think both of your scrapers are nice, big too. One material looks like it shows flaking better than the other, for sure.

 

[NC field hunter]

I think both of your scrapers are nice, big too. One material looks like it shows flaking better than the other, for sure.

Thanks Quito. My thread title was a little misworded. What I really wanted this thread to do was show the difference in flake tools and waste flakes or debitage. I'm sure you've seen quarry sites. The ground is littered with flakes of all sizes and shapes. The difference between scrapers and this, for example.

 

[rock]

I do from time to time include a big flake into my frames where I find artifacts. I consider them to be overshot types. Not all show secondary flaking but still interesting to me. Here is one in my last hunt in this frame on the left side. I guess it would be considered debitage to most but to me it is still a artifact. It adds color. Some of the flakes that are debitage have some nice colors in them.