My Most Recent Production

[luckyinkentucky]

Here is a piece I finished on Thursday. It is made from Hamilton Co. Texas Flint, and was pressure flaked from a slab. It is one of my better "Gray Ghosts"

It measures roughly 6 3/4" long x 1 1/2" wide x 1/8" thick. I modeled it after a Graham Cave.

What do you all think? How does she look? This would be the second that I have made from this type of flint. It takes to a pressure flaker very well, and oblique flaking is easy with this material. The basal area and notches are ground.

Also, I left the loose hinges on the piece purposely. I also diamond scribe and initial all of my work so that it will never be passed as an authentic artifact. I hope to finish a couple of Sonora Lost Lakes this week. Wish me luck.

 

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[SwampHunter]

Very nice!

I am not sure if you sale your items or not, but I still have to ask. How much would something like that go for? Reason I ask is I have been wanting a functional knife made. Actually I wanted to make it myself, but I just don't see that happening anytime soon. I want a sturdy single edge blade about 6 inches long. Any insight on what a knife blad would costs?

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Very nice!

I am not sure if you sale your items or not, but I still have to ask. How much would something like that go for? Reason I ask is I have been wanting a functional knife made. Actually I wanted to make it myself, but I just don't see that happening anytime soon. I want a sturdy single edge blade about 6 inches long. Any insight on what a knife blad would costs?

Just to give you an idea ... I would sell something like this for around $15 to $20.

 

[GL]

Freaking gorgeous!
You should do commissions. I'd buy a knife.
Same techniques, same level of skill, same materials...I like the new ones just as much as the old ones in a lot of cases. I like to knap too.

The best new ones are made for beauties sake. That means they can be made obscenely beautiful out of exotic materials like foreign rocks and colored glass. It's an evolution.

 

[mikez]

That is some beautiful work!
Have you considered making a handle and finishing a complete knife? With a well made handle of bone or qualty wood I'd guess you could get a heck of alot more than $20.00!

 

[luckyinkentucky]

That is some beautiful work!
Have you considered making a handle and finishing a complete knife? With a well made handle of bone or qualty wood I'd guess you could get a heck of alot more than $20.00!

No ... I haven't thought about that. I haven't dabbled in the "finished product" end of it yet. I'm just focusing on stone artifacts. Finishing them is something I might consider in the future. Good idea!

 

[tchaire]

Absolutely beautiful!! Just curious...How long did it take you to make it? $15-$20 seems like
a great price.

T.

 

[archaeon]

i am a member of the "ballpeen hammer brigade" 8)

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Absolutely beautiful!! Just curious...How long did it take you to make it? $15-$20 seems like
a great price.

T.

Altogether it took me about 2 hours. If the material wasn't already slabbed out for me it would have taken a lot longer, and I wouldn't have been able to get it that thin.

 

[luckyinkentucky]

i am a member of the "ballpeen hammer brigade" 8)

You wouldn't get anywhere near my stuff with a hammer. I spend too much time on it, and I do it as an art .... not to fool people. A lot of people are misinformed to what flint knappers really do.

Are all artifact hunters grave robbers? No.

It's the same scenario. Not all flint knappers are arti-fakers.

As a matter of fact ..... little do people know, but arti-fakers are shunned in the flint knapping community as well. If you are ever caught trying to pass off one of your points as authentic .... you will be disregarded as being a legitimate flint knapper.

It's kind of like a "Flint knappers code of conduct". As an example .... look at Woody Blackwell. He was once a respected Flint Knapper who did great work, BUT he was caught slipping fakes into a collection and was caught. He was basically stripped of his fame overnight. Here is one of his points.

 

[pickaway]

Man you should actually try n hunt w/ some of them...Get the real feel of what they were used for or hell just skin a rabbit or something w/ one...nice work

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Man you should actually try n hunt w/ some of them...Get the real feel of what they were used for or hell just skin a rabbit or something w/ one...nice work

Thanks for the compliments.

Actually there are a group of guys that do it all. They make their own bows, arrows, and points. They call it "Abo Hunting" or Aboriginal (Native) Hunting.

 

[archaeon]

im not after you, i think flintknapping is an art and you are obviously good at it. my problem begins 100 years from now...who will be around to tell all of these moderns from the real thing. modern flintknappers are EVERYWHERE now and i think it's a shame that there is no real way to mark points short of drilling a hole all the way through it.

 

[jeff of pa]

im not after you, i think flintknapping is an art and you are obviously good at it. my problem begins 100 years from now...who will be around to tell all of these moderns from the real thing. modern flintknappers are EVERYWHERE now and i think it's a shame that there is no real way to mark points short of drilling a hole all the way through it.

Been thinking the same thing.

 

[mikez]

im not after you, i think flintknapping is an art and you are obviously good at it. my problem begins 100 years from now...who will be around to tell all of these moderns from the real thing. modern flintknappers are EVERYWHERE now and i think it's a shame that there is no real way to mark points short of drilling a hole all the way through it.

Been thinking the same thing.

Lucky stated in his first post :

"I also diamond scribe and initial all of my work so that it will never be passed as an authentic artifact."

I do some carving in rock with diamond tip tools and I can tell you sharply etched intitials would be impossible to remove without leaving an obvious mark.
I jumped on this because Lucky's post and a couple others has gotten me very interested in taking up knapping myself. I also was concerned with the authenticity aspect and thought Lucky's idea of intitialing the piece was a perfect solution.

 

[archaeon]

diamond tip scribed initials can be pressure flaked off, and since there is no patina with freshly knapped moderns, you could flake off initials and never see where it was. this has been done before.

 

[luckyinkentucky]

diamond tip scribed initials can be pressure flaked off, and since there is no patina with freshly knapped moderns, you could flake off initials and never see where it was. this has been done before.

Well ... if we starting that discussion ........ how do you know 90% of the perfect Dovetails, Clovis Points, and Turkeytails weren't made by knappers 40 to 50 years ago? You Don't!!!


I KNOW for a FACT that there are a few archaeologists in the community that have planted things AT A DIG SITE the night before a dig would take place. Then ... they point them in the right direction, and the diggers find it .... enough said.

The same principle applies. How do you know that a point that has been bought hasn't been sitting in an old horse stable or buried in someone's back yard for the past 15 years? A well known authenticator told me that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between a pristine, modern made piece that has been aged properly and buried in a controlled setting for 10 years versus one that has been in the ground for 6000 years. They can make their best guess as to authenticity, but there is no 100% surefire way to prevent faking. If Greg Perino could have been fooled ... they could fool ANYONE.

That is why I will absolutely never buy an "authentic" artifact. The person you bought it from might be honest, but whoever he got it from might not have been.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[mikez]

diamond tip scribed initials can be pressure flaked off, and since there is no patina with freshly knapped moderns, you could flake off initials and never see where it was. this has been done before.

Opps.
My ignorence is showing again. Sorry.

 

[GL]

I am a knapper too. Not very good at it yet but my points are easily deadly if hafted and used. I use glass and flint flakes to make mine. I plan on assembling an Atlatl very shortly and beginning the practice of Abo-hunting using 100% handmade items including the points on my missiles.

Honestly, the point at the top of this thread is far to exquisite an item to damage by hunting or using it on game. If possible, I would like to buy it...$15? Seems like a Hell of a bargain for 2 hours of a mans life.

I have no ideas on future scoundrels using reproductions as authentic. Would this disdain for knappers extend to the honorable Ishi? Who's to say some of the points found today weren't made 60 years ago by some guy and planted?
6000 years in the ground and we are finding G10s and G9s? What are the odds that a fragile stone tool would remain perfect all those years? No one knows for sure with such an item. It will be up to professional identifiers and experts to determine if a point or artifact is ancient or modern and that goes for 20-50-100 years from now.

 

[archaeon]

i agree, it is hard to tell these days, alot of fakers go though all kinds of treatments to make them have a patina, or look river stained/polished. i only have personal finds. not a snob about it or anything, it's just that finding them yourself is the best way of knowing they're authentic, lol.
i just think that knappers should use stone or glass that is instantly recognizable as stone used for moderns, instead of people copying ancient types exactly, using the materials the NA used.
flinknapp yes, but make weird new styles that will be known to you. the NA obviously made many many different types, for many uses, in many styles. why copy them? can't we come up with our own, trying to improve knapping technology instead of copying what has already been done? make it evolve into something different and it will always be known as your era lithics.
strange thing about time. everything is an artifact, some things just have more time under their belts. so i consider the moderns as artifacts already, you could call it "future reverence", haha. they should be distinct for their time period though, that way after 500 to 1000 years in the future, people won't mistake them for Indian artifacts.