Real or Fake??

[Atlantis0077]

Greetings,

The classic quandary of the collector.....Here are two spearheads I came across the other day. One appears to be authentic, the other fake. Care to venture a guess as to which is which?

Well upon close inspection they both look pretty good, but in my opinion, by no means professional, the white/grey quartzite point is authentic, while the brown one is a reproduction. They could both be fakes, for I found neither in the field, but it brings up a problem that we all face, that of how do you tell. Well experience helps, but instead of going through a litany of if and wherefore's I will tell you to purchase the following book. Relics and Reproductions by James R. Bennett. This is one of the best reference books I have ever found on the subject.

This book is full of color comparison pictures and gives you a lot of tricks of the trade such as magnifying loupes, UV lights, etc. Also list sources for purchasing these items. I highly recommend it for anyone who is going to seriously consider purchasing relics.....It wont make you an expert, but will give you at least more insight to the authenticity of a point than a throw of the dice.

Atlantis

 

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[Atlantis0077]

LOL,

Guess I should post the spearhead photos as well..

Atlantis

 

[badandy]

The white one is an Etley type and the other I'm not sure of at the moment, but I could tell you for sure if I was holding them. They are nice looking either way Atlantis0077.
badandy

 

[dishinet]

Good find. I don't think i would ever purchase artifacts, but still good information. Buying them is just not the same as finding them. (In my opinion.) Actually finding them gets the blood flowing.

 

[Atlantis0077]

Greetings,


Hey Dishinet, I couldn't agree more...finding a good one gets the blood flowing. Of course when they walk through the front door, who can turn them away. I have a couple of display cases in the front of my library here. I have put some of my personal collection in them, but have also put some of the more iffy things that come my way there. I don't mind giving a few bucks even for well made fakes, I just keep them separate from my authentic stuff. Also if a young kid comes by that is really into collecting I am not beyond opening up a case and giving him/her a few points to keep their enthusiasm going.

One day this little case of goodies came through the door.....a nice little axe and some spears.....darn, I had no choice but to give them a new home.

Atlantis

 

[River Rat]

Atlantis,

Thanks for the information. I could never tell them apart, but I'm like Dishinet I rather look & find.

Awesome case of goodies.

River

 

[dishinet]

Yeah, i think i would have given them a home too. That is some nice looking points, not to mention a great looking axe. I said i would never buy any, but if something like that came through my door.....hmmm. Awesome points though. I'm going to take more pics. I'll add my celt and axe.

 

[Cannonman17]

It's hard to tell the fakes from the real sometimes, most fakes are easy to tell but there are some people out there who go all out to fake 'em. First and foremost nothing will be experience. The more real ones you find the more you get to know them. I would encourage people to not only read the above mentioned book but really study authentic points, then get a hold of some fakes that you know are fake and compare them. Many times under 10X you can see the flaking scars are fresh, tiny flakes that didn't pop off all the way appear white. The flaking ridge scars will be "sharp". Sometimes it's the shape that just isn't right. Sometimes it's the material. Real patina is your friend though, it's very difficult to replicate. Some forms of patina are impossible to replicate. Many stones change color only with time and if you are familiar with that type of stone you will be able to spot a freshly flaked one from an old one. Folks, there are A LOT of fakes out there right now, some are hard for the experts to tell apart. If you're in doubt even a little bit it's probably for good reason. I personally went so far as to learn how to flintknapp myself, not to fake points but to learn. It took me several years to learn how and a lot of cut fingers but I did it. Then I started making atl-atls and using my points to target a variety of material, wood, ground, hay, gravel, racoons, etc. WOW did I learn a lot about point breakage and wear patterns!! I encourage everybody to try it.

 

[DigEmAll]

This brings up a question of ethics...

I have a pretty extensive collection of everything indian...
this includes MANY broken points and such.

I have been wanting to learn how to make points for a while now, but not to make fake points.  I want to be able to repair some of the "would be very nice points" that have something minor like a 1/4 inch piece of the tip missing.

Case in point... I have a BEAUTIFUL, tiger-striped, back half of what was probably an eight inch spear.  The part that I have is about four inches and would make a BEAUTIFUL point if so repaired.

Would I be wrong to repair it?

 

[Cannonman17]

I wouldn't repair how you are thinking, you would be altering the original artifact and wreck it!! You can however fix it to look like it originally did. This is really an art form all of it's own that took me a long while to learn but here's what you do. Either send it to a professional to restore or try it yourself first. You can buy these clay like substances that you mix together and they harden (like bondo) but there are many different compmanies who make similar products, I use the same stuff for my ceramic restoration as I do my point restoration, it doesn't shrink, you work it like clay, when it's almost dry you carve it to match what you think the remainder of the point looked like. Mix paint with the clay to match the color of the stone. When I first started out the points looked great restored but I could never match the colors right, in fact I still have a hard time but have gotten much better. Mixing the color to me isn't that important though because I repair my broken points not to fool somebody into thinking it's a perfect point but rather to help them an myself more easily visualize what the point must have looked like. If you have more questions about the specifics just email me.