Your opinions please on "blood tip" arrowheads

[Crowfriend]

Greetings, I am interested in any thoughts on what I call Blood tips. It seems to me that some arrowheads are purposefully fashioned with this feature. Maybe they were thought to produce a successful hunt. I haven't found any info on this but it seems to me they should have their own sort of designation as I think they are pretty special.

 

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[willjo]

That material when heat treated turns red and the tip could be the outer edge of the material that was left when the knapper, knapped it. It only turns red on the outer surface.

 

[coosakid]

Never heard of a blood point but you might be on to something. Here's one from Alabama. I always figured they had to go through alot of rocks to make one like this. Cool post, hope someone more knowledgeable chimes in

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[coosakid]

Cool point too

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[T.C.]

Here's a Molly point that has a blood tip also.....I think they are kind of rare. Personal find....Oregon.

 

[monsterrack]

Willjo nailed it and for the ones made out of agate, it just happened that way. You have to think about it this way, points were a tool that was to be used and most of the time broken when used. Nice points guys

 

[joshuaream]

To expand a bit on what Willjo wrote, some materials are heat treated before working and sometimes points get exposed to heat after being made (cooking fires, forest/grass fires, fire pit built on old camp site, etc.)

One common explanation for the colored tips is that they are often the thinnest part of the point, and a cooking fire might expose it to enough heat to bring about the color change.

Another common explanation is knappers will try to maximize small pieces of material (to get the biggest point possible from a piece of material.) When they do that, the tip and the corners often have a bit of cortex or in some cases colorful material from the rind of the cobble.

Plus they just look cool, so maybe the maker saw a nice color band on a chunk of flint and he worked it into the tip.

 

[T.C.]

"Plus they just look cool, so maybe the maker saw a nice color band on a chunk of flint and he worked it into the tip."

I like to believe this statement is the main reason.....red being their sacred color.