This was my job today. It's a tough ol' job but someone's gotta do it! Making arrowheads while cooking more rock under the fire so I can make more arrowheads!

haha.my picture got crossed with someone elses in the old interweb.. here is the one I actually posted!

Wow nice work! What does the fire do for the process?

Ahh it all worked out,good way to start off the day and your post. Heat treating some rock for knapping? To bad your in Florida I could use some lessons from someone like you, very nice work,looks like you know what your doing. Keep knapping and don't forget to take a nap now and then. Jeff F

Amazing work. If you ever get to PA I'd love my boy scouts to see your work. You are an outstanding talent!

What part of Florida are you in Ryan?

Ryan did you used to call San Antonio home?

Great job.

There is no way I would put up with those working conditions! You are not in a union?

even if the first picture was wrong, it looked like a good start of the day. nice knapping.

thanks guys

Wudstix- nope never been to san antonio

mike- I'm in Brooksville

for those interested in understanding the heat treating process, here is a video i did a while back.

Cool stuff!

How would a stone point work on a moose or other large animal? Like if you hit a rib bone would it hold up?

Nice work. You da man!

Ryan you nailed it again as usually.Very nice points!

dallsheep.... - I know that people have found buffalo bones with stone points stuck in them. I think a good solid chert point would hold up the best. When it comes to penetration, the bigger the animal, the smaller the point you should use to maximize drag going in, but also in hopes of missing those bigger bones. Native peoples killed these animals with stone points and I know a few modern folks have killed elk with some. I have personally not had the chance to kill an elk or moose with one. I'd sure like to, but it's all about money nowadays unless you are fortunate enough to live close to good public opportunities. What would happen if you hit a bull elk rib head on??? Honestly, I have no clue, but I'd love to try. I think a 600+ gr arrow, and 65# bow would get it in there pretty reliably, but that is speculation on my part of course. The day that I get to fax a stone point through an elk, you all will be first to know except for everyone within shouting distance.

Nice points Ryan.Yep tough job you got. Pappy

"How would a stone point work on a moose or other large animal? Like if you hit a rib bone would it hold up?"

They would die. Do a search here or on Trad Gang for the thread about taking a Bull Bison with stone. One of the Mitten boys did it recently and the pics and post are awesome.

The up side to a well made stone point and arrow is even if they break the edge is sharp as, well, broken glass, and still does it's job.

Very nice work - that level of consistency is really tough for me and I have great respect for those that can do it.

I have a couple of Ryans stone points and their sharper than they look if you can believe that.

Ryan, I dabble in Indian linguistics, and in a Penobscot dictionary I found their word sowanohke, "to make arrowheads"... but the interesting thing is that it goes on to describe using a porcupine quill to drip cold water, one tiny drop at a time, on a heated stone edge. They would have been using mostly Kineo rhyolite, although they also had Munsungan chert available. Anyway, I have some very old Kineo points (about 3,000 Y.B.P.)and they have an amazingly fine serration to their edges; sometimes ten or twelve per inch (see second from left in photo)... which makes me wonder if they were using quills way back then. Have you ever heard of this or tried it?

Kerry

Excellent looking heads! Good luck with them.

crookedstix, I have heard some things on and off about natives dropping water on hot rocks. I have my doubts about it personally. From my experience I'd say the second from the left was definitely chipped with a flaker, but I certainly dont know everything about it. I just know that a lot of old books mentioned knapping by water and the way I have come to understand it, it was a prank the natives played on whiteman.. "here just heat this rock in a fire and drip water on it!" They pop pretty good. I actually do think they might have used water to sheer off spalls from extremely large, flat faced boulders of chert. But the quill idea, using a single drop of water is so far the best, most plausible idea I've heard of with using water... but i don't think that I would want to try it

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