Followup to Breaking the Dry Spell

[Scorpion68]

Thought I'd post a side view of the point I found yesterday. I thought it was unusual for a point to have a different material color on the inside. Most of my broken points are the same color all the way through but the surface on this point is lighter??



Am I missing something here?? ...Chuck

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Chuck, The point has a nice patina. When it was freshly knapped it was dark on the outside. The chip is a recent chip: The chipped area has not had adequate time to patinate.

[Scorpion68]

AAAAAAHHHHHHSSSSSSOOOOOOO !! as they say in Japan - which loosely translates to Oh, I see. I never even considered patination in the equation. Thanks Ron for another lesson.

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Chuck, It takes a long time to get a patina like that. It will always be obvious to artifact enthusiasts that the point is an ancient point because of that patina. That is one of the things we use to distinguish between ancient and modern points.

[Scorpion68]

Thanks again Ron. It seems I'm learning everyday and that's a good thing. I know what patina is as I was a coin collector for years before I got caught up in arrow heads. However, I never really thought about how the patina can be a tell on age and authenticity of a point. Funny how I never put that together, Huh.

[sailorjoe]

Hi Chuck. Ron is spot on regarding patina that builds up on old points. Patina can result on different colors on the surface depending on many factors. When Ft. Payne chert lies buried in the soil for a few thousand years then it often develops a whitish patina and it often is pretty thick so that when you find it then it looks white but deep inside is a gray colored stone that looks like many of the flakes that you are finding.

[Scorpion68]

Thanks Joe - I've had a lesson from this post. All this time I was thinking the surface was the actual color of my points and never gave a second thought about patina. Live and learn, Huh.