What is baker paper?

[Emaner377]

What are some of the things to look for?

[pkfrey]

The first thing I look for is crushing deep within the notches, if there are notches. Anciently chipped notches will show flakes intentionally removed with a single pressure flake. Crushing is when the edge looks chewed up, because the knapper couldn't remove the flakes in one smooth removal with the flaking tool. Crushing is evident from to many attempts to remove the edge flakes. Look at the ridges between the flake scars. They should be slightly smooth from wind and water polish. If they're still sharp, that's a sign of more recent flaking. Also look at these ridges for fine parallel grinding marks. This indicates the knapper rubbed the piece with a fine grit piece of sandpaper to make the scars look smooth, but this leaves behind fine parallel striations. In the hinge fractures look for a flake that's ( or flakes ) that haven't been detached. If you see one and you can pop it off with your fingernail, the point was never in the ground. These loose or hanging flakes did occur, but it didn't take very long after the point was lost for a microscopic bit of moisture to seep under these flakes, and when the first frost hit, the moisture would freeze, expand and pop these flakes off. On some lithics, there are more hanging flakes than others. Especially on chalcedony. But if present, the flake has to be yellowed from oxidation. Look for attached mineral deposits, including iron, limonite, caliche, black organic stains from the piece being in the water. Also look for streaks of metal, either shiny metallic like from the end of a nail, or orangish streaks from a copper flaking tool. Copper residue may be present, but if the artifact is ancient, the copper would have corroded to a greenish color. Look at the edge grinding, especially at the basal part. The grinding should be " rolled ", that's smooth with a nice rolled look. If you see facets, square little faces on the grinding, that's recent basal grinding. You don't want to see faceted grinding on points that are expected to be ground. These is just a few things. There's more, but this would get you started. After the inspection of a point for proper weathering and patination, then the artifacts have to be examined for the correct typology. That's another subject!

[Emaner377]

Very informative! Newbie here just trying to learn! Thank you

[pkfrey]

Emaner, There's a lot more to it. Especially when buying, typology plays a big part. With typology, you have to at least make sure the lithic material being used matches the type of point, or artifact, for the area it was reported found. And then the type has to have the correct flaking style. Certain points were flaked with consistently, and rarely fall out of a known flaking pattern. An extreme example would be if someone said they just found an obsidian fluted point in NY, that would be a red flag. Even hardstone artifacts, like bannerstones, birdstones, axes, etc., have certain styles for different regions. Again, the Lamoka facted adze is a restricted type. I wouldn't expect an authentic one to be found in say, Ark.! It takes awhile to authenticate and learn most of what you need to know. It's not over night, and this hobby is a life long learning experience. And then when you think you have it figured out, my rule of thumb comes into play, " There's an exception to every rule!" A few years ago I noted a lot of what looked to be authentic points, getting killed by authenticators. I happened to have a chance to look at a few of those. They turned out to be authentic. They were killed because of a silvery, metal looking residue around the edges. I use acetone a lot to lightly rub the surface of an artifact to see if any applied patination comes off. When I did this with a few killed points, the silvery residue came off. They were points that at one time had a Perino Paper, but the paper got lost. The silvery residue was left over pencil marks from Mr. Perino. He would trace the outline of the point on his COA with a pencil, which left behind lead residue!! Another exception are copper marks. If you purchase some points that have copper marks, but the copper is green and corroded, that can be ok. It's from the points being attached in a frame from the old days with wire, and then taken out. A lot can be told about an artifact before it even goes under the scope. It takes time, but it's worth the effort.

[FolsomG10]

Some may be real, most are too good to be true. When I see a $10,000-$20,000 "grade 10 Folsom point" on eBay with a starting bid of $0.99 and it looks like it was made yesterday, and Baker gave it his 'COA' someone's breaking a law somewhere, I mean come on man. Grade 10+ Texas Folsom Point COA https://ebay.to/2qvV25v

[Ron Kelley]

That Gal is making a lot of money. Click on "See other items" One buyer left negative feedback. I wonder if the same flintknapper made all her points?

[utilized flake]

Hollow gal yeah that andice drill is just laughable! As Mr Frey stated its getting worse guys. I wonder if the faker rings bid on each others points to bring up the prices and then back off? Seems like a racket, but there must be alot of hungry but dumb collectors out there...sheesh!

[clovisoid]

I love Baker Papers. They are the easiest relics to avoid buying.

Yes, sad situation where there are so many relics from so many sellers with amazing feed back that if you were starting fresh with only eBay as a guide, you might conclude that they are the relics to collect. (Affordable, everyone loves them because no one complains, typically great quality relics, etc.)