Uniface knife? Central Ohio

[CGriff61]

Only blackish material like this I saw in the entire field. Coshocton flint?

[paohrocks]

Low grade Coshocton, looks like a waste flake.

[gregszybala]

Could be a very crude preform. Loaded with stacks.

[sailorjoe]

I think yes to the two previous posts.

[antmike915]

I was thinking possible unfinished preform.

[Holden Coalfield]

Can I ask what "stacks" are?

[Ron Kelley]

When a flake does not feather out you get a step fracture at the end. It is difficult to knap through a big step fracture. If you send another flake in the same direction it will most likely step at the same place. As these step fractures pile up you get a "stack" of them.

[Holden Coalfield]

Gotcha

Thanks!

[Holden Coalfield]

Like in this photo? Not mine, just looked for what you're talking about want to make sure I understand

[Ron Kelley]

You have it Holden. Typically the steps would be closer together to form a "Stack".

[clovisoid]

Uniface points are generally smooth on one side, as would a waste flake be.

I see a small biface made from low grade coshocton. Perfectly useful stuff. They were probably knapped quickly, mostly to knock down the weight and discard chunks with internal flaws/cracks. If you are near one of the outcrops it might have been discarded, if you are a good distance from the source it might have just been a blank that was used/discarded/lost or potentially cached. A decent knapper could turn that into a any one of the smaller Woodland/Mississippian style arrowheads.

If you google Coshocton Preform Cache you'll see some similar style pieces (both actual caches and just one off bifaces.)

[CGriff61]

Super helpful! Thanks for the great guidance!