Flakes!!

[chase]

It is a key component of all campsites. Most are scrutinized for work/wear. Some get picked up and taken home. The methods vary per the individual hunter. Like some use a staff to flip the flakes out to look at them and leave them where they lay. Others gather them up and put them into piles, and others carry a plastic bag and cart them all home. The more you find them the less likely you pick them up and carry them home. They are regarded as waste. In Lithic poor areas most were utilized in one fashion or another, and in other areas they litter the ground like a carpet. But they all tell a story of sorts. There are percussion flakes. pressure flakes. fluting flakes, thinning flakes, finishing flakes, retouch flakes, and many other types, such as bladlets from a core. I would like to have a discussion on flakes and what others can share, on there take on flakes. Oh and I wont flake out on ya all.

[CMD]

I'm surprised by the mind-eye ability to spot flakes on real busy surfaces. Some fields are busy with many rocks. Here in New England anyway. Pretty much the reason farm families left New England for places like Ohio. But on a beach, or a gravel/ rock bar, it can be a carpet of rocks and I'll walk along and stop to pick up a flake 1/5th the size of my little fingernail. And I think, "if there is a point here, I gotta spot it, right? If I can find a spec of flint, I can't be walking by points, can I?" As far as I'm concerned, I walk by points every time out, but those itsy bitsy flakes can't hide anymore :rolf: The mind-eye recognition of a flake is second nature, but they took most of the points with them
We always save flint and jasper flakes, this ain't Ohio after all. Very unusual to find a jasper flake that has not been anciently retouched or utilized.
Here's my new favorite flake. Josh sent it to me. It's a Missouri flake and looks like it was a tool....

[COahFinder]

So so many chips I keep them in a vase. Jasper, flint, obsidian, black obsidian, and look Chase I found some chert!!!

[chase]

Thanks for sharing those flakes Justin.

[Jeffery Howle]

I bring home just about all flakes and material I find...This is some from my last trip out. I clean them and look at them and have found small points and worked pieces that I didn't notice because of dirt. This is why I bring them home. :lol:

[Jeffery Howle]

This is piece I found the other day...Have only found one more like it in my area.

[acepro]

wow jeffery! nice flake!

[WNCcreekpicker]

Here is the stuff that I find in WNC. Lots of quartz, and brown or grey chert(?)Have a few things that look like they have additional work on them. Some have been found in the creek but mostly in a field that I hunt along the creek. I know that the quartz is native but not sure about the other materials. Maybe coming in over the mtn from Tenn. When you are finding lots of flakes in a certain area along with pottery and points, does that mean that this could be a possible campsite?

[gregszybala]

Yep!
  ..........

[OnewiththewilD]

heres an awesome flake tool.its the only piece of heat treated material ive found,im pretty sure it was a yellow jasper originally.its a nice flake that has very fine edge work on all its existing sides.this comes from the same stretch of beach JMATT just found that possible fluted base at. :whistle:

[JoshinMO]

Really nice flake of heat treated burlington. :woohoo: Only thing i ever found in that ditch. :huh:

[Rock queen]

Yep I pick em all up cuts down on the competition on my huntin spots ..... No flakes usually deters them that's an old tractor rim. 6'x2'

[Ron Kelley]

Hey RQ, Sounds like a good idea. I Would think that it would help you when hunting the same area as well.
You won't be spending time looking over those same flakes.

[OnewiththewilD]

wow! now thats a flake pile RQ! when that rim starts spilling over let me know,i'll gladly take whatever dosnt fit! :laugh:

[waterglass]

I'm not sure I can out flake RQ but consider this a place holder post for pictures. I think there may be something to trampling. Alot of the flakes I find are very small.
I picked these up in about twenty minutes while walking over an area where I find quite a bit of stuff. It is about an acre and a half in size. Sorry about the light quality Majic hour had just passed.
whole pile

lower part

upper part