Whole vs Broken

[Flint Eastwood]

Hello all...one area of discussion I often arrive upon with fellow arrowhead hunters is fraction of whole vs. broken.

If you make 10 finds, how many are WHOLE?

Let us weigh in...personally my NW PA group agrees about 3 of 10 are whole or mostly whole.

I welcome everyone else’s experiences!

Flint Eastwood

[tomclark]

On average, maybe 1 in 10 for digging or walking for me over all the years. ....and most "whole" points I've found are not first stage they're not classic or well done and often been reworked to funkiness/discard.
They had to have been just lost, lost when hunting, some kind of offering or cache to be perfect.

When digging or hunting an area where the hunting was good way back then..... nice points will be more plentiful. Worksites = MEH lol

[Hal Gorges]

Same here Tom.

[Hal Gorges]

II know more about the ratio of how many hours of hard looking it takes to find a G 7 or 8 point, it took me approximately thirteen hours..and to find G10s it took years, and in fifty years of off and on looking I only ever found three G10+and only one G10++(no breaks or hinge fractures, good symmetry, size and color, great glossy patina . How do you boys fare up yonder.

[Hal Gorges]

Correction: it took thirteen hours or probably more to find a G3 4 or 5 point. And that’s after I got on a good site.

[Flint Eastwood]

Harold,
Interesting point! To ponder hour for G7 and years for a G10 makes us really appreciate them.

Flint Eastwood

[gregszybala]

Maybe one or two in ten. It can be so random.

[Lindenmeier-Man]

I’d say fairly normal 10-1 ratio. I’m looking where the farm implements are not forgiving.

[Lindenmeier-Man]

Good Lord, I’ve got so many brokies. Some were spectacular artifacts too !

[south fork]

Some days nothing but broken points the next mostly whole . Some days I would be lucky to find one point the next a dozen or more . I have a lot of both .

[tomf]

I think my ratio is pretty good. Maybe 5 to 1.

I find far more tips than bases. A good 4 hour site hunt might yield 1 or 2 mostly complete points, 4 or 5 brokes, 4 or 5 scrapers and 10 worked flakes. Creek finds are far rarer but whole point ratio is higher. Maybe 3 to 1.

[Hoosier1993]

Agree with tomf.... even a broken can make your hunt sometimes. Love to find scrapers and working stones. Even pot rock n chips can give ya hope.

[SurfaceHunter]

I may find one good one out of 10 finds but it still will probably have a tip ding. As far as a perfect find it doesn't happen often.

[tomf]

I've found tips that hint at pieces that are very nice indeed. One day...one day..

[Tam]

I need to dig . When you see what Johnny pulls up that’s the stuff well preserved .
I would say 5 out of 10 are whole but field grade .
couple of special ones found on hunt trails . Like Tom said must have been dropped . Not on a camp or any settlement . Those are 8-10 But rare just so rare .

[Sopwith]

1 in 10 sounds right. But on a large creek, it goes up. The water and mud are forgiving, I guess.

[utilized flake]

I find that different types of hunting dictate a different ratio. Creeks vs lakes vs fields. I don't have a ton of experience with the latter two, but I have put a few thousand miles on hip boots in 20 years Of walking creeks. There is no empirical data on my ratios, but it sure feels to me that in the creek there is quality over quantity in my neck of the woods. Probably that's because of site type location I.E. camp sites and hunting sites, having heard many times that broken tips would be higher in number at a hunting site and that broken bases would be more plentiful at a camp site. To me the spear shaft, knife handle, or arrow shaft were as valuable if not more so than the point. So it makes sense that the broken apparatus would be recovered,and then re fitted at camp. My only evidence for that though is a fishing analogy where if something breaks on one of my rods or reels I just secure it and fix it later back in the shop. That's a luxury when bringing four rods to fish with!

[fldwlkr]

Wish I hadn't done the math... it's kinda' depressing. Looking at the past two years, I average one artifact an hour. Every sixth artifact is a "whole" point. Of the eight points from this year, two are "A" frame quality. At least I'm outside.
Man, I wish I hadn't done the math. fldwlkr

[Flint Eastwood]

Artifact per hour seems like silver lining to this math word problem...
Sorry I made you do your homework!
Flint