Off the grid

[Ron Kelley]

I know you never saw a point like this. I just thought it would be fun to make a point shaped like a sword.

I salvaged some flakes from the debitage pile today. These are small enough to be used as actual arrow points: 3/4 inch up to one inch. I only spent a few minutes on them.

[JoshinMO]

Good Knapping! Most madison or triangles out here were made out of small flakes.

[Ron Kelley]

I like this dart point because of the challenge. The spall had two edges with 90 degree sides: (Broken off square). To make it more of a challenge the spall was quite thick. I thinned it down to 1/4 inch at the thickest center. The point measures 2 1/8 X 1 3/4 X 1/4 inch. So it doesn't look special but I like it because I overcame some difficult problems with the stone.

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

nice and symmetrical point
did you zigzag the square edges to remove them?
a little work on your pressure flaking and you will be able to get them edges thinner for and even sharper cutting edge
you have come a long way in a very short time
at this rate you will surpass my abilities in about 2.357 weeks 
then i will be taking pointers from you 
so how little of a rock pile do you have left?
me im down to a few hundred pounds
thank the gods i have up coming knapp ins to attend so i can restock

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

a little trick to help those unreleased flakes
you can heat the point up and rub some bees wax on it
the wax will belt in under those unreleased flakes and nobody will ever see them
some knappers also use shoe polish(the natural i believe) to hide them flakes
novaculite is notorius for them flakes

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Tim, I've heard of guys soaking them in water and then put them in the freezer to remove the flake. I worked the edge with my Ishi stick and then chipped away at it. I bought 20 pounds and have only used a small part of it. I think buying at a knapp in sounds like a good idea. The shipping can be expensive.

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

Ron, ive tried the freeze method, didnt work at all for me
the nice thing about getting rocks at knapp ins,is you get to hand pick each and every one of them
plus then you get to know the dealers on a personal level
i have 3 rock dealers that i buy all my rocks from,one is a good friend of mine
it never fails when i see them at a knapp in,the other two will come walking over every now and again and toss me a piece of rock and say
"see what you can make out of this,and show it to me later"
then when i go buy rock from them,i always get more than what i am actually paying for
one of them usually runs a deal the last day of the knapp in
100 lbs of rock for $100,but i usually end up with about 120 lbs of rock from him
the other guy knows what i kinds of rock that i really like,if he doesnt have a big supply of it on hand
he hides it for me so that when i get  there i get first crack at cherry picking it
he will also put tabs aside for me(tabs are like a natural slab of rock,instead of a nodule)
last time he had set aside about 10 tabs of what he called "texas buckskin".and it was already heat treated
so i bought them all,awesome stuff to work
te other guy(my friend) he always gives me free rocks,a lot of the time its already slabbed and cut into a preform
so all i have to do is flake it
its nice having friends like them