Kerrville Style Knife

[Ron Kelley]

The thread by rxrooster showing his artifact Kerrville Knife inspired me to try my hand at knapping one. The knife is 5.5 inches long (That's how big the rock was). The rock I used is Edwards Plateau Chert. I thought that lithic would be right. I considered doing some pressure flaking on the edge but decided to leave it with just percussion work. The cortex covered base is very comfortable in the palm of my hand.

[G10+]

Wow that’s way cool Ron !!!!!!!! Awesome !!!!! Was this any more of a challenge ??

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Everett, It only took a few minutes to knapp. The challenge was to leave the base untouched. Usually I would thin the ends first but on this knife I had to be careful to not extent the flakes to far into the base.

[JoshinMO]

That's cool Ron!

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Josh, It's not very refined but I think the knife is kinda close to the what the ancient people would do.

[Hoss]

Love it you do some awesome work Ron thanks for sharing.

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Matt, I never before left a knife even close to as heavy as this one. I can imagine how this would be a useful tool.

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

nice work Ron

that edwards plateau looks like the rootbeer variety
according to the guy i buy my texas rock from,edwards plateau contains several varieties such as the root beer,even george town is a edwards variety
he says the difference in name is because of the location it is found or because of the color,but claims it all comes from the same layer in the lime stone
he knows his rock and geology(especially the texas stuff) so i believe him

they do seem to be some very useful tools for their size and weight
not only could one us it to down a tree,but also for skinning a critter and cutting it into pieces for eating

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Tim, I have a lot of Edwards and there is quite a variety. Some of it has lots of stripes in it. This one has a variety of colors but not the contrasting stripes. I have some that is homogeneous brown chert.

[Kyflintguy]

Beautiful work on that one Ron, I agree looks like a very handy tool. Very resourceful way to make a usable tool without hafting and all that. Thanks for sharing!

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Josh, I can think of many ways it could be used. Butchering large animals, cutting trees, or even weeding the garden.

[Hi-Lo]

That's neat Ron.

It reminds me of some of the earliest artifacts from Africa, Europe and Asia.

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks David, That is what I thought when I saw this type too.

[OnewiththewilD]

That’s really cool! You got some big flakes across it too, did you use a hammer stone or a copper bopper or an antler billet? It looks like it’s make a great experimental archeology piece to try on a big ole fish or remove a hind quarter of something. If you ever get the opportunity maybe try it out and take progress pics to share!

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Jay, I used a good sized copper bopper and I took some big swings.