Broken knives

[Sabre52]

Howdy folks, Unfortnately,most all the knives around here are partials or brokes. Don't know of it's from past plowing, cows and horses or breaks during knapping. Anyway, here are a few of the better hunks. Most the knives seem to have square or rectangular bases and man some must have been quite large, and several are really thin and translucent. Locals say the white ones have been burnt over but it may be a natural patina.

broken knives by lonerider652000, on Flickr

[jasoninsd]

Mel, thanks for posting these! I love seeing a picture like that...to imagine the history those pieces could tell if they could only talk!

[jamesp]

Nice points Sabre52. Comparing to ruler some of those are huge. Albites ? Pedernales ? I know you know the chert.

You mention fires. Coastal plain chert over this way quickly shatters when they burn the understory brush.
This is a shame because of the mass destruction to artifacts. Collections have been ruined due to house fires too.,

[Fossilman]

Excellent 👍

[Sabre52]

These are actually chert but around here everyone calls them types of flint. Pedernales chert (really looks like pet wood sometimes) Edwards blue flint (actually black to gray, not blue), root beer flint, and what we call tortilla flint that occurs in flat pale seams and is really fun to knapp. Some of the pale stuff has been heat treated or burned over by fires. Some of the camp sites really show a lot of heat-treated flakes that can be quite colorful but the dark gray seems the most commonly worked as it comes in huge nodules and veins. One of our creeks actually has a crossing we ride across composed of a huge vein of the Edwards blue and one campsite is right by a vein about 10 inches thick that has plainly been worked.

[jamesp]

Jul 27, 2022 16:37:59 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

These are actually chert but around here everyone calls them types of flint. Pedernales chert (really looks like pet wood sometimes) Edwards blue flint (actually black to gray, not blue), root beer flint, and what we call tortilla flint that occurs in flat pale seams and is really fun to knapp. Some of the pale stuff has been heat treated or burned over by fires. Some of the camp sites really show a lot of heat-treated flakes that can be quite colorful but the dark gray seems the most commonly worked as it comes in huge nodules and veins. One of our creeks actually has a crossing we ride across composed of a huge vein of the Edwards blue and one campsite is right by a vein about 10 inches thick that has plainly been worked.

Cherts with yellows/oranges/reds seem to have stronger color reactions to heat Mel. Iron is probably the major color contributor.
The colorful bryozoan rich chert known as Savannah River chert is one such colorful chert. Forest fires are a major contributor in that dry area. One can find many overly heat treated surface finds over a wide range in many cases. Forest fire cooked finds are obvious due to the quantity of overheated material at the surface and well heated material found insulated by 5 to 10 inches of sandy soil. Artifacts laying on the surface do not fare well in such fires.

[Sabre52]

Neat information James. I have a little of the Savannah River material in my rockpile. It is really interesting stuff. I had some pretty colorful examples, but the general stuff seems kind of cream/goldish with black centers. Never tried to knapp any but it looks good for that.

[jamesp]

Jul 31, 2022 14:58:54 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Neat information James. I have a little of the Savannah River material in my rockpile. It is really interesting stuff. I had some pretty colorful examples, but the general stuff seems kind of cream/goldish with black centers. Never tried to knapp any but it looks good for that.

It is variable in color. It heats to a wide range of colors. Must be a variety of metal salts in the area ? Like ocean water elements, cherts subjected to ocean water almost always has black and then succeeding layers can be quite color variable.