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How Morrow Mt. points are made

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Zuma:
Yep Chip  that little knot just wouldn't budge.  :-K
 I usually clear them with ease. :OK
Thanks for the sympathy  :D

Let's see um BJ 8)
Zuma

Hummingbird Point:
Zuma,

Good for you tearing that base off to get that knot out.  The old timers would tolerate them in the middle of the blade, but not in the base where they would mess up hafting.  They would have done it just like you did.

Those knots are super common and super annoying in the Virginia quartzite I mostly knap.  Most of the time you don't know they are there until you start sending flakes in and they won't go.  Its like this little middle finger comes up out of the stone.  As Chippinstuff says, the only way to get them (if they are small enough) is to send in a flake with enough energy to dive under the knot and scoop it out, leaving a pock mark or divot in the biface.  And as he he mentions, sometimes the energy wave dives under the knot and keeps going all the way through the piece, snapping it.  At least with brittle quartzite, more commonly the bending stress put on the thinner portions of the biface around the knot can't handle the stress load and the biface snaps.

Any way, I guess i'ts like all defects in the rock that turn up late in the process.  You have to learn to pick your battles.  When it's in the base like that, though, it's got to be blasted out!

Keith

Zuma:

--- Quote from: Hummingbird Point on March 18, 2018, 07:59:51 am ---Zuma,

 Its like this little middle finger comes up out of the stone. ;D ;D )P(
 --- is to send in a flake with enough energy to dive under the knot and scoop it out, leaving a pock mark or divot in the biface.

Keith

--- End quote ---
Great explanation Keith.
I look for divits on big blades I think someone has faked. Also replacing a hinged flake often can create the pock mark.  Something caused the evolution of notches to stems. Perhaps the alatl where points were projected and not stabbed into prey. )P( (SH)
Zuma

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