What do I make from this?

[gstoneberg]

I grabbed a new spall to work tonight.  It started like this:



The initial thinning went very well and I got to a preform quickly.



Looks fine so far.  But a side view shows the problem...and if you look at the left-most (first) picture above you can see a big dip on the left side of the rock extending about 2/3 of the way across.



I'm stymied now with what to do.  Any ideas?  I should've looked closer before I started.  I don't know if I can make anything from it.

George

[Prarie Bowyer]

Are neolithic spear points all perfectly knapped? 

[cowboy]

That looks Georgetown'ish George . I picked up a ton of that stuff and most of it has those fractures in it like that. If ya take it real easy it might not break but if it does i see a couple of nice triangles in there..

[JackCrafty]

Yep, it's got at least one serious fault line running through it.  Drop it a couple times and it will break apart where that crack is.  Then see if you can make a couple smaller points, like Paul said.

[gstoneberg]

As always, you guys were right on the money.  It took just one drop to get this.



I saw 2 points in there too, but it didn't work out that way.  The narrow end of the rock knapped completely different on the 2 sides.  One side was wonderful, flakes peeled off like butter.  The other side stepped on virtually every hit.  I finally ran out of width and gave up.  Then, I went to the other half.  It went better, still very tough rock, especially at the base.  I got a point though and should have stopped...but I thought I could get the notches a little deeper...



Shux.

George

[Sparrow]

That looks awful familiar    Better luck next point  '  Frank

[gstoneberg]

Thanks Frank.  Sadly my last few points have not been picture worthy.  It got so bad I'm taking a weekend off to work on bows.  Maybe my fortunes will improve when I get back at it.

George

[Prarie Bowyer]

I have periods like that with other stuff.  It's usualy a product of rushing, corner cutting (no pun intended), or just being in the wrong mind frame gets me out of the groove. 

Walk away from it for a bit is a good idea and take a step back, work on something easier and practice your technique.  Not that I'm a knapper, yet.  But in general that is what has helped me with other stuff, Carving, technical trading, bow making etc.

[gstoneberg]

Yes, you're probably right.  Today I had a friend over reloading .308 ammo.  When he got going I went over to the tarp and started on a point.  Finished it just after he left.  Did more pressure flaking on this one than normal, but you'd never know it by looking.  I still stink at running flakes out to the center with pressure.  I also lost the symmetry at the base.  As always, I had one beautifully thin deep notch and the other one stalled.  By the time I got it going again I had to open the good one up to match.  At least it's something I can put on an arrow at 130gr.

George

[Jimbob]

Thats a nice lookin point George!