Badlands knives

[quito]

Plate chalcedony is found in the badlands of western South Dakota for one place. The material comes out in a layer about 1/4 inch thick. Most of the artifacts I’ve seen are not highly refined. Here are a couple examples of badlands knives that I have acquired. Looks hard to work, but has a very strong edge when it is worked.

 

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[Kray Gelder]

Nature made preforms. Cool.

 

[quito]

natural preform is a good accurate description . I have a friend that has hundreds of preforms of this material that were found over a hundred miles or so from the source.

 

[11KBP]

There are also outcrops of Plate Chalcedony located in the badlands in the far northwestern corner of Nebraska.
Most of the artifacts I have seen made of this material were knives knifes similar to the ones you posted. I personally have seen very few points made of this material. We have found knives made of this material in south central Nebraska, 300 miles from the Nebraska source.

 

[arrow86]

Interesting, they look razor sharp

 

[quito]

Interesting, they look razor sharp

Well, i wouldn’t say they are that sharp now, and I don’t know how sharp they were newly made, but I am positive they were/are a very durable blade. The material seems hard as heck! And probably part of the reason they were mainly knives. To hard to successfully work down much further.

 

[quito]

There are also outcrops of Plate Chalcedony located in the badlands in the far northwestern corner of Nebraska.
Most of the artifacts I have seen made of this material were knives knifes similar to the ones you posted. I personally have seen very few points made of this material. We have found knives made of this material in south central Nebraska, 300 miles from the Nebraska source.

i

There is a lot of nice material between nw Nebraska and sw South Dakota. We hunt the grasslands for agates and stuff and artifacts appear there as well.
Thanks for the information! i was pretty sure this material was available elsewhere nearby. I wonder if North Dakota isn’t home to some as well.

I am gonna have to go through all my stuff now and see if I can find a point or something else made from it.

 

[quito]

This plainview is made of the same material, and is one of my favorite points.

 

[11KBP]

This plainview is made of the same material, and is one of my favorite points.

Very nice point. Interestingly one of the few points I have seen made of this material is quite similar to yours.
This one was found by a Colorado hunter and I believe it was found near the Colorado-Nebraska border.

I also have an image of a corner tang made from plate chalcedony that someone once posted but I failed to get more info on it. Perhaps someone here will recall this image of the knife and provide information on the find location.

 

[Hippy]

Very nice point. Interestingly one of the few points I have seen made of this material is quite similar to yours.
This one was found by a Colorado hunter and I believe it was found near the Colorado-Nebraska border.

I also have an image of a corner tang made from plate chalcedony that someone once posted but I failed to get more info on it. Perhaps someone here will recall this image of the knife and provide information on the find location.

I believe the plate chalcedony tang knife is an Iowa piece if i remember correctly. That would be the only one I know of from Iowa.

We have a similar material in Eastern Iowa called Warsaw or Croton Tabular that naturally occurs in thin tablets. It was used primarily in the late paleo early archaic a little, but then extensively used by the Hopewell. There's one site I hunt in Muscatine County that has preforms made from that stuff laying all over the place. I believe the natives were bring back small tabs and trying to knap them and see how well they'd work. There's very few refined points made of it to be found though.

Hippy

 

[Hippy]

Neat looking pieces Quito. I've seen a few plate chalcedony pieces, but not many. A friend of mine has a large Dakotas' collection so i get to see it from time to time.

Do you still have that KRF dovetail by any chance? That's really a unique piece.

Hippy

 

[quito]

Neat looking pieces Quito. I've seen a few plate chalcedony pieces, but not many. A friend of mine has a large Dakotas' collection so i get to see it from time to time.

Do you still have that KRF dovetail by any chance? That's really a unique piece.

Hippy

i sold that dove to a friend, another local collector. He offered me more than I could turn down.
Except personal finds, I will sell.
.