11” Barbed Axe MI.

[Sunny Side]

I had to get the help of my friend who is very good with material ID. He called it “artic glacial slate”. Or red Canadian slate.

 

[mainejman]

Nice looking ax..that looks like pecked hardstone...I cant imagine it being slate...mjm

 

[Sunny Side]

Nice looking ax..that looks like pecked hardstone...I cant imagine it being slate...mjm

No quartz or feldspar makes it metamorphic that I do know.

 

[MAMucker]

Mjm, I thought the same thing.
Not sure what to ask. Hopefully, someone will explain if there were axes made of slate.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Slate is usually ground, not pecked and polished. I'm unsure if you can even peck slate, I'd guess no. Gary

 

[Rookster]

That is one nice artifact. Congratulations

 

[dirstscratcher]

Slate is usually ground, not pecked and polished. I'm unsure if you can even peck slate, I'd guess no. Gary

Most slate banner stone preforms I have seen were pecked. I have no idea what the material Sunny Side's axe is but I suspect it may look different in hand.

Ps, I have a partially finished broken birdstone tha is als pecked to shape.

 

[fishstick]

Most slate banner stone preforms I have seen were pecked. I have no idea what the material Sunny Side's axe is but I suspect it may look different in hand.

I have a unfinished banner that's pecked and not to the polish stage yet.

 

[dirstscratcher]

pecked slate birdstone

This birdstone was pecked to shape, then apparently broken with oly a little of the neck area smoothed.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

Here's a banded slate, full-groove axe that my wife found last summer. You can see some peck marks still visible, even though it got a little banged up by the disc. I think the bit damage was much older than the scratches on the face.



Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[joshuaream]

Most slate in North America isn't the classic looking banded slate, a lot of it is just relatively fine grained rock that can be any color from grey to black to purple to red. By the time it's worked, polished and patinated it can be really hard to identify in hand, let alone on a picture.

Not to pile on, but this is one of the few relics I have with me in Hong Kong. An early stage wing bannerstone made from banded slate.