A Crying Shame

[welsbury]

I know this happens to anyone who puts a shovel in the dirt,it makes you sick for awhile.Try to be gentle and careful. Thing has lasted for a long time, pristine, till crunch. Broke in about 3 main pieces and a shatter spot. Didn't know I even hit it until I found the pieces. Not the first, sad to say, hopefully not the last.Would have been a nicely chipped thin knife. Found it late Sept. I found a nice little arrowpoint ,2 pieces of points, and this one. Boo Hoo.

 

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[devldog]

Unfortunately, it does sometimes happen. Still a nice piece though. I read the title of your thread and I thought that a bus load of attorneys had gone off the side of a cliff with one empty seat. Lol

 

[Kray Gelder]

Oh man. A real heartbreaker! It's a beauty, though.

 

[joshuaream]

Ouch!

My worst is a shell gorget that I found with the bottle probe. I felt something, and pushed through. Pulled up and felt it again, punching through it. And on the third time I decided it was worth digging to see what it was.

Three pencil size holes about an inch apart from each other.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

I don’t dig, but I can sympathize. Same thing happened to a buddy of mine. His split into two pieces so he glued it back together. I was admiring it and he pointed out the break and told me the story. Said he felt like puking when it happened.

I’m sure that I do some damage with the disks and chisels. Last spring I found a nice base of a point that was some beautiful, even, light brown material. It had a fresh metal mark on what would have been inside the point. I’m sure that I broke it with the tillage tool. I told myself that it had a broke tip anyways to make myself feel better. I searched around for the other half and I’ll keep looking in that area whenever I’m there.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[welsbury]

Unfortunately, it does sometimes happen. Still a nice piece though. I read the title of your thread and I thought that a bus load of attorneys had gone off the side of a cliff with one empty seat. Lol

Har!We couldn't get so lucky.

 

[welsbury]

Oh man. A real heartbreaker! It's a beauty, though.

It is a heartbreaker when you bust the good ones

 

[welsbury]

Ouch!

My worst is a shell gorget that I found with the bottle probe. I felt something, and pushed through. Pulled up and felt it again, punching through it. And on the third time I decided it was worth digging to see what it was.

Three pencil size holes about an inch apart from each other.

I've done the same thing on bottle probing, Is that glass? Poke it again till it breaks,yep it was glass. Dumb a--.

 

[welsbury]

I don’t dig, but I can sympathize. Same thing happened to a buddy of mine. His split into two pieces so he glued it back together. I was admiring it and he pointed out the break and told me the story. Said he felt like puking when it happened.

I’m sure that I do some damage with the disks and chisels. Last spring I found a nice base of a point that was some beautiful, even, light brown material. It had a fresh metal mark on what would have been inside the point. I’m sure that I broke it with the tillage tool. I told myself that it had a broke tip anyways to make myself feel better. I searched around for the other half and I’ll keep looking in that area whenever I’m there.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

It is inevitable you're gonna hit something. You will have to pick them up faster

 

[A2coins]

It happens just gotta be a little more careful when digging

 

[sandchip]

Unfortunately, I can sympathize too. Knocked the tip off a nice little Osceola Greenbriar and one side of the base of a Big Sandy years ago, and I called myself being careful. Sometimes, if the steel blade edge of a shovel just touches some of these heavily patinated cherts, it's gonna at least leave a mark. As far as bottles go, Wels, I saw a Saunders Compound Syrup of Styllingia, G. Coster, Mobile with a little round hole in the side. You guessed it, probe. One of only two known examples of this beautiful Southern colored pontil medicine. That had to be an ipecac moment!

 

[southfork]

It always hurts I've busted the barbs off of perfect rock crystal Gunther points a few times and many other points trying to save from construction sites .

 

[welsbury]

Unfortunately, I can sympathize too. Knocked the tip off a nice little Osceola Greenbriar and one side of the base of a Big Sandy years ago, and I called myself being careful. Sometimes, if the steel blade edge of a shovel just touches some of these heavily patinated cherts, it's gonna at least leave a mark. As far as bottles go, Wels, I saw a Saunders Compound Syrup of Styllingia, G. Coster, Mobile with a little round hole in the side. You guessed it, probe. One of only two known examples of this beautiful Southern colored pontil medicine. That had to be an ipecac moment!

That is enough to make ya throw up.

 

[welsbury]

It always hurts I've busted the barbs off of perfect rock crystal Gunther points a few times and many other points trying to save from construction sites .

If you just touch em with the shovel they usually are dinged. I think the ears get bound up and broke in screen at times too,or just the tip.

 

[sandchip]

If you just touch em with the shovel they usually are dinged. I think the ears get bound up and broke in screen at times too,or just the tip.

Yep, it's usually just a crapshoot in what part of the point you contact with the shovel and/or how the point is oriented relative to the shovel. If you contact the face of the point, usually everything is okay unless you're a complete madman, but if you hit the tip, auricle, barb, etc., damage of some sort is going to result, regardless of how gentle you were. I've always said that if I could have any superpower, it would be the ability to look into the ground in three dimensions. Dream on!

 

[catherine1]

That's a really nice artifact save no matter that it was damaged while digging. I have damaged a few while digging myself. But only when breaking the ground with the shovel to get the sod off to widen the hole. But then I have dug up one half of a artifact that the owner broke, and the other half later also for a reunion. I always checked the broken ones to make sure I didn't break it. That flaking looks paleo to me. HH.

 

[welsbury]

That's a really nice artifact save no matter that it was damaged while digging. I have damaged a few while digging myself. But only when breaking the ground with the shovel to get the sod off to widen the hole. But then I have dug up one half of a artifact that the owner broke, and the other half later also for a reunion. I always checked the broken ones to make sure I didn't break it. That flaking looks paleo to me. HH.

Thanks Catherine1. Hope you ended up with the reunited point. It is good practice to keep things separated just for that reason. This piece does have nice transverse flaking on most of it.