Arrowhead?

[Adjove]

I found this stone on a beach of the Mackinaw River. Edges appear to be worked.

 

[bigfoot1]

dosnt look knapped to me.looks like an interesting rock tho.My guess only.

I humbly stand corrected...

 

[Get-the-point]

What you have there is a archaic period knife....It was flaked into form. Its a nice find. Keep searching the area you found it. You will find more artifacts....

 

[bsit1361]

Cool looking knife too

 

[Charl]

Love flake tools. That's a nice flake knife. Similar to what's shown at the link. They date to all culture periods.

http://ksartifacts.info/14RC424/14RC424-5 unifacial flake knife.jpg

 

[old digger]

Nice flake knife!

 

[Adjove]

Thanks all for great info and comments! I never would have guessed a knife. I was kayaking when nature called, so I pulled up to a rocky beach. I stepped out, took a few steps and behold this peculiar looking stone. I have been on this river hundreds of times literally and and never found an Native American artifact.

 

[NC field hunter]

That is probably the nicest flake tool I have ever seen.

 

[rock]

Thats a cool story as to how you found it. You have probably stepped over them many times and never even noticed the artifacts. It takes time to see the difference. Most think they are just rocks. I look forward to seeing your next find. Good Luck, rock

 

[Tnmountains]

Yep a big reduction flake with secondary edge work. A quick sharp tool. That is my guess. Nice find.

 

[chase2]

Love flake tools. That's a nice flake knife. Similar to what's shown at the link. They date to all culture periods.

http://ksartifacts.info/14RC424/14RC424-5 unifacial flake knife.jpg

Charl, very nice link! Also "They date to all culture periods." It is impossible to date a knife of this nature to a culture or time period, unless it is found in context with other artifacts. It can with relative association, to a site specific culture site, but is not considered fact.

One other thought! I have never liked the term uni-faced/uni-facial, which implies there is only one face. For me the term A Bi-facial artifact with uni-facial work is correct. But this is just a thought by me. Again not to hi-jack a thread, but here is a knife I found earlier this year, with minimal work. This is to demonstrate how simple a tool can be and can be over looked by the most experienced artifact hunter.

Now you all proly saying to yourselves " Oh gawd not the new guy again, wont he just shut up!" Yeah I will back off, this is your site and I am new here. Do not want to make a pest of myself.
Again thanks! I am just use to giving my two cents worth.

 

[Charl]

Chase2, I agree it's very easy to overlook flake tools. In my neck of the woods, jasper is uncommon, and most jasper flakes show usage as flake tools or simply utilized flakes. But after awhile, most collectors will spot flake tools. If you're trying to put together an unbiased collection from a site, such casual tools are part of the assemblage. Except for some specialized tools, they can't be dated out of context the way point types can.

The link came from this page, which has many examples of flake tools...

http://ksartifacts.info/14RC424/14RC424artifacts.html

 

[bmartin0693]

Very obvious edge work. That multi-color material looks cool too. Nice find!

 

[Adjove]

I also thought the coloring was very cool. I found this in the same area the Mackinaw Cache was found. http://www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/
http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2001marchmackinaw.htm

 

[Gold Maven]

Not as sharp as it once was after it's time in the river, but I bet if you tried you still do some serious cutting with it.

Nice find, often overlooked.

 

[katdancing]

Knife if so great. Glad you found it - good luck to you