Thanks for the tip Cannonman, perhaps I will get lucky some day. I would not want a fake, and there would be that element of doubt no matter what unless you find it yourself. The points and pottery shards in the yard were the one "high point" of the danged monsoon - it rained here every single day from June 24th to a week or so ago, and the rains seem to have un-covered the tidbits; I was not even looking for anything just keeping an eye on the ground (have to watch for snakes) while doing ordinary chores (feed the horses, cut some of the grass and weeds back etc) and would spot a few new pieces just lying on top, like they were washed off. I did do a little digging once (about twenty minutes before the skeeters made it very unpleasant) on the spot where several pieces were, about two feet square and only a few inches down but only found one shard so 'think' the pieces are washing down the hill from above. Only found two points in the "door yard" (area of about a half acre all together) the Rose Springs point was up by the fence. All three have been of stones that do not occur here, even though there is a good sized area with lots of signs of tool making (old fires, hammer stones, cores, shards etc) so I think these were 'discards'. I will post pix of the other two soon, if I can get it right.....(have not sat down and attributed either of the other two, the prettier one looks like the base is snapped off so might be impossible). Heck maybe I will try that tonight - a good pool of expertise here on T-net and it would take me HOURS to attribute, some people can ID many different types at a glance.
I too have tried my hand at flaking a point (using some of the pretty bicolored rock) but can NOT get it right, and the fluting is just hopeless for me. It did give me a lot of respect for those ancients, they really put a lot of effort and skill in making their tools and weapons, more so than (I think) many people give them credit. To me, these bits of stone are really works of art, or dang near that. Some are so striking, (like points made from clear quartz) I cannot imagine just firing it at a deer, knowing full well the arrow could be lost, the point broken by striking a rib or miss and hit a rock etc.
Oroblanco
You could make these and sell them as jewelry, no kidding. That is just gorgeous! Wish I could knap and not have it shatter into six hundred pieces when it is three-fourths done (painfully honest, but I do NOT have the knack for it) and end up with something like that! Way-cool Cannonman, to use the slang, that really should be a jewelry piece.
