Artifact mail order lists-

[Cannonman17]

Years ago I used to get a mail order artifact list - no pics, just a short description and price. The guy was from Huntville AL I believe. It was nice because he didn't sell just museum grade and pricey things, he had artifacts in all ranges starting out at two or three dollars each and up. Once in a great while I got a fake piece from him but 95% of the stuff was authentic. Does anybody know of any mail lists like this anymore? I really don't want the big company ones with just expensive pieces- would like to find another guy like the one above? If any of you have ANY mail lists could you post them? Thanks in advance!

 

[Cannonman17]

Atlantis- Authentic vs. Ancient vs. Fake - I couldn't agree with your definitions any more, well put.

Oro, yeah, I used an old wood arrow, made my own fletchings from turkey feathers, used fake sinew- ran out of the real stuff... the arrow did work- I got the deer but it wasn't a pretty shot, in fact, about the worst I've ever made- one of those angle through the guts shots that hits every single thing that you don't want an arrow to hit! The arrow passed through the deer and it didn't go far- nothing wasted, it just stunk to high heaven when I feild dressed it.
As far as making bows- I read about it and researched it for a while but it sounds like a lot of work and you really need to know what you're doing- took me ten years to become good at knapping points, I can't/ don't want to spend another ten to get good at bow making. I've made a lot of points over the years and almost never have any for any length of time- always end up giving them away. I don't make as many anymore because it's really hard on the finger joints- starting to get arthritus in some knuckles from making so many over the years and I'm not that old so I figured I should cool it a little. Pluse it makes a real mess that's hard to deal with. Thousands of razor sharp flakes and chips go all over the place, have to put a tarp down or make them in the garage and sweep afterwords- makes me nervous though with my little ones running around- I would not want one of them to get a piece of glass or stone in the foot! More often than not now I wait until I'm out late at night cat fishing or something like that and flake one or two by campfire lite out in the middle of nowhere- don't have to worry about anybody getting hurt by my mess that way. Just out of curiosity, do you have access to obsidian?

 

[bean man]

Wow, its amazing that you got a pass thru and really shows how sharp a stone point can be.
I have arthritus in my hands too and they started hurting when I read your post so I guess I'll
stick with muzzy.
bm

 

[Cannonman17]

It probably wouldn't have gone through had it hit a bone- just used and old recurve bow that I got at an auction for 7$- guess the all guts shot was "lucky". I think part of the reason I have some arthritus starting is because I started knapping when I was about 12 and knapping through all the years when my bone weren't even done growing yet couldn't have been good.. too late now! Now as long as I don't flintknapp when it's cold outside and I don't make more than one or two at a sitting I don't have too many problems.

 

[Oroblanco]

Hi Cannonman and everyone,

I see your point (cheap pun intended) about the bow - might take a LOT of time just for kicks. A good recurve is not SO far out of 'authentic' as many ancient cultures used recurved and even composite bows. Still quite an accomplishment in my opinion - getting in close to a whitetail is never easy (except in a park where they are never hunted) and using a "stone age" weapon to boot! It might not be too tough to make a straight longbow if you had a good blank of Osage or Yew, and when I first got interested in archery the fellow who ran the shop told me that any bow is a good bow, but not any arrow is a good arrow! Not entirely true of course.

We do have a bag full of obsidian nodules we picked up in Nevada, and Beth has had me hunting for them (we have most of our belongings still packed since moving here) so will find them. How big would you need the pieces to be?

Oroblanco

 

[Cannonman17]

Oro, Well how big of a piece I need depends on how lucky I get when doing the initial spauling. In general, the bigger the better but that doesn't mean that a really nice point can't be made from a small piece- just more often the bigger the better. Depends on the quality also. By no means am I an expert- I still end up with a fair amount of waste material. If you send me a piece or two and I am not able to make a point from that I can always send you one or two I have in the desk made from similar material, or send you the one above, or I might even have a few made from obsidian laying around here- if that's okay with you.

 

[Oroblanco]

OK thanks Cannonman, now all I have to do is find them. I don't know exactly how big they are, but if memory serves they were on the smallish size for a core. I tried to make a point out of one, back when we first found them and managed to smash the nodule to bits and cut my hands but no point.

When I find the obsidian and pack it to send to you, I might put in a couple of pieces of this pretty bicolored lava rock (I would call it basalt but never saw any basalt quite like this, and it rings like glass) that the hillside is covered with here - if that is okay with you? The hill has literally thousands of broken shards, cores, hammerstones etc and quite a few "discard" points that are just not finished for some reason. I found two like this a few days ago while filling the water tank up on the hill, I will post a couple of pix of them here because these two really have me puzzled.

Oroblanco

 

[Cannonman17]

Yeah, that local material sounds interesting.