Flint Blanks!!

Bent-Twig · Feb 18, 2010

More stuff fom the "BOX OF ROCKS". Bunch of blanks or blades. There has been a large assortment of stuff in this box.

Th3rty7 · Feb 19, 2010

Nice finds, good looking Ohio material.

Tnmountains · Mar 1, 2010

I see them as tools? Nice big blades. You have a lot of stuff stored away :thumbsup:

naturegirl · Mar 2, 2010

Hey bent-twig, thanks for posting these. Can someone discuss tools or blanks? and is a preform the same as blank?, just different terminology? I have found two large, broken of course, pieces that look like they would have been ovoid in shape, roughly knapped edges, (not straight and finely knapped).fairly thick in the middle,3/8". Is it just a matter of conjecture for some pieces? I know they made the preform/blanks to finish off as they needed a tool, could they have used the blank as a tool, till it was time to finish it into something else?

And the term blade? Is it used to describe an actual blade used, as in cutting/scraping, AND as a descriptive term for a long flat object?

Neanderthal · Mar 2, 2010

naturegirl said:
Hey bent-twig, thanks for posting these. Can someone discuss tools or blanks? and is a preform the same as blank?, just different terminology? I have found two large, broken of course, pieces that look like they would have been ovoid in shape, roughly knapped edges, (not straight and finely knapped).fairly thick in the middle,3/8". Is it just a matter of conjecture for some pieces? I know they made the preform/blanks to finish off as they needed a tool, could they have used the blank as a tool, till it was time to finish it into something else?

And the term blade? Is it used to describe an actual blade used, as in cutting/scraping, AND as a descriptive term for a long flat object?

"Blanks" are preforms, and that's exactly what a large number of the "tools" that people find are. Unlike knappers of today, aboriginal chert smackers didn't have the luxury of getting slabs of good quality stone from Ebay, they had to quarry it themselves. This meant going out (often at long distances) to favored rock outcrops and bloodying your fingers beating on rock to find suitable candidates. It's not as easy to find good knapping material as you may think. Even in outcrops with good stone, most of it will contain impurities, hidden fractures and other faults that are counter-productive to making a purdy pointy projectile. You realllllly don't want to carry back a buttload of crappy rock, so you spend all day making sure you get the optimal pieces. You spall them out to not only test the material for faults, but also to knock off some of the weight and make them more portable. If all goes well, what you transport back to your wigwam are these slightly-thinned-down preforms. Ebay's easier! Go visit any knapper that you know and you will see a ton of these "preforms", reserved for future use.

Not everything we find is in finished form. In fact, I would say that in many places, the majority of the "less refined" pieces we find aren't finished specimens. Most of the time what we see advertised as crude tools or choppers, are simply preforms or discarded pieces that didn't fit the bill (especially likely in quarry site scenarios). If they were used as a tool, they should exhibit some signs of that, if even on a microscopic level. If these don't have any signs of being utilized, then how can they ascertain that was the purpose? Especially considering that "preforms" seem to be so much more abundant, and necessary. I think that's because people don't find "preform" or "blank" as sexy. Similar to how people find Scottsbluff so much more appealing than Hardin.............or Adena much more romantic than Gary. It always makes me chuckle.

As far as the term "blade" goes, I'm really surprised nobody jumped on that..lol. If you want to be technical, that term is supposed to be reserved for a long, prismatic flake detached from a core. Buuuuuutttttt, it's generally just used as another way to describe a knife or cutting tool. It's kind of like "arrowheads", collectors in general have pretty much accepted that it's a catch-all term for flint projectiles and not just the tiny critters that were propelled from a bow.