Knapped Shell Knives - FL

[tomclark]

Real sorry for the cruddy pics....but here are some examples of knapped shell knives made from Macrocallista nimbosa, Venus SunRay Clam. (which are delicious) They are a harder, shinier shell and make a sharper edge than other shells like conch and their shape and size make them great knives and I think...fish scalers. We made some with a fresh shell and it cut steak, fish and clam just fine. At some sites these are knapped along the entire edge of the shell, and at other sites, oddly, they are made only halfway or one-third of the way down the edge.....eventually they wear in a diagonal pattern, which says something about the angle, how it was held, and what they might have done with them. Not often found whole.... West Central Gulf Coastal FL I do not know how far up FL peninsula and north these are found... The only other use for these shells besides food and these knives is a one holed pendant/gorget I've found as opposed to clam and whelk and conch, which all have several uses.

 

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[Hot zone]

Michener's book Chesapeake starts off with an early White man who was captured and tortured by natives, having the flesh removed from his arms by squaws using clam shells... I couldn't put the book down... In the pacific we have razor clams that will cut you to the bone without any knapping, just by Careless handling...

 

[Red Earth]

Very neat

 

[curious kat]

...that's very interesting tomclark...never thought of "shell" knives, thanks for posting that!

 

[reddirt]

Very interesting. Makes me wonder how many, if any at all, knapped clam shells have I just walked over.

Thanks for posting some of your shell artifacts. I always look forward to seeing the pics in your posts.

 

[old digger]

That is really cool, it goes to show how back then the different peoples had to make use with what was available in the area. And I am sure that if an alternative material was to be traded and brought into the area it would have been much valued. A couple weeks ago I found a piece of fresh water clam shell out in the sagebrush, miles from any water source.

 

[GaRebel1861]

I would imagine that these must be very hard to spot being mixed in with thousands if not millions of other un-worked shells?

 

[monsterrack]

A real nice find Tom

 

[Hot zone]

Perhaps even used to remove a tough clam from a shell...