Preform or Knife?

[RamRodX]

Newbie question.... how can I tell if something is a preform or a knife/blade? Example below.

 

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[Tnmountains]

Nice artifact. It shows work on it. It could have been discarded due to breaking or it nay have been more and just worn out and chunked. A preform is well done and a first step in manufacturing.
Monsterrack has a sticky in blue on top of this page giving great examples. Check it out.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/n...536392-helpful-hint-chipped-worked-stone.html

 

[RamRodX]

Thanks TN-Mountains! That was an excellent source of information. It makes me think how great it would be if someone started a project of creating a website and videos to teach the next generation about Native American artifacts (or any other historical artifacts) and to do it in a step-by-step fashion like that post did.

I'm new to the hobby and it seems like treasure hunting and a lot of the historical collecting hobbies are on the decline. I'm worried that I started too late.

 

[joshuaream]

A nice find! It looks like it was used a lot, so I agree with Tnmountains about it not technically being a preform.

If you have a magnifying glass or a loupe, you can sometimes see wear on some of the ridges of the flakes. They'll look rounded or smoothed. In some extreme cases, they get almost polished like a rock put in a rock tumbler.

Newbie question.... how can I tell if something is a preform or a knife/blade? Example below.


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[RamRodX]

If I were to try and catalog it by name, what would you call it? I'm trying to follow the Overstreet groupings as much as possible, but I realize it's not an exact science.