stone fish hook....or?

[larson1951]

we had this for at least twenty years......it's an old find of john and me
it is broke....reminds me of a fish hook and could be
the mandans that lived at this site did a lot of fishing and this could have worked good for that

here for your perusal..............what d'ya think?

 

[quito]

Hmm, I don't know what else it resembles.

 

[monsterrack]

That a very good findand it looks like stone to me from what I see in the photo.

 

[larson1951]

i think it is agatized wood or maybe white petrified wood
the stem is broke off but i think it would have made an excellent hook

 

[mamabear]

That is a nice one! I use to have one made from obsidian.

 

[monsterrack]

JMO Steve that is a fish hook no doubt , hands down I have seen to many examples and I have some of my own.

 

[old digger]

I know that you find a lot of fish hooks made of bone, and finding one crafted from stone is quite extraordinary.

 

[larson1951]

i thought almost everybody was gonna tell me i am nuts...........but i appreciate the words
i have been told that stone fish hooks do not exist........i gotta say that i have seen a few very silly and fake examples over the years.....but i really think this is a hook that caught some fish...like catfish and walleye....if this laid on the bottom overnight with a piece of bait on it a walleye or sauger or buffalo or catfish or sturgeon could have easily swallowed it deep and the next morning the fisher person could pull in some fresh fish for the family..... and if it were a catfish or a buffalo the pectoral and dorsal fin spikes made excellent needles or perforating tool
if a freshwater drum would get caught the oratory pearls would be saved for charms and pendants since the flesh was horrible tasting.....
....anyways thanks for the opinions friends

 

[GatorBoy]

I don't want to be a downer but I really think that is an atlatl hook.
Still a nice find

 

[joshuaream]

Great find! I'm not sure what it is, but I'd be surprised if it would work as a fish hook.

If you hold the stem, and push on the point, do you get the feeling that it could actually penetrate the skin? Try that with a bone hook, or a modern fish hook and you'll see it takes very, very little force for the hook to sink in. I'm sure with enough bite force, you could sink it in, but then comes the issue that stone doesn't handle torque well without snapping off. Any fish big enough to take it, would be large enough to break it.

A couple of friends and I tried fishing with stone hooks several years back. I struggled to get bait to stay on my hook, but finally got some dough balls to stick to it. I tossed it in a pond teeming with carp, and got hits for about 20 minutes but couldn't actually hook a fish. (Bone gorges worked great, btw.) Someone else did a very long soak with a baited hook, and thought he had a big catfish or turtle, but the hook snapped when he was pulling it in.

A couple of the guys who made and used bone hooks didn't even need bait if the bone was from a fresh kill (or frozen while still fresh.) They were still springy enough to handle the torque, and you could get the tip thin enough to penetrate just like a regular sharp hook.

One other thought, after seeing the number of toys from your site (mini bow, the ice slide things, the heads in your profile picture, etc.) maybe this was a toy that someone made for their boy? Play around with it without getting hurt.

 

[painterx7]

I love that piece idk what it is but very cool !!!!

 

[VERDE]

Hey larson1951!! Would have enjoyed seeing the whole thing!! Can you imagine what it looked like?? Anyway HAPPY NEW YEAR and GOOD HUNTING!! VERDE!!

 

[larson1951]

Great find! I'm not sure what it is, but I'd be surprised if it would work as a fish hook.

If you hold the stem, and push on the point, do you get the feeling that it could actually penetrate the skin? Try that with a bone hook, or a modern fish hook and you'll see it takes very, very little force for the hook to sink in. I'm sure with enough bite force, you could sink it in, but then comes the issue that stone doesn't handle torque well without snapping off. Any fish big enough to take it, would be large enough to break it.

A couple of friends and I tried fishing with stone hooks several years back. I struggled to get bait to stay on my hook, but finally got some dough balls to stick to it. I tossed it in a pond teeming with carp, and got hits for about 20 minutes but couldn't actually hook a fish. (Bone gorges worked great, btw.) Someone else did a very long soak with a baited hook, and thought he had a big catfish or turtle, but the hook snapped when he was pulling it in.

A couple of the guys who made and used bone hooks didn't even need bait if the bone was from a fresh kill (or frozen while still fresh.) They were still springy enough to handle the torque, and you could get the tip thin enough to penetrate just like a regular sharp hook.

One other thought, after seeing the number of toys from your site (mini bow, the ice slide things, the heads in your profile picture, etc.) maybe this was a toy that someone made for their boy? Play around with it without getting hurt.

thanks i see what you are getting and it makes sense......
...however the method of fishing done was not to throw out and pull in and then 'set the hook' like fishing a jig
the method was to attach a piece of bait to the hook then throw it out along with a golf ball size weight made of sandstone which had a grove around it.......
that is what kept the baited hook on the bottom which was pitched out a few feet from shore and left there all night....until morning....
and the hook was so far down the fishes gullet you could not see it much less have to have it penetrate the jaw of the fish....
.......do you see what i am saying.....this was more like fishing a set line or a trot line rather than fishing a jig or texas or carolina worm rig
...i am curious as to what you think of my explanation joshua, and i do value and appreciate all your thoughts and everyones input as i think it is an interesting subject....
i think a stone hook would be awful difficult to make along with very time consuming and when i think about it it just doesn't seem like it would work as good either....
i have to think that the copper fish hooks we find had to be very nice to use with bone being second and stone being last....but i still think it is a hook

 

[larson1951]

I don't want to be a downer but I really think that is an atlatl hook.
Still a nice find

you are not being a downer at all......i see what you mean though
but if you could hold this in your hand you would probably see that if it was used as an atlatl hook it would break in half the first time
it was used to throw an atlatl spear......i gotta thank for your opinion gator.....we both know that so many of these 'what is this?'pieces are things that we may never know
what their specific purpose.....i am open to any thoughts always

wow did russy find two nice sharp copper hooks last summer......both in the same afternoon.....without the aid of a MD either

 

[GatorBoy]

I remember the first time I saw you post that.. It's a very cool find definitely something outside the norm.

 

[larson1951]

i have always been reluctant to post it......kept thinkin' i would be told that i should know that there is no such thing as a stone hook

some place i saw a real real fake looking flaked stone hook and it always stuck in my mind

 

[GatorBoy]

Maybe we should consider some type of jewelry.
If it appears to be as fragile as you say I can't imagine trying to use it to catch very many fish.
I think I've seen that goofy looking hook you're talking about.. I think it was on eBay. :-)
Hope you have a great New Year Steve.

 

[jamey]

thats a nice artifact mr larson,i bet they tried it to see if one would work.i would think they would try to invent just as we do.