Used as knife or just stone trash?

[masonh]

I found this and some other worked stone in a gravel/cobble bar below an old farm pond (dam washed out years ago). I did not find any flakes or points, just a couple of rocks that showed signs of being worked.

 

[masonh]

Pic of the other side, are these showing up too large?

 

[Felinepeachy]

LOL Yes, rather large but I've resized them. You can resize your pics in Paint.

 

[masonh]

So what do you guys think. I'm still so new to collecting artifact. Was this piece even worth picking up? Is it a tool? This inquiring mind wants to know.

 

[Flintfinder of Mo.]

I think its just a natural rock. JMO.... John

 

[joshuaream]

I'd say someone picked it up and whacked at it a few times to check the quality of the material. A lot of us pick those up when we start collecting, but as you zero in on actual sites you'll probably get to the point that you leave them in the field for another new hunter.

Is that a North Carolina find? I saw a cache a while back of about 2000 nearly identical crude blanks made from a quartzite that looked identical to that.

 

[*Molly*]

I'd say someone picked it up and whacked at it a few times to check the quality of the material. A lot of us pick those up when we start collecting, but as you zero in on actual sites you'll probably get to the point that you leave them in the field for another new hunter.

Is that a North Carolina find? I saw a cache a while back of about 2000 nearly identical crude blanks made from a quartzite that looked identical to that.

Josh pretty much covered what I was going to say. I have seen quartzite with the same marks on it in NC..

 

[masonh]

thanks for the input, i found it a couple of weeks age near richmond va, most everything i've found lately is made of the same blah brown quartzite, with occasional white quartz, those flint pieces i often see pictured here and found just west of me are really nice, wish i saw that once in awhile

 

[*Molly*]

Persevere you will find some different materials once in a while. I always found green rhyolite & milky quartz but after a while, I found black flint & Rose/orange quartz. Also a Chalcedony, that thrilled me.
Good luck, extend your hunting area.

 

[Th3rty7]

So what do you guys think. I'm still so new to collecting artifact. Was this piece even worth picking up? Is it a tool? This inquiring mind wants to know.

Yes, it's a tool, a quartzite flake knife. When I was new to collecting and hunting I kept them all just to familiarize with myself what is and isn't an artifact. I mostly leave them were they lay nowadays. Here's one that's similar I found in western Va. Construction sites along the James are great places to get lucky.