Arrowheads and Flint Knapping Items

From the time White men came to America's shores they became interested in collecting arrowheads and flint knapping items made by the American Indians. Mountain men of the 1830s often learned the craft of making arrowheads and flint knapping items. Some became very adept at making points and even knives. Thousands of people have spent long hours looking in plowed fields for the precious points left by former residents over as much as 15,000 years. Many a young lad or lass has collected the items washed out of the soil by rains. Some of these collections contain some of the finest examples of the flint knappers art.

Although flint knapping for gun flints continued until the mid or late 1800s, the art of making arrowheads, lance points and knives was lost to Europeans. A few Native Americans continued to make points for ceremonial and personal use. In 1911 a half-starved lone young man stumbled into Oroville, California. He was the last of his people and was still using stone age technology to survive. Ishi was placed under the care of a U.C. Berkley anthropologist for study of his techniques. National attention awakened an interest in the arrowheads, flint knapping and stone tools once made by our ancestors. Today his name lives on among flint knappers for a 18-inch pressure flaker that he used and the points that he made.

Other native knappers began to be sought after for new objects made by their skilled hands. Ted Orcutt was a master knapper who knapped monster blades for ceremonial purposes. Many were 30 to 48 inches in length. While the papers were telling Ishi's story Ted was making and selling his massive blades to museums and collectors in the U.S. and Europe. The massive blades were part of the White Dear Dance Ritual. His skill did not stop at that point as he also experimented with animal shapes as well. He had a long and fruitful life as a knapper making thousands of objects and living well past 62 and passing on the craft to several others.

Today these objects continue to fascinate avid amateur collectors and archeologists alike. Volumes have been dedicated to cataloging and even making arrowheads and flint knapping items. Collectors seek items made by prehistoric men and even latter-day makers - often paying premium prices for them. Present-day flint knappers make museum-grade objects that are sought after by institutions and collectors. Vintage points from ancient hands command premium prices never dreamed of by enthusiasts of the past. Today the sharpest cutting edge known to man is not made of alloy steel but rather obsidian or volcanic glass that is shaped by hand with simple tools and techniques that are very much the same now as they were when Cro-Magnon man made his tools for survival.

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Arrowheads