I put my coyote, Katie, out on the pole, to go potty and when I went outside about 10 minutes later, she was holding this Native American scraper, that she just dug up, in her mouth. I'll have to give her a treat.

The scraper is sharp as a knife and has a spot pecked out for your thumb, that gives you great control of it.




I have found a large number of lithic tools on my farm.

Keith

That's just an old busted rock.

Try scraping a hide with that and see if you still think it is a scraper

Possibly, but I don't think so. I have found a whole lot of expert confirmed Native American tools here, not 150 feet from where this one was and this flint like rock is almost non-existent here.

As best as I can tell, it took at least 9 impacts to shape it.

Keith

It is just a naturally formed rock.

I see no worked edge, looks like a rock

This.

Well ain't you all a bunch of optimists !

I would say it is a tool of some sort. They didn't make all their tools napped real fancy,most of the time it just needed to be functional. Most here look like plain rocks unless you know what your looking at.

Some examples I found on my land.

It looks like a quarter to me, lol!

Yukonjeff did you have any of them looked at by any experts, pro's or are they self diagnosed ? Most of them look like just rocks too !

I think this was used to flesh with

I have actually dryscraped two hides with stone tools. Fleshing is easy, just throw it over a smooth log and use a bone with an edge on it. Dry scraping is a different story. You need a really thin working edge and not a point. Having it well knapped isnt just for looks, if you don't have a fairly smooth fine edge it's not going to work well. I'm not a knapper, but all those look to me like they're going to score the hide too much.

well somebody took the time to knap my rock quite a bit. what do you think it was used for?

Scrapers were used on more than just hides. They were also used to get meat off of bones and to remove bark from wood.

Keith

Just a broken rock in my opinion.

Sometimes especially with lower grade chert they start on something and realize it's not going to turn out and just chuck the piece. Not saying that's what you have, but it's possible. I've got a handful of blades or scrapers similar size, different shapes and styles.

Try to butcher a deer with a pretty blade like i posted the other day. It dosnt work so well take a big flake that has a smooth razors edge and a little sweeping curve to it and it works much like a modern knife a spawl is way sharper than a napped edge its like comparing a serrated knife to a brand new rappala filet knife. I think most things people call scrapers were used as hoes or where a blank called a biface . modern nappers sell bifaces to each other so im sure the indians traded them to

I believe a flake was used for butchering also. Bunch of women working to get some fresh killed buffalo cut up, a nice piece of granite for a hammerstone and a chunk or two of chert lying handy. Flake breaks or gets dull just knock off another one. I bet those flakes got reworked after they were done into other tools and points.

Cutting up a dead animal in warm weather today it has to get done right now and we have refrigerators and walk in coolers to put meat in after its cut off the animal.

I could see those bifaces being traded and even just wrapped up in something and stored till needed. Half dozen men travel a hundred miles (or more) to a good rock mine. Spend a couple days gathering, a biface would insure you had a good piece of rock without faults in it. Gather up a bunch of stone, knap out bifaces and carry only them back with you would make a lot of sense.

Want to convince an important man at the spring gathering of tribes his daughter ought to be your wife, I bet a leather bag full of bifaces would go a long way to getting in his good graces.

I think they were used for fleshing also. Big buffalo hide or deer or antelope carefully staked down on the ground. Seems like they would be a good fleshing tool. I'm not saying nothing got fleshed by being draped over a log or whatever either. That same flake might be best then. One thing I am sure of is that hide preparation and tanning was a never ending chore for indian women. A life outdoors with leather being used for everything a person would go through a lot of it. I bet a nice tanned deer hide was a valuable trade item also.

A woman that had a biface that fit her hand particularly well and her husband didn't get it back . Still today most guys have sharp side and a dull side on a fleshing knife.

I bet some of those bifaces were made by women while butchering. Flakes knocked off as needed and biface or scrapper finished up when it was worked down enough and everything else was done.