Single Bevel & Ancient Origins! Arrowheads? Atlatl??

To send pictures of artifacts, please read the instructions below carefully and thank you for participating!
This email is only for pictures of beveled points. When submitting to our database, please include 1 picture of the bevel, one picture of the overall style of the point, and also please let us know in the email which hand you are holding the point with so we don't have any mirroring issues. thanks!

[knutknutsen]

Imagine there were right-handed and left-handed people in the cave workshop, so maybe both sides could be sharpened without separating them from the shaft. ok, fun ... your contend is addictive! Greetings from Germany.

[Will-No-Co]

Wow! What great reasoning. You’ve convinced me.

[phillipallen]

Great video! Really interesting what modern knappers/stone workers can tell us about paleo peoples. You have a unique perspective on how those people would have thought about and used stone technologies. Keep up the good content!

[jimclercx]

another unbelievably informative video! Ryan, you are a badass!!

[paulmarshall]

This is very interesting and shows why people need to use tools to fully understand them. Based on this I will not be making any beveled stone points to try to replicate the bone splitting effects of steel ones. I had thought of trying it but you have saved me a waste of time. Thank you Mr Gill.

[veteranironoutdoors]

I would love to see what one of these beveled points does to an animal, and how it’s performance differs (if any) from a “properly beveled” point

[lelandshanks]

Greg Perino studied and had records of his beveled points. He also noted alot of knives/ tools were used by women and all were left handed, if you swap em between your hands it becomes obvious which hand it fits best.

[PrimitiveTim]

Dude that was way more interesting than I was expecting it to be! Well done!

[KowboyUSA]

Fascinating hypothesis. Well thought out and tested, I really think you're on to something.
OT: Aesthetically, the blood red streak on that point ( appears blood red on my display, at least ) is quite an eye catcher.

[elvaquero]

I know, I'm necromancing this thread, but I did see the research several years ago about the single beveled points. The idea, and IIRC, this was actually tested on real animals, isn't just the punching through the bone, but the spinning separates the bone further than not spinning, which reduces drag on the shaft as it passes through the bone too. It was also shown that the spinning will tangle up a lot of soft tissue, such as intestines, connective tissue around the heart, etc... before cutting it, broadly increasing the diameter of the wound channel.

[bonesstones]

Really great video Ryan, I'll send a pic of the beveled knife I found in Georgia when I was a kid.

[sundancekidd]

Real good information good to know about the casting.

[RockHounder-jnhs]

Excellent great stuff. Thanks for sharing

[customcutter]

I worked with a guy about 20yrs ago. He would find ancient kill/camp sites where knapping was done by driving re-bar rods into the ground, here in central Fl. He said that the chips/flakes could be felt/heard when they contacted the rod. IIRC he said that he could also sometimes find old campfire sites by carbon on the rod when he removed the rod. Therefore causing a more thorough search. He knapped points also by "fire treating" stone. I thought it caused a better flake pattern based on his description. Question, would it cause the points to be any more/less brittle in your opinion.

[jawnTem]

Wow! That's awesome! You have the same shirt that I do!

I really like it btw and it's of a really decent quality. The only improvement I could possibly make to it would be to add pockets which would most likely take away from the look.

[cornholio]

Just thought I'd post this in case anyone is curious. It's from Ed Ashby:


What effect does broadhead rotation have during tissue penetration, and why is it an advantage? There are several advantages, but the most obvious is when the arrow penetrates bone. The bevel-induced rotation tends to cause massive bone breaks; especially in the heavier bone; whereas a double-bevel broadhead simply forces its way directly through, rarely splitting any other than the very lightest of bone. Splitting, rather than piercing bone has demonstrated a major penetration benefit – it lowers drag on the trailing shaft; and test results show that shaft drag is a huge penetration-reducing factor.

[chuckkimber]

Handedness is an interesting topic and I have a small collection of papers on the topic. I'll grab the references when I get home. But consider what happens if there is a preference for sharpening from tip to base, over base to tip. Flake scars may be more important for determining handedness than the bevel.

[themadpsyentist]

Ryan, your use of the word, "helical" is very experimental, lol. Cheers

[Youzack]

Great hypothesis! This is so easily over looked.

[ohioboyfishin]

Please make small game and turkey hunting video with long bow