All About Pocket Knives

how do you find arrowheads and other indian tools I live north of memphis tn I in tipton co tn I am just starting to get into indian tools and I would be to know to find thems thanks

A man that I knew around here in Pennsylvania would walk freshly plowed fields looking for arrowheads. He would wait until right after a rain. If the field was near a creek or a river, he seemed to have better luck.

knifegirl888 wrote:A man that I knew around here in Pennsylvania would walk freshly plowed fields looking for arrowheads. He would wait until right after a rain. If the field was near a creek or a river, he seemed to have better luck.

That's the same way I used to look for them. Southern Indiana, Rising Sun, was an encampment area where they would cross the Ohio River into Kentucky to hunt, but they would not stay there over-night, bad Ju-Ju I guess. Found some great points. I'd walk the field with my youngest daughter and we'd pick up every piece of flint material we came across and sort them out later. Found a small flint awl that way.

The only two I ever found came out of dirt dug off the top of a small hill with a stream at the bottom on one side and the river about 400 yards away on the other side. There were game trails that ran around it on either side where all the animals came down out of the hills to get to the water.

look in plowed fields above the flood line, also where to streams run together are great places. there are alot of points near the rivers below the flood lines but they are wash downs and are generally so deep that plows wont turn them up, also gravel bars are a good place to find points but it takes a practiced eye to see them among all the other stones. be sure and cut you a good stick about 3 feet long to flip suspect flakes a good stick will save your back alot of trouble!!!

I am from calif. I have found the best way to find arrowheads is
to find a place that was an encampment. For me always near springs,
tho it is harder to find where the Indians weren't than where they
have been! Seems the were everywhere! The most likely places to
find them is in the is described in previous posts. Try taking a piece
of flint, and chip an edge on it. That way you get the feel of what
you are looking for, and you can see what artifacts were started
and discarded. Good Luck!
Phin Spencer

patience is the best tool for finding artifacts...

and in arizona...it is illegal to pick the stuff up...and if you do pick it up..be ready to prove where on private property you found it...really
out here most of the land...around 89% is federal...reservations, forests, national monuments...

i still look...an leave it for the next person..i learned that in the boy scouts...

when i go look, i walk around the places people would live in the nasty dog eat dog world of nature...
honest...wander around..find a place you would like to live...go there...sit down and look at the ground...someone else has lived there and if you train your eye..you will see.

Neat post gringo; I see your day has improved.

Gringo is absolutely correct in training your eye. What you have to train your eye for is flint. If there is no flint, there will be no points. Flint is not a rock that is native to anyplace other than a flint quarry. If you find flint, it was carried there by early native Americans, and chances are you will find pieces that have been worked. (Knapped) If you find those, you can find points. As stated earlier, Look on terraces by streams, creeks, rivers. These are the sites where encampments are most likely. Look for HUGE dead cottonwoods, as this was a source for water, (probably springs) 500 to 1000 years ago. The single most important tidbit of info on all of this is....... You must find flint. Hope this helps, Kelley

nice addition gunsmoke, thanks.

fr...yea..i feel as nervous as a virgin in a biker bar...but it comes in waves...

In Oregon the Indians used obsidian for arrowheads, knives and needles.
Here you have to train your eye to see little flakes of black or sometimes reddish/brown glass.
Obsidian is essentially volcanic glass. There is a whole mountain of it in Central Oregon around the Newberry Crater. The Indians had trade routes where they brought it to the valley to trade it for other things.
My granddad found areas where they apparently sat and chipped out obsidian arrowheads. There will be a lot of flakes & chunks of obsidian where it normally is not. He has also found points that broke and were discarded right there.

My granddad got interested in arrowheads and later Indian artifacts when he ran a filbert orchard (Hazelnuts to those of you not from Oregon). In the 50s they hand harvested the filberts and walnuts. Before the nuts fell, they would drag the orchards to smooth them out and make it easier to find the nuts. When it rained after the orchards were dragged it was pretty easy to see the shiny pieces of obsidian; they looked like glass laying on the ground.

I have about a dozen I found when we lived out by the river for a couple years. I was probably 10 years old.

My mother has lived in Polar Bluff, Mo. area since 78 she has gallon jugs full of artifacts found in the garden or off the farm-unbeilvable the pieces you can find without even looking hard. At one time there really must have been huge population in the bootheel area.

Dale. I think Obsidian points are some of the prettiest around. Big Quarry in Yellowstone so I bet yall see a lot of it in your neck of the woods. I live 30 miles from about the biggest quarry of Alibates on the planet and it is some beautiful flint. I have found some Obsidian knapped flecks here but no points. They have been found down here though so the Native Americans did wander and roam and trade! Kelley

In south texas we just walk through the brush with our heads down. You would be surprised where you end up. We found hundreds over the years.

I have looked for Arrow Heads all my life around my boyhood home in Central So. Utah. They are everywhere if you have good karma. If you can find water or a living area or a Trap(We have ancient Anteleope traps on the Awapa Plateau. You can see them from Google Earth)

Here is a photo of a small cave I frequent a few times a year. A friend wounded a deer, and it led us right past the entrance. I suspect I am the first White man to see it!

beautiful...possible to see any photos of the diamond object in the background...the white pigment?

This is slightly better, but I have better at home. I am on my work computer at the present..

thanks dave...i found a site out near sedona...old...painted wall has a diamond shape...oddest rock art i ever saw...white pigment outline...seperated into quarters, some orange/red use to fill...an a pretty yellow for one of the quarters...

high ground close to water, a river, and where two creeks or rivers come together

Nice cave painting..... Deer looks like it is alive, what do you think the
2 similar paintings are on the upper left are? They look almost ......?
Always like cave paintings, Here in San Diego County, they are all on
the desert side, good place to look for artifacts!
Phin