Have you fumbled the flint?

[Jeremy Luna]

I was wondering if anyone else has had my luck with butterfingers. I have dropped and broken several points over the years, one of them was the best Dalton that I've ever found. What kind of artifacts have you broken, and how? Were you were the 3rd string running back in high school and still have a tendancy to fumble? Do you know what a bird point sounds like when it gets sucked into the vacuum cleaner? Or had an ex-wife that could really swing a hammer? Maybe you broke someone else's point ( I've done that too. Sorry, Todd). I hear flint hitting the concrete floor at the Temple show every year, so I know I'm not the only one that needs some sticky gloves. Thanks for your replies.

JL

[Chris Peters]

I've been lucky in that I've never broken a piece. I dropped one before, but it was on carpet. Phew!!
I make it a rule to never let anyone hold one of my pieces unless it stays over the padding of the frame, and not too high. I follow through by extending the same courtesy to others when I can.
I remember in Collinsville a couple years ago, some gentlemen were looking over my prized Agate Basin when a seemingly well known and respected older gentleman walked up. The men told him he had to see the piece. He picked it up off the case and was waving it around above the concrete while talking to his buddies about similar pieces he'd seen. I about crapped my pants! I kept holding my palms under the piece and following his every move. I finally got it back in the case and let out a huge sigh of relief.
I'd never dream of doing that to someone!
Chris

[seeker]

 I never have dropped a point and broke it, though one time I was with some friends and his wife had just found a real nice thin arrowpoint. I am a licker so I put it my mouth to clear it up . When I went to take it out the suction between the point and my tongue broke the tip off. I was totally humiliated but what can ya do? Had another frame of points that the vibrating washing machine shook off a shelf. That broke several nice arowpoints along with the frame. Still makes me sad.

[joshuaream]

I've been pretty lucky.  I've fumbled a few tools but nothing special (or thin enough to break.)  If you handle enough pottery (ship, pack, etc) you'll end up with a broken one sooner or later.

I have clipped a couple of points when closing wooden frames, and have crushed a bone bead or two in tight frames.  I now use a softer foam in the frame for deeper items, or cut out pockets for them under the felt.  And, after a mishap by another board member, I use some double sided tape around the edge to keep the felt attached to the foam.

[foukemonster]

Some of yall know this story but I'll tell it for those that don't.At one point, I had a digging spot that was producing some killer Alba and Hayes points.A buddy of mine from Texarkana really liked what I was finding as well as some of my other "birds" and wanted to know if we could do some trading.He had a nice Caddo bowl that I liked so I traded him most of my true arrowpoints for it.When I got it home, I wrapped it in a towel and put it ion the floor in my arrowhead room.I was planning on putting it in my safety deposit box that weekend so I thought it would be o.k. where it was.My wife never has any reason to go in my arrowhead room.For some reason she went in there looking for something and stepped on my pot.It busted into who knows how many pieces.She was scared to death that I was going to flip out on her.She made arrangements to stay with her nana in case I was too ugly to her.I was aggravated at her but wasn't mean to her.I was way more upset at myself.Since then, she hates to touch any of my artifacts.   

[foukemonster]

Some of yall know this story but I'll tell it for those that don't.At one point, I had a digging spot that was producing some killer Alba and Hayes points.A buddy of mine from Texarkana really liked what I was finding as well as some of my other "birds" and wanted to know if we could do some trading.He had a nice Caddo bowl that I liked so I traded him most of my true arrowpoints for it.When I got it home, I wrapped it in a towel and put it on the floor in my arrowhead room.I was planning on putting it in my safety deposit box that weekend so I thought it would be o.k. where it was.My wife never has any reason to go in my arrowhead room.For some reason she went in there looking for something and stepped on my pot.It busted into who knows how many pieces.She was scared to death that I was going to flip out on her.She made arrangements to stay with her nana in case I was too ugly to her.I was aggravated at her but wasn't mean to her.I was way more upset at myself.Since then, she hates to touch any of my artifacts.I barely can get her to hold my case long enough at a show to take pics of everybody elses stuff.    

[KnifeHunter]

.I have never broken a point of someone elses collection however I have broken one of the greatest Alba type points I ever found and another point that was a true grade 10..Both over an area that was the only place in the houses not covered with carpet.In both incidents I dropped and made a grab for the point and in both incidents I hit and propelled the points at warp speed to the door jam and the entraceway floor and in both incidents the points shattered into many pieces and as much as it turns me red I sat down and shed a tear at my loss...   and yes I do know what a bird point sounds like being sucked into a vacuum cleaner,there is no way to shut it off in time.The point never made it past the first part but wow sounded like a quartet of click clack balls..KH

[Raymond G]

I bought a piece off of Lewis a few years back.  It was just a Gary, but it was made out of the prettiest jasper you've ever seen.  Had the thing maybe 15 minutes when I handed to my wife.  10 seconds after that see dropped it on a ceramic tiled floor.  Knocked the tip off.  Luckly a little super glue did the trick and I didn't get mad at her, but I didn't look at it the same way agian   Interesting post Jeremy, Thanks, Raymond

[Tom Clark]

I saw a friend hand another friend a pristine large mammoth tooth which he promptly dropped onto a terrazzo floor.  Instant oblivion.
I will never let someone hold anything I don't want broken over a terrazzo or cement floor.  I don't mind one bit being paranoid about that.  Points I've fumbled have never broken (Knocks on Wood Boom), but I sure have fumbled a few.

I had my finest point with the most incredible needle tip in the center of a triangular wooden frame which was on the wall.  Somebody had to dust it and the case fell from the wall straight down, all the points slamming to the bottom of the frame and the glass cracked but did not shatter.  Only the teeniest, tiniest tip of that perfect point was knocked off.  Ruined the piece for me, too small to glue on, but still have the piece.  I don't hang frames on walls at all anymore. 

[Steve Valentine]

I guess I have been very fortunate over the years because in my 44 years of collecting I have only had thing broken and it was the wing of of a Thebes Point. I didn't drop it, but I stll consider it my fault because for one, I never should have had it out in the palce I was at, and for two I should have know better then to hand it to someone who didn't appreciate near as much as I did. This happened around 1980 or maybe 81. I was working at a Sohio service station and I had this point with me because I had just found it a day before. I was showing it one of my friends and when he went to hand it back to me let go of it before I had it and it hit on the concrete floor and knocked the only wing that was on the point(the other was broken off when I found it). We looked all over the office where it hit and never did find the piece that broke off. I even got a broom and a dust mop and swept the entire area and never did find it.

Since then I have never broken another one of my artifacts. I became very cautious after that and didn't hand anything to anyone over a surface that would break it if it fell. It was either handed over carpet or over a towel on a table. I also now make sure I press the piece into the palm of their hand before I let go and I make sure they do the same. By having someone press the object into your palm there is a lot less chance of dropping it as opposed to them just handing it to and you grabbing it from them. Your hand is open and as soon as they put it in your hand you can close around it and hold it tight.

I have seen a few nice pieces hit the floor at shows though over the years. I don't think there's any more sickening or heartbreaking sound than a piece of flint hitting the floor. You can see anyone within earshot just cringe and everybody usually goes dead silent waiting to hear the verdict of the piece.

[Gomer]

If your someone who has to handle things......things will get broken....its a given.  The items we have found in our collecting efforts that we consider our over the top finds are permanetly cased....meaning no one including me, touches them. With the ease and cheapnest of digital camera a picture is truly worth a thousand dollars. Pictures also do not break when dropped.

[Michael Karr]

I was re-arranging one of my relics shelves and dropped a gameball on a paleo knife it broke in two.....Mike

[Jeremy Luna]

Todd had a little Gary point that was made out some gem-quality transparent flint with rootbeer lines in it. It was the highest grade of flint that I've ever seen from around here. I was holding it up to the light so I could see through it and it slipped out from between my fingers and hit the tile floor. It shattered like glass. I never could find all of that little point, even when I swept every inch of the floor and searched the dust pan. Todd got me back a few years later though. We screened up a bunch of points one day and one of them happened to be my first and only complete Calf Creek. The shoulders are worked down on it, but it is (was) a complete point made of some real nice white and tan flint. At the end of the day we were having show-and-tell and Todd was holding up my CC in one hand and had a pile of artifacts in the other hand. He accidentally dropped my sweet point into my pile of ugly points. Which one do you think broke? Of course it was my CC. Broke the needle tip right off that sucker. It was just a grain of flint that broke off, but enough to ruin the point. So someday Todd is gonna find something killer and I'm gonna remember the Calf Creek that he fumbled but I promise I'm not gonna fumble his. I'm gonna punt it. LMAO!

[Jeff_C]

I've lost a triangle to the bathroom sink before, and another that I had wrapped in a tissue got eated by my girlfriend's paper hungry dog. The dog broke the tip right off of it. I'm just glad they weren't personal finds and not super high grade triangles.

-Jeff

[latrans]

I had found a very nice lost lake piece 2 1/2 years ago and for some stupid reason I just had to keep it in my pocket so I could keep looking at it and for some stupid reason I had to go out to the car to get something and for some very stupid reason I decided I needed to take the point out of my pocket while I was in the driveway - can you guess what happened next?  Did I mention that it was night time?  Now here's the kicker when it hit the driveway it broke one ear off I LOOKED EVERWHERE FOR THAT MISSING PIECE.  I looked in day light I looked at night time with a flashlight held at an angle so every little pebble and speck of grit would stand out I probably swept the driveway a dozen times and nothing - could not find the missing piece.  So after 2 years during which time we had the most rain that the state has ever seen in a season 2 of the worst winters I have ever seen an untold number of times of driving over the exact spot where the point was dropped and One evening I'm going to take out the trash and as I'm passing the spot where I dropped the point and I look down and there are the two missing piece laying right there in the driveway.  Unbelievable.