THE LEARNING CENTER
How to tell a Spokeshave from a field ding
Contributed by member Jim Bennett- "woodman32"
Special Thanks to Ohio collector Randy Hancock for letting me photo and scan his Spokeshave collection for use in this section
Many new collectors have trouble identifying a spokeshave from a well place plow ding :-)
here is how to tell the difference:
This is a true ancient spoke shave
If you look closely at the crescent shaped
spokeshave area, you will see there are many individual flakes
that make up the spokeshave cutting edge.
See the close up pic below. I have placed markers to show that many individual flakes that were removed to create the crescent shape cutting edge
This is an ancient adena knife with a plow ding that appears to be a spokeshave, but is not.
If you look closely you will see there is only one
big percussion flake removed from the side of this knife. This is
a field ding which although it has the appearance of a
spokeshave, is simply a ding.
