The Stanfield Knife: A Large Paleo Blade	by Col. John F. Berner
Central States Archaeological Societies 2010 January Journal	Roswell, Georgia

 

The Stanfield knife is a medium to large knife with slightly convex sides and a straight to convex base.The basal end may contract slightly and often the corners are rounded. Some resharpened specimens have beveled edges which stops short of the hafting area. A slight polish is normally existent on the base. This type may range from 4 inches to over 10 inches in length prior to resharpening. The Stanfield is generally manufactured from tabular flint such as high grade Burlington chert and Ft.Payne chert and in one particular instance, an 8 1/2" Rhyolite specimen was found at Findley Lake, Chatauqua County, New York.

The distribution of Stanfields is from Florida northward and east of the Rocky Mountains. The majority of these knives features collateral flaking on both faces. Stanfields are predicted to be Late Paleo butchering tools and are often mistaken for the large Cobbs Triangular. Cobbs knives are percussion flaked with large removed flakes across the face of the tool with steep beveled blade edges on opposite sides of the artifact.

Stanfield knives feature smaller percussion removed flakes in the resharpening process. This point was named by James W. Cambron for examples discovered at the Stanfield-Worley rock shelter in Northern Alabama (Cambron & Hulse 1964:105).

The Stanfield paleo knife above is 7 ¾ inches long, made of glossy white Burlington chert and was found Calhoun County, Illinois. It was formerly in the Heye Foundation collection at New York, after which it was owned by R.Doy, Merton Henderschott and Bobby Sharp.