r/knapping • • 17d ago

⚒October Point Challenge🏆 ⚠ 2026 October Point Challenge - Hillsborough Contracting Stem [Mixed Material Box Prize 🪨 - Beginners Welcome] ⚠

7 Upvotes

🏆 September 2026 Point Challenge Winner 🏆

Congratulations to u/myself_today for winning the 2026 September point challenge! It was a close race in the end, with that pastel pink novaculite Jōmon coming out ahead by one single vote!😁 You can find the submission here if you missed it! 

With October's point challenge, u/myself_today has brought us back to North America to do a point style that's always been on my to-do list, but I've just never gotten around to it. One of those distinct styles from the middle Archaic often known my collectors as the "Batwing" point 👀 So get your tools ready s we head down to Florida for the...

⚒ 2026 October Point Challenge - Hillsborough Contracting Stem aka Batwing Points ⚒

The Hillsborough is a medium to large sized point, measuring from 1.25 to 4.25 inches in length. The blade is developed through broad, shallow random percussion flaking with pressure flaking along the blade edges. The blade edges are straight and meet at in acute distal end. The blade is thin and bi- convex in cross-section. Workmanship is generally excellent. The shoulders or barbs are sharply angular and nearly always meet the stem with an acute angle less than 90°. The primary characteristic of the Hillsboro which distinguishes it from the related Newnan point is the extremely small stem. The small size of the stem gives the shoulders a “batwing” appearance. Examples having tangs of increasingly larger size are eventually identified as Newnan points. The basal tang is tapering with a flat, rounded or pointed basal edge. Over 80% of all Hillsborough points have been thermally altered (St. Clair 1987).

Additional Sources and Reading Materials 👇

[Florida Archaeology & Bioarchaeology: Hillsborough - Florida Museum]
(FANTASTIC reference photos!)

[Peach State Archaeological Society - Hillsborough]

[Hillsborough Contracting Stem - Projectile Points.net]

🚨 Be sure to read the rules before doing so you don't get disqualified! 🚨

⚠️ Rules ⚠️

  1. The point must be a recognizable Hillsborough Contracting Stem knapped in October of 2026! - We want to see fresh submissions and fresh points! No using any of your prior work!
  2. Only one entry per person! You are not allowed to post your point multiple times, OR have multiple points in your submission post! - Be sure to take good pictures showing off your work! lighting, material translucency, flaking, etc. 😉
  3. The challenge submission window OPENS 10/25/2026 and CLOSES 10/31/2026 - This gives 1 week for entries to be submitted and voted on, with the official winner and next month's challenge post being announced sometime within the 1st week of November.
  4. Post MUST have the monthly knapping competition post flair to count! - That way, it can easily be found and the votes counted! If you wish to participate without entering, simply use any of the other post flairs
  5. No material restrictions - We only require that the point be knapped out of the material that you've chosen (no grinding out a point!)
  6. Moderators hold the authority to disqualify any participants who violate these rules, as well as our community rules - We want this to be a fair and engaging challenge for all those who participate! Because it's always fun to see what different folks can do with different tools!

If you have any questions or comments about the rules, feel free to reach out to the moderators through comments, DM's, or Messages! 📬

📸 How To Enter 📸

You can start creating your point as soon as this post goes live! Just remember that you WON'T be able to submit it until the post flair below is made public between 10/25/2026 and 10/31/2026!

Once it is public, be sure to select it when uploading your photo(s) and that your submission conforms to the rules listed above! ☝️😉 I will be sure to make a post letting everyone know when things go live as an extra reminder, and this post will also be pinned to the top of the subreddit for easy access!

🥇 Prize 🥇

We got a cool little small flat-rate box here of some mysterious exotic materials that've been collected by the ever adventurous u/tdcdude17! He ventures near and far in the mountains, valleys, and desserts of the American West. Often coming across some crazy cool rock that he's chosen to share with y'all this month! So give him a HUGE thank-you for giving y'all the chance to mess around with some KILLER rock! 😎

The winner will also get the chance to choose the point style for next month's knapping challenge, and if they so choose, they can also donate their winnings to a fellow competition participant or allow their winnings to serve as next month's prize! 🥳

If you'd ever be interested in donating material/tools for these challenges, feel free to comment below this post or shoot me a DM! I'm always happy to work something out with folks! Especially for unique or interesting material.

🗣️ In Closing 🏹

Kinda funny how we got a 'batwing' point here in the month of October 😂 Seems quite fitting considering the Halloween festivities going on! Makes me want to dig around to see if I can find any material that's particularly orange for this point... Especially since a large number of them were recorded as being heat-treated... 👀 I even have a little bit of Florida material hanging out here that I might crack into. We'll just have to see! And as always I'm suuuper excited to see what some of y'all end up producing! 😁

If any of y'all have questions or thoughts, leave them in the comments section below 👇 And keep your eyes peeled for those event and submission window announcement posts. Like I mentioned, everything will be pinned to the top of the sub along with the guides for easy access.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone makes, stay safe, and happy knapping everyone!👋😁

- u/SmolzillaTheLizza 🦎


r/knapping • • Jul 22 '26

Welcome to r/knapping!

22 Upvotes

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r/knapping • • 1h ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Otzi Style Dagger

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• Upvotes

This was a special one! I had some North American Walnut & Palemoon Ebony left over… seemed rude not to! Paired with some Green Sheen Obsidian from Oregon USA.

Available


r/knapping • • 14h ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 My progress as a beginner. Not picture are about 10 spalls reduced to nothing.

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38 Upvotes

Thanks to gulf coast knapping and jack crafty. One thing I e noticed about learning to knap through YouTube is that everyone is an odd little duck lol. It’s been so much fun though.


r/knapping • • 17h ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 My First Danish Dagger!!!

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53 Upvotes

This is my first attempt at one. Also my first time using a punch. Super fun.


r/knapping • • 10h ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Arrowhead in a blade.

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13 Upvotes

Lil doodle.


r/knapping • • 13h ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Making progress...

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20 Upvotes

r/knapping • • 19h ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Pesky little glass point

39 Upvotes

Almost impossible to capture a clear glass point with a photo!

First one back after being away, I’m pretty pleased! It’s not the best but after not knapping for three weeks or more I’m pleased to get one finished


r/knapping • • 13h ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Few points

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13 Upvotes

r/knapping • • 13h ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Tool collection

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11 Upvotes

Tool collection i have been working on for the past 14 days


r/knapping • • 1d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Been a While Since I Messed With Obsidian 🌋

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38 Upvotes

Hello hello everyone! 👋

Got some obsidian points here for you today! Been a good while since I've messed with it because my stone abundancy switched from having a bunch of obsidian and hardly any stone, to an abundance of stone and less obsidian 😂 So I've just stuck with rock! Didn't stop me from cracking into a few of these pieces. Also made my first drill out of some Mexican Spiderweb obsidian! That triple-flow stuff was slightly horrid too. Abrasion would result in these little needles that loooved to stab 🙄 But in the end I'm quite pleased with everything!

Plenty more to come, so stay tuned, stay safe, and happy knapping all!

- u/SmolzillaTheLizza 🦎


r/knapping • • 19h ago

Material Sale 🪨💸 Madison/southern Wisconsin knappers

7 Upvotes

I have some flint pieces a knapper or ideally someone learning to knap could use.

I took up the hobby for a bit, need to downsize, so free. I can probably drop it off in fact.


r/knapping • • 1d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Some flutes on bullseye keokuk! 🤘

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34 Upvotes

r/knapping • • 1d ago

Question 🤔❓ Casters?

5 Upvotes

I spoke with Pete Bostrom at the Lithics Casting Lab today and sadly, he said he's probably done casting...too expensive and not profitable. Any recommendations on an alternative casting company? I have a couple of artifacts I need to cast.


r/knapping • • 1d ago

Material Sale 🪨💸 Preforms anyone?

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31 Upvotes

I have several hundred inches of preforms available from some High-Silica Rhyolite out of northern AZ. Some of it is thin enough to only need pressure flaking, some is a little thicket and could use some reduction. The basalt looking stuff and the grey obsidian stuff are from the same lava flow, one just cooled faster. First photo is some of the points i’ve made from it. Shipping cost varies depending on how much. I’m asking $2/in. You will get a mix of solid black, and grey stuff. There are several banded grey/black obsidian pieces as well that will be randomly thrown in the mix. The grey stuff makes up about 8% of the lava flow, with the banded black and grey probably closer to 2%.

Disclaimer; the stone frequently has phenocryst present. The majority of the time my flakes go through them no problem, but occasionally there is a hidden monster phenocryst that can give you trouble.

If you prefer just raw stone, I have enough for several boxes. I also have hundreds of lbs of other juicy AZ material as well if you want some color. (Last photo)

Selling some stone to help prep for my baby due around the corner.


r/knapping • • 1d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Cobalt blue

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36 Upvotes

r/knapping • • 2d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Radiation damage!

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130 Upvotes

r/knapping • • 2d ago

Made With Traditional Tools🪨 Thresher

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112 Upvotes

I recently learned about a wheat threshers that use flint blades. I've been knapping for 30 years and never heard of this one before. Thought I'd share a few pics of one I just stumbled on on Instagram. Pretty cool I thought. I'd love to have this artifact in my living room! Can you imagine it as a coffee table, with glass on it of course?


r/knapping • • 2d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 A new Agee has entered the arena

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30 Upvotes

When I started working this flake I was looking to make a Cahokia. The thinning went really well (final thickness of 3.8 mm) and I figured I might as well push it as far as I can.

Sometimes changes that seem small can have a massive difference in outcome. This was the first time I wrapped the holding end of my copper indirect rod with a pad of leather. This one change allowed me to drive much better flakes and get a much better end result. You should never stop trying new ways to do things, even if most of them don't work out, you never know if the next one will help push your craft to be the best it can be.


r/knapping • • 3d ago

Made With Traditional Tools🪨 Here's one for the "copper is cheating" fellas...

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181 Upvotes

I was road-tripping around the Great Lakes a bit ago, stopped to check out a few spots along the shore of Lake Superior that I've been eyeballing on geological maps for a long while...

I found some veins bearing nuggets of pure native copper. I beat some samples from the bedrock with hand-tools, and when I got home, I cleaned them up, heated them up to anneal them, and hammered one out into a pressure-flaker bit, and hafted it into a nice hard brow-tine of deer antler.

So, there you have it. A "traditional" copper pressure flaker, hewn from the bedrock by mine own hand. I'm going to save it for notching birdies on rare material. I'll probably turn the other small nuggets I got there into beads or something.

The views from the shore of Lake Superior are pretty nice

PS, small copper bits turn up like this all the time at archaeological sites in the Great Lakes region, though they are called "awls" in the archaeological literature. But I don't think they actually were mostly used for sewing.


r/knapping • • 3d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 A Cluster of My Signature Zilla Points 🦎🏹

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122 Upvotes

Howdy everyone! 👋

Since it's been about 2 years since my last cluster of Zilla points, I decided to make another post with some more up-to-date depictions! 😁

If any of you are curious why I made this style, it basically serves as a benchmark for material properties and a little test of my skills by utilizing style traits I really enjoy. The needle tips help me practice control, the notches help me practice m notching, the serrations look mean, and the thin nature of the point really makes me push my skills to the limit! All-in-all I really like how they look and, although tedious, it's a very rewarding style to make. 🙂‍↕️

Hopefully y'all find them cool and interesting. Don't be afraid to ask questions too!I'm always happy to answer them! Stay safe and happy knapping! 😎

- u/SmolzillaTheLizza 🦎


r/knapping • • 3d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Utah material

3 Upvotes

I'm wanting to make a point for a friend with material from Utah. What are my best options?


r/knapping • • 3d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Brady Knap-in

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36 Upvotes

A friend and I decided to take a roadtrip to the heart of Texas.

It always amazes us at how supportive this community is. Special shoutout to Ben Rivera for being so patient and showing us how FOG is done.

We hope to travel more and meet all you wonderful people. Happy knapping y'all!


r/knapping • • 3d ago

Material Showcase 🪨📸 Finally took a trip to Texas!

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42 Upvotes

I was able to collect a couple buckets of excellent material. Insanely fun stuff to work.


r/knapping • • 3d ago

Made With Modern Tools🔨 Tried my hand at my first video

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10 Upvotes