My Efigys

[TurtleMan]

I made these out of some local stone that I found. One is a crow and one is a bear. The bear is going to be used as an atlatl nock.

[drdave514]

Impressive work. What are you grinding them with?

[TurtleMan]

I shaped the rough outline on my concreat porch carved with pocket knife and polished with dremel tool (I'm a cheat) If anyone knows what the good ol boys used let me know.

[Mud Hawk]

Very nice stylized crow! You get an "A" in the art department from me.

[TurtleMan]

thanx will post them again when i get them tied to some wood. also any ideia what they are made of, when i worked them they produced a very fine dust like talc, at first i had hoeped they were pipestone but was told by one of my arrow buds that he thought it was flint clay. wondering the dif, both pieces seem heavey for their size if that helps?

[Steve Valentine]

Actually, Pipestone and Flint Clay, sometimes referred to as Fire Clay too, is basically the same thing.

https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/...1E8?sequence=1

Here are some of the pieces I carved out of Ohio Pipestone which outcrops in Clay Township, Scioto county, just north of Portmouth, Ohio. These are of the Turtle and the Buffalo. The Buffalo was a bad piece of stone and didn't turn out as well as I hoped.

[Steve Valentine]

This is the Frog. I was going to make a Pipe out of this piece, but I ran into some bad hollow spots in the stone and was afraid if I tried to drill in a bowl and a stem hole it would break so I just left it alone.

I also carved a state of Ohio with an Arrowhead carved in Bas Relief but I can't find my pictures of it.

[TurtleMan]

that is some mighty fine work, love the turtle and the buff even if material isn't the greatest. the atention to detail and semitry is amazing. what was the geology of the area that you found them? found mine in the dirt from my moms house when we dug the foundation, they were in a clay matrix/layer.

[Steve Valentine]

Originally Posted by TurtleMan

that is some mighty fine work, love the turtle and the buff even if material isn't the greatest. the atention to detail and semitry is amazing. what was the geology of the area that you found them? found mine in the dirt from my moms house when we dug the foundation, they were in a clay matrix/layer.

The Pipestone I used was actually found on the surface where some logging is going on. But, there are seams of it on the hillside where I found these pieces that have been utilized for thousands of years. I have seen many artifacts over the years that were made from the Pipestone found here in my county. Unfortunately it's on private land now and we can't get to the seams, but you can still find some nice chunks from where they drag the logs up the hill and bring the Pipestone up with them. The best pieces are the Red and Yellow. The other colors crumble easily after being exposed to the air for a while.

[joyce]

Really nice work Steve.
The frog is really cool with the bumpy different color specks all over it. Makes it look like the real thing! Joyce