Val Waldorf's Illustrations

In the last two editions of CHIPS Vol. 23 no 2 and 3, in the article titled "Scar Patterns An Illustrated Guide" D.C. Waldorf wrote about how his late wife Val took special interest in capturing accurate portrayal in her illustrations of stone tools. D.C. wrote quote "In her work illustrating stone tools, accurate portrayal of flake scares was everything! Right down to the texture of the material, shading of the negative bulbs, the flow and intensity of the ripples, the radial splits caused by the bending of the stone under the force of the blow, and even the "tearing" along the scar junctures that is often seen in very fine grained rocks was all subject to her pen. If it aided in the interpretation or reading of the scars, then she made sure it was there."

Later in the article D.C. gave a quote from Val which she wrote about her illustrations that appeared in CHIPS Vol. 5, no 1, 1993 which read, quote "Using arced lines, and varying the spacing between them, you can approximate the depth of the compression rings[ripples]"

If you have read my previous article on this blog dated August 7, 2009 titled "Replicating the Sweetwater blade" you will know that the uniform rippling effect of the compression rings is our main evidence in our belief that the Sweetwater blade was actually finished with pressure flakes. You can read the article at http://modern-flintknapping.blogspot.com/2009/08/replicating-sweetwater-blade.html and see pictures of the compression rings at http://modern-flintknapping.blogspot.com/2009/08/this-link-is-picture-that-shows.html

In our video "Replicating the Sweetwater Biface" we discuss this in more detail.

So I was very happy to see in part II of D.C's article of Scar Patterns in vol 23 no 3 there was a picture of Val's illustration of the Sweetwater Biface which has never been shown before according to D.C. In the illustration you can clearly see the uniform rippling effect of compression rings. I must commend Val on her ability to capture this very important feature of the blade!

I do not intend to infer that D.C accepts our theory that the Sweetwater was finished with pressure flaking. In the contrary, according to his article I have been referencing he believes it was done with percussion.

My only point is Val was able to capture the compression rings rippling in her illustrations which illustrates what we have been saying very well. I wish I would have been aware of this Sweetwater illustration when I wrote my original article on this topic.

For those who do not receive CHIPS, below is a scanned picture of the Val's illustration of the Sweetwater Biface found on page 7 of Vol. 23 no 3.