Nilsson, in chipping out gun flints with a stone hammer, found it necessary to have the point operated on lie immediately above a point that rested on the rock “anvil” which he used.[144]
The Veeard or Wiyot of California used a pair of buck-horn pincers tied together with a thong at the point; they first hammered out the arrowhead in the rough, and then with these pincers carefully nipped off one tiny fragment after another.[145] The Klamath cover the hand with a piece of buckskin to keep it from being cut, and lay a flake along the ball of the thumb, holding it firmly with the fingers. With a point of antler from 4 to 6 inches long, they press against the edge, thus removing scales from the opposite side; they turn the flake around and over frequently, to preserve symmetry.[146]
The Shasta Indian lays a stone anvil on his knee, holds the edge of the flake against it, and with his stone hammer chips off flakes, finishing the base first, and gently chipping the whole arrow into shape. Both obsidian and glass are used.[147] The Shoshoni Indians used the same process.[148]
A Pit River Indian has been seen to make a very sharp and piercing arrow from a piece of quartz, with only a piece of round bone, one end of which was hemispherical with a small crease in it (as if made by a thread) one-sixteenth of an inch deep. The arrow was made by pressing off flakes by main strength, the crease being to prevent the bone from slipping, and affording no leverage.[149] John Smith (1607) says of the Powhatan Indian:
His arrowhead he maketh quickly, with a little bone, of any splint of stone or glass.[150]
The Cloud River Indian used two deer prongs, one much smaller than the other, the points ground to the form of a square, sharp-pointed file. He had also some pieces of iron wire tied to sticks and ground in the same manner; these were better than the deer horn, because harder, and not needing to be sharpened so often. The flake was held firmly in the left hand, guarded by a piece of buckskin; he pressed off chips with the larger tool, turning the arrow end-for-end when done on one side, so as to keep the edge opposite the middle line. The notches for barbs were worked out in a similar manner with the smaller tool.[151]
Some of the California Indians prefer agate and obsidian for their implements, as the close grain admits more careful working. They use a tool with its working edge shaped like a glazier’s diamond (apparently a piece of bone or antler with a square-cut notch on the side); the flake is held in the left hand, while the nick in the side of the tool is used to chip small fragments.[152] Peale makes similar statements, and adds that the notches are of different sizes to suit the different stages of work.[153]
The Klamath Indians, according to Schumacher, have a slender stick 1½ feet long, with a piece of sea-lion tooth, or antler, fastened to the end of it. Holding one end under the arm to steady it, they take a flake in the left hand, wrapped in a piece of buckskin so as to leave only the edge exposed, and by pressure with the point of the tool break off flakes as large as necessary, the last being quite fine, to give sharp edges to the arrow. The notches are worked out by means of a point of bone 4 or 5 inches long, without a shaft.[154] Chase gives a similar account, but says that iron points have now taken the place of the bone or horn points formerly used.[155]
It may not be out of place in this connection to give a few quotations in regard to the length of time required for making an arrowhead.
According to the Marquis de Nadaillac, the Mexicans could turn out a hundred flint knives (probably only unworked obsidian flakes) an hour,[156] while Crook says that the Plains Indians with only a knife for nicking off the edges, will make from fifty to one hundred arrows in the same period.[157] Chase found that a Klamath Indian required five minutes to complete a perfect arrowhead;[158] though Stevens observes that a Shasta Indian spent an hour in chipping one from a flake of obsidian,[159] and Lubbock states that the most skillful Indian workmen can not hope to complete more than a single arrow in a day’s hard work.[160] Powers also speaks of the aborigines of California as "using that infinite patience which is characteristic of the Indian, spending days, perhaps weeks, upon a single piece;[161] and Tylor notes “that utter disregard of time that lets the Indian spend a month in making an arrow.”[162]