I just got a Dwain Rogers paper on a Gahagan knife & in the notation area Dwain stated that many collectors in C. Texas call them Darl knifes.

Why would he place that note unless he concur's with that statement? I now wish he hadn't placed on the certificate but what's his point?

Isn't there a major difference between Gahagan & Darl knifes, as they are supposed to be 2 different artifacts? What about an Ensor Knife, isn't that also a completely different animal than a Darl Knife?
Silver

I think his point is to validate the type and eliminate confusion. For me Gahagan usaully has recurved edges with almost a flaring base. Does yours? Most Darl blades I have seen are usually finely serrated.

Yes, mine is recurved with a flared base & it also has serations. So, I'm not sure how 2 supposedly different types can be termed as almost the same thing.
Another Gahagan that I got from Bill Arnold recently has a much wider base & on one corner has a small 1/2" bulb of sorts, which look's a lot what Bill called a Pipe Drill he had on his website with the same characteristic's. Kind of confusing if it's a Pipe Drill, even though Bill said it was a Gahagan.

Now i am really confused. Sometimes i think that certain floks that sell alot and get things authenticated frequently may have some input as to what type they want to be authenticated as for value purposes. Just my thought. Can you put some pics up?

From Texas Beyond History:

"The classic Gahagan knife was first identified in the early 1900s by Clarence Bloomfield Moore during his excavation of the Gahagan mound site located along the Red River in western Louisiana. The knife type was given the name of the site where it was first identified. However, Gahagan knives both at the George C. Davis site and the the Gahagan site appear to have been fashioned from central Texas chert. This fact, along with the appearance of similar-shaped knives on habitation sites in central Texas, suggests that Gahagan knives were made by central Texas groups who traded them to the east Texas Caddo. Caddo Indians living at sites such as George C. Davis in turn may have traded the finely crafted knife blades to their relatives in what is now Louisiana."

"Thirty-five Gahagan knives were recovered from human burials in Mound C at the George C. Davis site. Dr. Harry J. Shafer, who originally analyzed these specimens, found that the high-quality chert from which they were made was not local to east Texas. The chert was light gray, tan, brown, and tannish brown. Shafer also pointed out that the large sizes of the knives indicated that they had been made from large river cobbles or chert slabs from bedrock sources, and that the makers of the knives probably lived close to the chert sources. These kinds of chert can be found in gravel bars in the Little River near the J. B. White site, and there is no doubt that the knappers who lived there had the skills to make the tools that archeologists call Gahagans."

I'm convinced, I can cross off being a professional
authenticator when I grow up.

Lots of true food for thought y'all put out. I just
check the book for design similarities. The book cant
properly show details as type of flint. That Darrell
research says a lot. I have one single blade I have
always labeled as a "classic" Gahagan, I had never
noticed the design similarity to the Darl until now.
I think I should add another tag, like Silvers paper !

I'm now thinking there should be exactly the same
number of "knives" as there are projectile family points. For instance, I'm not sure if I have seen
a listing for a Pandale or livermore blade, so when these
people had a deer to chop up, what do they say ??
"Shall I use a Friday or a Covington today ? " I dont
think so now, if they made points unique to their
family they probably carried their unique signature
to other tools. JMHO [ just my healthy opinion ]