It was a perfect day for screening and digging in Utopia. The inch and a half rain helped settle the dust just enough to make good screening. The Sand Blaster (Melvin) wasn't up to his norm. as he'd just pulled a full day of OT with stuff blowing up around him (normal day) and so he decided to do some digging instead. But his oldest son and the rest of his group attacked the screen with a vengence, and I think TJ had gotten wind of their speed and dexterity and was giving them double loads on their screen to slow them down, (didn't work). Melvin was busy working three seperate holes and only took breaks long enough for the dozer to move his throwdirt.
Here are some of our finds from yesterday, including the rock TJ called a grindstone. I'm not an expert on mano's but this one looks like the other 500 rocks that got chunked. No wear or chipping, but ??????
Flicker (the wife) found the Perdiz on the first load. I'm not telling how many of these I found, my memory seems to recall most of them, but she says different, so not to cause marital stress, she can believe whatever she wants.

Nice finds... i to find alot of round rocks, which seem to be uncommon to me in my location. we have alot of broke flint, and other red, black, brown's and even yellow colored rocks.. but to find one thats pretty round, seems a bit out of place.. these are just a few... who' knows... could be just another round rock~. lol




sorry about the pic, those rocks are more round than oval, bust be the way its shrinking the pic... anyways. you get the jist...

cool pics ~

Unless it was flat out laying in a metate, to me it's just another round rock. Probably picked up dozens of them surface hunting. You get up on flint rock hills above the camp sites and they're everywhere (round rocks), so I wouldn't know a mano unless somebody had written on it in big letters "mano". Find them in camp sites also. I'll just take TJ's word on it. Somebody tells me it ain't, it'll just go out in the rock garden to grow with the rest of them.
There is no sign of usage on this one.

nice finds. is that a quarter, nickel or dime. For comparison purposes.

It's a nickel, should have used an old one, too much shine.

gotcha. thanks tehuacana

Are the 2 larger blades Pandora or Plainview related?
The 3rd smaller, seemingly bi-pointed dark colored point is a Zella or an Angostura?

No Silver, the two larger ones TJ called Friday Blades, I just call them knives, and the bi-pointed one is a Lerma. I have found several of them in Frio/LaSalle co. surface hunting. The knives and Lerma are more the norm of what we find in S.Tx.
Marshalls and Montells are a lot more scarce, so that's what I'm after, (plus Andice and Tangs, woooo doggie, gotta get my a tang yet.)

Very good show Te,
Got the one to the right of the identified ?? I just found a broke from down that way with a very similar base. The land owner said it was a La Jita Even though all the book examples are rounded base !
People that live & dig down there are pretty savy on what the local area camps produce >

To jump into the " balls " fray, , , ,
A great classic true CenTX MANO will be made of a hard stone material, like granite & quartz. One or possibley both flat surfaces are near glass smooth polished AND a lot of indisputable "peck" holes will
be evident around the edges. I always thought to make the stone truely round or oval BUT some is so extensive maybe it was for a non slip grip on the stone [ like the checkering on the grip of a rifle stock ]

Limestone grinders are more rare than C Tangs and fall into the catagory of balls !

Best used for garden landscapeing or building unique fireplaces !

Your pic posting seems to have centered like the old days ! Any special treatment to get it that way ?

Had to cropped the pic. to make it narrow. I tried just the regular pic. first and lost half of it. Yeah, I didn't think it was a grind stone. I'm not an expert, and I posted before that I'd never found or seen one from this area, but John in Carrizo Springs has the mano and metate together so they are here. I planted two of these round rocks in the garden and now have a bunch of pebbles. Something went on out there one night.
And that La Jita sure looks like an unfinshed Montell, I've found La Jita's before and like you said the base is more rounded. But ?????????