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Arrowshaft-straightening with a Grooved Stone
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
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Not long ago at Tonto National Monument, Arizona, I discussed with Erik Reed and Lloyd Pierson, National Park Service archaeologists, the grooved stone “arrowstraightener” or “arrow-smoother” and its presumed uses. At that time I held serious doubts that this well-known object had ever had any place in the making of arrows. As a fletcher of some 20 years' experience, I had taken particular note of Pima fletchers and the manner in which they worked their shafts, and was impressed by the ease with which they took rather crooked sticks and made them straight and serviceable as arrows. These sticks were always of arrow weed, or specifically Pluchea sericea. Salt River Valley had almost no reed cane (carrizo; Phragmites), and I never saw it used. I note also the fact that no grooved stone was used in straightening Pima arrows.
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