A Crooked Knife from Blue Earth Village, 14PO24
Date: 1795-1830 CE
This crooked knife was recovered from the Blue Earth village site and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1880. Blue Earth village was a Kansa Indian village in Pottawatomie County. Many lodge depressions were still visible on the surface in the 1880s. Archeologists think these "crooked knives" were traded to the Kansa already in their unique shape. They were likely used for woodworking, such as in the manufacturing of bowls or spoons. Three nail holes indicate that the crooked knife once had a handle.

A Lithic Collection from 14CT312
Date: 1-1000 CE
These three chipped stone tools were collected from an Early Ceramic period archeological site in Chautauqua County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1976. Shown from left to right is an alternately beveled knife, a scraper, and a large corner-notched dart point fragment. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels. Scrapers, such as this one would have been hafted onto a handle and used to scrape hides. The scraper would have required periodic resharpening. The dart point and the alternately beveled knife get their pinkish color as a result of the material being carefully heated before manufacturing to improve the chert's knapping qualities. Dart points would be mounted to the dart foreshaft, which would in turn be connected to the dart shaft. The assembled dart would then be thrown with an atlatl (spearthrower).

Alternately Beveled Knife and Drill from the Anthony Site, 14HP1
Date: 1100-1300 CE
This knife and drill were recovered from the Anthony site in Harper County. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels. It is made of Florence chert from the Flint Hills region and gets its pinkish color as a result of the material being carefully heated before manufacturing to improve the chert's knapping qualities. Drills were used to bore holes in materials softer than the drill itself, such as hides, shell, wood, or soft stone. The drill is made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk, a type of chert that outcrops in western Kansas and north into Nebraska. The Anthony site dates to the Bluff Creek complex in the Middle Ceramic period. Bluff Creek people practiced a mixed economy of hunting, gathering, and some horticulture.

Alternately Beveled Knife from 14AT448
Date: 1-1000 CE
This alternately beveled knife was collected from an Early Ceramic archeological site in Atchison County and donated in 2018 to the Kansas Historical Society. Repeated sharpening on alternate sides created the bevels. The knife was mostly likely hafted.

Alternately Beveled Knife from 14EK308
Date: 1-1000 CE
This alternately beveled knife was recovered from the surface of an Early Ceramic period archeological site in Elk County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1972. Archeologists believe that knives shaped like this would have been used for bison butchering. Repeated sharpening on alternate sides created bevels. Knives with the general diamond shape are also sometimes called Harahey knives.

Alternately Beveled Knife from 14MO433
Date: 1500-1800 CE
This knife fragment was recovered from an archeological site in Morris County with occupations in the Archaic, Early Ceramic, and Late Ceramic periods. It was donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2017. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels. The Great Bend aspect style knife would have been hafted to a handle.

Alternately Beveled Knife from 14RC418
Date: 1350-1650 CE
This alternately beveled knife was recovered by Kansas Historical Society archeologists during a pipeline survey. It was discovered on the surface of 14RC418, a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) site in Rice County. The two notches near the base indicate that the knife was most likely hafted.

Alternately Beveled Knife from 14SA407
Date: 1000-1500 CE
This alternately beveled knife was found on the surface of a Middle Ceramic period Smoky Hill aspect camp site in Saline County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2017. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels.

Alternately Beveled Knife from Archeological Site 14CS401
Date: 1-1000 CE
This alternately beveled knife was collected from 14CS401 in Chase County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2005. Repeated sharpening on alternate sides created bevels and the two notches near the base indicate that the knife was most likely hafted.

Alternately Beveled Knife from Archeological Site 14SA415
Date: 1200-1299 CE
This alternately beveled knife was recovered from excavations at archeological site 14SA415 in the 1970s and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2020. Archeologists believe that knives shaped like this would have been used for butchering bison and other large game animals. Repeated sharpening on alternate sides created bevels. Knives with the general diamond shape are also sometimes called Harahey knives. The knife was recovered from a Smoky Hill phase lodge at the site occupied during the Middle Ceramic period in Saline County.

Alternately Beveled Knife from Montgomery County
Date: Unknown
This alternately beveled knife fragment was recovered from Montgomery County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1975. The knife was reconstructed by the donor. The pinkish color of the Florence chert indicates that it had been heat treated to improve knapping quality of the chert. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels.

Alternately Beveled Knife from Morris County
Date: Unknown
This alternately beveled knife was found along the Santa Fe trail near Wilsey, in Morris County. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels. It is likely that the knife was hafted.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Across the Creek Site, 14JO406
Date: 1-1500 CE
This alternately beveled knife was collected from a multicomponent site in Johnson County with occupations in both the Early and Middle Ceramic periods. It was donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2017. The knife was made of Winterset chert, which outcrops in eastern Kansas and Missouri. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Buresh Site, 14SR303
Date: 1000-1800 CE
This alternately beveled knife was recovered from the Buresh site, a Middle Ceramic village in Sumner County. The knife is made of local Flint Hills chert that had been heat treated to improve knapping quality of the chert. Knives with the general diamond shape are also sometimes called Harahey knives. Archeologists believe that a knife shaped like this one would have been used for bison butchering.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Hays Lankard Site, 14AD353
Date: 1-1800 CE
This knife was collected from the Hays Lankard site, an archeological site in Anderson County and donated in 1961 to the Kansas Historical Society. The knife get its pinkish color as a result of the material being carefully heated before manufacturing to improve the chert's knapping qualities. Repeated sharpening on alternate sides created bevels. The two notches near the base indicate that the knife was mostly likely hafted. One side is nearly covered with the collector's notes.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Lundeen Site, 14MD306
Date: 1237-1435 CE
This alternately beveled knife was recovered during excavations at the 1998 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school in Meade County at the Lundeen site. It is made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk, which outcrops in western Kansas and Nebraska. Archeologists believe that knives shaped like this would have been used for butchering bison and other large game animals. Repeated sharpening on alternate sides created bevels. Knives with this general diamond shape are also called Harahey knives. The site is a Middle Ceramic period camp that is part of the Wilmore Complex.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Mallow Site, 14DP1312
Date: Unknown
This alternately beveled knife was collected from an archeological site in Doniphan County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1925. Knives with the general diamond shape are also sometimes called Harahey knives. Archeologists believe that a knife shaped like this one would have been used for bison butchering.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Shrope Site, 14CO331
Date: 1400-1725 CE
This alternately beveled knife was recovered from the Shrope village site in Cowley County. The knife gets its pinkish color as a result of the material being carefully heated before manufacturing to improve the chert's knapping qualities. Repeated sharpening on alternate sides created bevels and the two notches near the base indicate that the knife was most likely hafted. The Shrope site, a large Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village, was excavated by Kansas Historical Society archeologists and crew in 1995. Forty-one archeological features, such as storage pits, hearths, and post molds, were uncovered at the site.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Tobias Site, 14RC8
Date: 1400-1700 CE
This alternately beveled knife was recovered from excavations during the 1977 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school at the Tobias site in Rice County. The knife is made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk, a good quality knapping material that is exposed in linear beds in northwestern Kansas and western Nebraska. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels. The Tobias site is a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village that had dense artifact deposits, house remains, and numerous deep trash-filled storage pits. The site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Tobias Site, 14RC8
Date: 1400-1700 CE
This alternately beveled knife was recovered from excavations during the 2019 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school at the Tobias site in Rice County. The knife is made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk, a good quality knapping material that is exposed in linear beds in northwestern Kansas and western Nebraska. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels. The Tobias site is a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village that had dense artifact deposits, house remains, and numerous deep trash-filled storage pits. The site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Alternately Beveled Knife from the Trowbridge Site, 14WY1
Date: 1-250 CE
This alternately beveled knife was collected from the Trowbridge archeological site in Wyandotte County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1973. It gets its pinkish color as a result of the material being carefully heated before manufacturing to improve the chert's knapping qualities. Repeated sharpening on the knife's alternate sides created the bevels. Trowbridge is a Kansas City Hopewell site from the Early Ceramic Period. During this time archeologists find evidence of houses, cultivated plants, and decorated pottery.

Alternately Beveled Knife from Wabaunsee County
Date: Unknown
This alternately beveled knife was found in Wabaunsee County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1925. Archeologists believe that a knife shaped like this one would have been used for bison butchering. Sometimes these knives are alternately sharpened on four sides, but this specimen has been sharpened on only two alternate sides. Knives with the general diamond shape are also sometimes called Harahey knives. One side of the knife is nearly covered with the original collector's notes (some erroneous).

Alternately Beveled Knives from 14BT413
Date: 1500-1800 CE
These alternately beveled knives were recovered from a Late Ceramic period archeological site in Barton County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2021. Repeated sharpening on alternate sides created the bevels and at least some were likely hafted to a handle. Two are made of Alibates Agatized dolomite, a silicified or agatized dolomite from the Canadian River valley in the Texas panhandle. The other two are made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk, a type of chert that outcrops in western Kansas and north into Nebraska. Archeologists are interested in what the artifacts can tell about how people used resources, moved across their landscapes, and interacted with other groups.

Alternately Beveled Knives from 14EK304
Date: Unknown
These three alternately beveled knife fragments were collected from a multicomponent (multiple occupations) camp site in Elk County and, in 1975, donated to the Kansas Historical Society. All three artifacts were made of Permian chert. The pinkish color of one indicates that it had been heat treated to improve knapping quality of the chert. Repeated sharpening on the knives alternate sides created the bevels.

Alternately Beveled Knives from 14EK318
Date: 1-1500 CE
These three alternately beveled knife fragments were recovered from an archeological site in Elk County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1974 and 1975. Knives with a general diamond shape, as is the white fragment, are sometimes called Harahey knives. Archeologists believe that a knife shaped like this would have been used for bison butchering. The other two knife fragments are alternately beveled on two sides. The pinkish color of one knife fragment is a result of the material being carefully heated before manufacturing to improve the chert's knapping qualities. The remaining alternately beveled knife fragment was made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk.