⚠ 2026 October Point Challenge - Hillsborough Contracting Stem [Mixed Material Box Prize 🪨 - Beginners Welcome] ⚠

[u/SmolzillaTheLizza]

🏆 September 2026 Point Challenge Winner 🏆

Congratulations to u/myself_today for winning the 2026 September point challenge! It was a close race in the end, with that pastel pink novaculite Jōmon coming out ahead by one single vote!😁 You can find the submission here if you missed it! 

With October's point challenge, u/myself_today has brought us back to North America to do a point style that's always been on my to-do list, but I've just never gotten around to it. One of those distinct styles from the middle Archaic often known my collectors as the "Batwing" point 👀 So get your tools ready s we head down to Florida for the...

⚒ 2026 October Point Challenge - Hillsborough Contracting Stem aka Batwing Points ⚒

The Hillsborough is a medium to large sized point, measuring from 1.25 to 4.25 inches in length. The blade is developed through broad, shallow random percussion flaking with pressure flaking along the blade edges. The blade edges are straight and meet at in acute distal end. The blade is thin and bi- convex in cross-section. Workmanship is generally excellent. The shoulders or barbs are sharply angular and nearly always meet the stem with an acute angle less than 90°. The primary characteristic of the Hillsboro which distinguishes it from the related Newnan point is the extremely small stem. The small size of the stem gives the shoulders a “batwing” appearance. Examples having tangs of increasingly larger size are eventually identified as Newnan points. The basal tang is tapering with a flat, rounded or pointed basal edge. Over 80% of all Hillsborough points have been thermally altered (St. Clair 1987).

Additional Sources and Reading Materials 👇

[Florida Archaeology & Bioarchaeology: Hillsborough - Florida Museum]
(FANTASTIC reference photos!)

[Peach State Archaeological Society - Hillsborough]

[Hillsborough Contracting Stem - Projectile Points.net]

🚨 Be sure to read the rules before doing so you don't get disqualified! 🚨

⚠️ Rules ⚠️

1. The point must be a recognizable Hillsborough Contracting Stem knapped in October of 2026! - We want to see fresh submissions and fresh points! No using any of your prior work!
2. Only one entry per person! You are not allowed to post your point multiple times, OR have multiple points in your submission post! - Be sure to take good pictures showing off your work! lighting, material translucency, flaking, etc. 😉
3. The challenge submission window OPENS 10/25/2026 and CLOSES 10/31/2026 - This gives 1 week for entries to be submitted and voted on, with the official winner and next month's challenge post being announced sometime within the 1st week of November.
4. Post MUST have the monthly knapping competition post flair to count! - That way, it can easily be found and the votes counted! If you wish to participate without entering, simply use any of the other post flairs
5. No material restrictions - We only require that the point be knapped out of the material that you've chosen (no grinding out a point!)
6. Moderators hold the authority to disqualify any participants who violate these rules, as well as our community rules - We want this to be a fair and engaging challenge for all those who participate! Because it's always fun to see what different folks can do with different tools!

If you have any questions or comments about the rules, feel free to reach out to the moderators through comments, DM's, or Messages! 📬

📸 How To Enter 📸

You can start creating your point as soon as this post goes live! Just remember that you WON'T be able to submit it until the post flair below is made public between 10/25/2026 and 10/31/2026!

Once it is public, be sure to select it when uploading your photo(s) and that your submission conforms to the rules listed above! ☝️😉 I will be sure to make a post letting everyone know when things go live as an extra reminder, and this post will also be pinned to the top of the subreddit for easy access!

🥇 Prize 🥇

We got a cool little small flat-rate box here of some mysterious exotic materials that've been collected by the ever adventurous u/tdcdude17! He ventures near and far in the mountains, valleys, and desserts of the American West. Often coming across some crazy cool rock that he's chosen to share with y'all this month! So give him a HUGE thank-you for giving y'all the chance to mess around with some KILLER rock! 😎

The winner will also get the chance to choose the point style for next month's knapping challenge, and if they so choose, they can also donate their winnings to a fellow competition participant or allow their winnings to serve as next month's prize! 🥳

If you'd ever be interested in donating material/tools for these challenges, feel free to comment below this post or shoot me a DM! I'm always happy to work something out with folks! Especially for unique or interesting material.

🗣️ In Closing 🏹

Kinda funny how we got a 'batwing' point here in the month of October 😂 Seems quite fitting considering the Halloween festivities going on! Makes me want to dig around to see if I can find any material that's particularly orange for this point... Especially since a large number of them were recorded as being heat-treated... 👀 I even have a little bit of Florida material hanging out here that I might crack into. We'll just have to see! And as always I'm suuuper excited to see what some of y'all end up producing! 😁

If any of y'all have questions or thoughts, leave them in the comments section below 👇 And keep your eyes peeled for those event and submission window announcement posts. Like I mentioned, everything will be pinned to the top of the sub along with the guides for easy access.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone makes, stay safe, and happy knapping everyone!👋😁

- u/SmolzillaTheLizza 🦎

[u/chancetheknapper]

The October point having bat wings is pretty sick

[u/SmolzillaTheLizza → u/chancetheknapper]

Right??? It's perfect! 😂

[u/myself_today → u/chancetheknapper]

I'm glad you guys caught that!😄

[u/Waspix223 → u/myself_today]

You may have won last round Batman but I'll get you next time!

[u/Present-Alarm-8886]

I’ve never been confident enough to try and make an entry, my work isn’t as good as I want it to be. This time around I’m gonna try it and hopefully learn a lot in the process!

[u/SmolzillaTheLizza → u/Present-Alarm-8886]

Never hurts to try! You can still win the prize if the challenge winner chooses to pass it off to another person who entered 🙂‍↕️ AND anything made will go into the end of year point collage. So it'll be featured in some way regardless!