I had a good friend named Philip Churchill, who I collaborated with from 2011 until his death in 2014. I was so backlogged on Danish dagger orders that he could hardly keep up.
The reason for this is because very few people in the world are able to make Danish daggers. Also, he took one of the technologies that I was studying, and adapted it for use in creating the stitching in the handles. Apparently, the technology that I was studying works quite well on raw chert. By the end, he told me that he could do pretty much the same thing in raw chert that he could do with a pressure flaker, on heat treated chert.
Actually, Philip's real interest was in seeing some things resolved, that he felt were going unrecognized. The only reason that he did not carry out more experiments is because he was swamped with Danish dagger orders, from international buyers. Obviously, his work was a specialty niche.
My guess is that within the next ten years or so we will see some resurgence of fakes on the market. Currently, the best replicators, and forgers, are using copper percussion. As Philip told me years ago, they do this because they get a more accurate flake scar then they get with antler percussion. But, it is a no-brainer that copper percussion is not a culturally identifiable flintknapping method. So, the only logical conclusion is that Native American flintknapping has never been will understood, as was stated by Holmes, in the early 1900's
What is eventually going to happen is that the flintknapping community will one day learn of authentic flaking practices. And, then the newer forgeries will become apple for apple matches of ancient points. That is not currently happening, in many cases, partly because of the heavy reliance upon thermal alteration, and partly because of the wrong flaking methods that are being used. But, once the flintknapping community becomes aware of authentic flaking technologies, then both hurdles will be cleared, and the newer line of forgeries will be much more convincing than the past copper percussion forgeries. (By the way, many collectors will not touch certain alleged paleo points, if the material was heat treated. Straightaway, it is seen as a sign of forgery, since modern knappers are not able to make convincing copies from the same materials, when in a raw state.)
The odd thing about forgeries, is that it might be a two edged sword, depending on how one looks at it. If a person is interested in seeing history being studied, and understood, then a black market full of artifacts could be sign that important sites are getting looted. But, if the black market becomes filled with indistinguishable forgeries, and people realize that not all of the points could possibly be real, then the entire black market would come into question. And, that would stifle demand for points that might not be real. And, if the demand decreases, then there would naturally be less commercial looting of sites.
That being said, a certain percentage of people who are into artifact collecting are probably motivated by profit, just as a forger is motivated by profit. In that light, the purchase of an artifact becomes an "investment". And, the demand for such investments could spur looting. So, when a collector discovers that he purchased a fake point, he might not be unhappy because the point is not real. He might be unhappy because he realized that it was a bad investment that he might lose money on. In other words, the bottom line may not be the moral component. Rather, it might be the dollar - which once again is the same thing that could drive highly destructive looting.
On the other hand, forgery is a matter of outright fraud. But, who is being defrauded? Only a person who is willing to shell out money for an artifact that could have come from cultural destruction. To give an example, suppose there is a cave with 15,000 year old lithics, sitting at the bottom, along with ivory artifacts. And, everything is in pristine condition, since it is a dry cave site. Then, what would happen if a couple of point hunters dug up the cave, and removed the artifacts? Maybe, the most important evidence ever found in the Americas would be removed. And, everyone's history would be lost, while the diggers might pocket a few hundred dollars, or less.
Anyway, at some point down the road, there will probably be newer lines of forgeries, that are real apples for apples matches, to ancient stuff. It won't be made via copper percussion. And, it won't be made with the antler billet flaking method, devised in England around 1930. Instead, it will involve authentic technologies. And, the end products will fool the daylights out of collectors, until the entire market comes into question.
So, at some point down the road, I think that we will see a resurgence of fakes, and more money changing hands, once the flintknapping community makes progress with real technologies that were used by ancient people. I am not saying that I advocate this. It simply looks like the inevitable outcome of eventual progress, within the flintknapping community. Obviously, if collectors reached a point where they stopped buying points, or paying large sums for points, this would all dry up. And, that would make the looting of sites less profitable.
The issue is a two edged sword.
