In 1845, the pipe backed blade was replaced by Wilkinson's design.

Blades with one edge blunted by removal of tiny flakes are called backed blade.

There are backed blades as well.

Further excavations identified over 600 tools, dominated by backed blades, endscrapers and burins.

These included 23 projectile points, 37 knives, 13 multi-functional tools, 20 blades, 3 backed blades, 2 drills and 33 biface fragments.

People at the Head were heavily involved with the production of blades, further excavations identified 649 tools, dominated by backed blades, endscrapers and burins.

The stone tools were mostly large segments or 'crescents', obliquely backed blades and unifacial and bifacial points.

Generally, lithic technology is dominated by blade production and typical Upper Paleolithic tool forms such as burins and backed blades (the most persistent).

The diagnostic tools are trapezoidal backed blades called Cheddar points and variant forms known as Creswell points as well as smaller bladelets.

It has been suggested that backed blades played a role in gift exchanges of hunting equipment, and this ceased with culture changes that stopped this exchange and so the need for their manufacture.

For example Lyn Wadley has noted that "if the Howiesons Poort backed blade production was an important marker of modern human behaviour it is difficult to explain why it should have lasted for more than 20,000 years and then have been replaced by 'pre-modern' technology?"