Friday, September 25, 2009

New Neck Knife


I have grown attached to a simple tool that comes in quite handily while doing primitive skill encampments and demo's. It is a 3-inch blade, struck from a core of tough Nehawka flint, with saw-like serations on both edges. I wear it on a buckskin thong, with a deer phallanges "bead", around my neck. One of the curious things about dressing primitively is that there are no pockets. Certainly this was quite an innovation. Contantly, it seems I need to saw a notch in a fireboard, cut a thong, or trim a stem and have to hunt down a cutting implement. I was watching primitive technologist Lynx Vilden's, "Back into the Stone Age: The Yaak River Hunterer Gatherer Project", in which participants lived in a stone age capacity for several month. All of them wore a simple stone blade attached to a thong around their necks. Whenever they needed a quick cut, bore a hole, or start a new notch, they employed their 'neck knife'. Prehistorically, I do not know if this was done, as it was a speculation on their part also, but we do know that small knives were worn in sheaths suspended around the neck historically. ( I see how this is posted, and am out of time to fix this right now...actually, I am packed and ready to head out to another event.)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009