Monday, February 22, 2010

Broken Bones & Fractured Stone

When early man crossed the landscape, all he had to work with was what nature provided...wood, stone, bone, shell, etc. He skillfully crafted tools for cutting, chopping, scraping, and drilling from outcroppings of rock. Quality stone was a valuable commodity as it provided the material to make tools for daily survival. This past weekend I was able to finish a series of stone knives, three mahogany obsidian and deer leg bone knives pictured above, in preparation for upcoming historical events. I sell these to support my stone addiction. Living in Nebraska there is not alot of good stone to work with so you end up trading pieces of paper with pictures of presidents on them for nice flints, cherts, and obsidians. There are always better flintknappers and artisans than I but really enjoy demonstrating the living skills of our ancestors....making stone and bone tools, starting fires by"rubbing two sticks together", or launching stone tipped darts with an atlatl. Everyone needs something that gets them excited...wakes them up early, and keeps them up late at night.

6 comments:

Keith said...

Too right, beautiful knives.
Le Loup.

Frontier Carpenter said...

You do an outstanding job at your demo's

Ron

Anonymous said...

yea: I feel the same way: find an old dog-bone, a nice chunk of quartz, wood, bark for twine, resin: soooo relaxing,and some things even work! Found dog chews pretty good for wrapping wet and letting dry: holds it all together.

Keith said...

Dog-Chews Al Dhabih, well there you go, learn something everyday.
Le Loup.

butchadams said...

Hi Mark, I just found you thru Billco Outdoors and don't have time this morning to really enjoy the info and theories but I'll be back. Great displays. thanks Butch

Baxton Studio said...

stone cutting was before ceramics for storing, right? so these are for hunter gatherers instead of early farmers i'm guessing