Friday, January 4, 2013

Recent Tomahawk

This is the latest tomahawk.  Made of knapped Texas flint, hafted into a hardwood handle.  Deer hide is sewn over the handle and blade lashings.  It is decorated with seed beads, horsehair locks, coyote fur, and feathers.  Puruse some of the older posts to see pics of prehistoric tomahawks and read some of the history and lore behind the tool.

English Flint Knife

One of my projects this past fall was playing with English flint.  My previous experience knapping this material was unimpressive.  But, this heat treated blade, percussion knapped, made a nice 6 1/2 inch blade.  I hafted this blade into a knobby elk antler and wrapped with it sinew and hide glue to make a 10 1/4 inch stone knife.  This type of flint, as the name implies, was used by the prehistoric peoples of modern day England to produce cutting and chopping tools, as well as projectile points.  A nice website to check out is www.flintknapping.co.uk.  This is the site for John and Val Lord and their prehistoric research projects.