Flaked Stone Axeheads

The weather has been a bit warmer, in the 30's with some sun, which is considerable better than the sub zero temperatures of the past couple weeks.  You really can wonder at and appreciate the tenacity of the Native Americans living out on the plains in those conditions.  Winter was something to prepare for in terms of food, shelter, appropriate clothing, and firewood.  I had read once that December was considered by some tribes to be the "moon of the clacking rocks."  Your time and efforts were more confined closer to the fire, so working on tools for the upcoming seasons occupied your time.  Perhaps more specifically, it referred to the production of pecked and ground tools which took some considerable time and effort to make. Lately though, I've been preparing a number of flaked flint preforms for axes and tomahawks.  You can turn out a flaked axehead in less than an hour. (Below are a couple of authentic flaked axeheads from Chase County in Kansas.)

Finished Hafted Stone Heads

I had a gentleman who wanted me to haft a couple of modern made stone replica heads to handles. These were pictured a couple posts back. The top was a full groove axe head which was set into a hardwood handle, wrapped with rawhides, that when dry had shrank to hold tight. The handle was stained with boiled walnut hulls and burnished with a deer leg bone to give a polished, or varnished look. To burnish all you do is vigorously rub a bone across the wood. It compresses and smooths the outer fibers to give a polished look. The bottom is representative of a plains war club. It was made in a similar way, except that deer hide was stretched and sew over the entire handle. Warriors would decorate their personal weapons with fringes, fur, scalp locks, etc. as they felt inclined. There were several varieties of war clubs utilized. One, like the pictured pecked and grooved double pointed head. Another was a common rounded rock, pecked and grooved, hafted. A unique style was a rounded rock, wrapped with a loose section of hide and attached to a handle - similar to the medevil mace with the ball and chain on a handle. These war clubs were used in combat, and longer-handled ones from horseback. As I did some research on war clubs, I found a good number of double pointed heads fashioned from alabaster, a carving stone used for sculptures. So, I located a source and will try my hand fashioning some double pointed club heads, as well as banner stones for atlatls.

Pecking Axeheads

Started another pecked celt axehead (lower middle). A celt is defined as "an ungrooved, tapered ground stone with a centered edge at one end." Doesn't look like much right now. It is wedged into a tapering slot in the handle. I've been using some Virginia greenstone I got thru Errett Callahan...this is some tuff stuff...>sheesh<. Using a hammer stone I #!#forcefully!!# knocked off some thinning flakes, the best I could. Then comes the fun part...hours of pecking, with the hammerstone, as the face of the rock s l o w l y crumbles away in a fine dust. (I read once that December, in some Native cultures, was considered the Moon of the Clacking Rocks.) The edge is then ground and honed in a slurry of fine sand and water. Some beautiful polished axeheads have been made by this method for millenia that are literally works of art. I seem to only have the patience for making functional pieces. Larry Dean Olsen, in his book Outdoor Survival Skills, said: "Shaping stones by crumbling them requires little brainpower, but a lot of perseverance and resignation to monotony." Hmmm...little brainpower, monotony...sounds like I'm the right guy for the job...lol.