# An attempt at making a (psuedo) stone-age axe.



## Plumbata (Feb 18, 2011)

Back in November I came across a very nice piece of hard, _almost_ cryptocrystalline granite in a stream bed littered with the glaciated products of the last Ice Age, which appeared as if it was intended by Mother Nature to become a Celt or another similar stone tool. My curiosity took it from there.

 During the tedious process of grinding stone against stone I became weary of the work and decided to use an electric grinding wheel to shape the bottom length and the backside into a form that was more "typical" of ancient stone Celts, but resolved to create the cutting face as it would have (presumably) been done many millennia ago; with elbow grease, many hours, and abrasive slabs of the cemented sand of sedimentary quartz. It was a royal pain in the arse. I wish I could say that it was _all _done by hand, but I am not a liar.

 The sharpened product was fitted within a drilled-out and rasped mattock handle reinforced with duct tape (a great stone-age invention [8D]) and put to use.

 The results were both impressive and disappointing. The Celt was more prone to mashing the cellulose fibers of a tree trunk than cleanly slicing (as with a lovely Iron-age axe) but still performed better than wanton yanking and pulling, or frenzied buffeting with available stones and bricks. Attempts at re-grinding or re-sharpening had little effect. I plan to fit the axehead into the basal root-knot of a tough young tree (yew, mebbe?) using traditional techniques, but the desire to see practical results overcame my search for non-anachronistic hafting methods.

 My non-scientific conclusion is that it must have been a very brutish existence indeed for the natives of any land before the advent of metallurgical technologies. In war, however, I have no doubt that such a tool would cave-in an offending skull without much effort; if the adversary were foolish enough to enter the realm of melee combat instead of launching spears and arrows into the non-armored bodies of the axe-wielding defenders... from a safe distance, naturally.

 The tool:























 Who knows, maybe in a few hundred years some enterprising individual will find this piece of manipulated granite in a creek or field and assume that it was the product of Native Americans. Wouldn't that be a hoot. []


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## rockbot (Feb 19, 2011)

That thing looks pretty deadly! Great experiment Plum.


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## Steve/sewell (Feb 19, 2011)

Neat experiment Stephen,next time maybe use thin hemp rope (I know cost can be a factor)it might give a better visual then duct tape.Just think if the Indians did have duct tape their life would have been a hellva lot easier.[8D]


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## Digswithstick (Feb 25, 2011)

Nice axe ! The earlier inhabitants planted crops in natural meadows and flood plains .They did not clear forests ,when they did need to cut a large tree they used fire around tree ,cut charred area and reburned ,repeat . Your axe would work fine with fire added [].
    I have also dabbled in making stone tools  ,to study characteristics of fakes ,but i would not want some one selling them or finding them thinking they are the real deal .
  Some reproductions []


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## OsiaBoyce (Feb 25, 2011)

Check some of these out.


http://forum.gon.com/forumdisplay.php?f=69


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## Digswithstick (Feb 26, 2011)

Great link Pat ,put it in the favorites ,some great stuff there ,thanks ![]


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## OsiaBoyce (Feb 26, 2011)

Like that huh? Now if wanna have some fun go to the Political forum.

http://forum.gon.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9


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## OsiaBoyce (Feb 26, 2011)

Better not go there to much. You'll be Watching Fox and saying things like "Did ya hear Rush say.................." or "I saw on Glenn Beck where........................"


 They told me I was "sick" the other day. I was so proud of that.


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## Plumbata (Feb 26, 2011)

Great items Digswithstick, that is some very cool handiwork. I'd like to learn how to flintknap someday. I was thinking that an axe like this would be best suited for mashing off the side branches of a post or pole. It works pretty well for that purpose, for me at least. 

 Thanks for the forum link Osia.



> ORIGINAL:  lobeycat
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