Stone axe / adze improved - sharpening + second test

[cekinxxx]

wooow i'm impressed to see the adze that sharp, nice job

[gotrocksinhead]

that is wonderful to see! great job! I use a large sandstone rock in the creek near my house to do grinding/abrading. I splash water and sprinkle sand on it too. I'll make a vid on it someday.

[gofio500]

Good work, excellent!!!!

[freejutube]

@gofio500

thanks !

[5tonyvvvv]

@freejutube How sharp can you get them? enough to make a Bow?

[freejutube]

@5tonyvvvv

I think we can get them quite sharper, with a bit more of know-how.

And then, they could be used for (roughly) shaping a bow.

But for precise removal of wood, I may prefer big fresh flint spalls.

[5tonyvvvv]

@freejutube I made a Maple flat bow with stone tools. It broke within a few months. I used wood wedges to split the stave. I think If i dried it better and sinew backed it, It would have not broke.

[freejutube]

@5tonyvvvv

Congratulations !

I'm still trying to find the courage to make a bow only with stone tools ; without stone tools, I've only made 6 selfbows till now, and already broken 4 of them : 2 during the making and 2 after some months ; let's believe that breaking bows is necessary in order to gain experience :-)

[5tonyvvvv]

@freejutube Yeah fore sure, Keep in touch, Tribes today still use stone blades for Bow making, so it must work. do u know anything about sinew and Hemp bow strings?

[freejutube]

@5tonyvvvv

Making a natural cordage strong enough for a real bow seems to me "the" big (prehistoric) technological challenge. I've heard someone say he used guts (from a roadkill) with success. Another one said he used a rough sisal cordage satisfactorily. Other say that sinew is too elastic (and poorly waterproof) to make good bow strings. First hand experiments are needed (for instance with 40# bows and ~100 shots in a row).

[5tonyvvvv]

@freejutube Yeah I know, What would make the best natural bowstring? and what techniques were used? I was told Sinew is the best, Mongolian bowyers still use Horse rawhide strings, and there bows can get up in some heavy weight over 100LB Pull.

[5tonyvvvv]

@freejutube If Rawhide is stretched and waxed with Bees wax or Pitch it will be waterproof. Hemp and Linen seem to be the strongest plant fiber strings. I just think knowledge and patience has been lost, because some of the largest game on earth has been killed with so called "primitive bows" I have a 70LB sinew backed Hickory bow. and its far from primitive. Im positive I could kill a Moose with it. with stone arrowheads.

[wanderinggibbon]

very nice, it looks a lot better.

[luth47]

Etonnant! Il me faut absolument essayer.

Bravo.

[freejutube]

@luth47

merci,

et il faut absolument débusquer tous ces trucs qui paraissent impossibles à faire et qui pourtant sont accessibles.

[touchnova]

THOROUGHLY impressed man, you did an awesome job sharpening it up, wow. Awesome experiment, hope you get tons of great use out of your adze!

[freejutube]

@touchnova

thanks !

I was used to believe that it would have been too difficult, almost impossible to do. And it's really magic to discover that, actually, it is feasible and should almost be easy, with more experience, the right technique and the right primitive tools. But well, making a preform and then grinding it (instead of using a smooth stone) may be a lot more difficult [[or actually not that much ?]].