Stone axe / adze improved - sharpening + second test

[2011 09 24]
Following Musteriano's advice (use water), I reshaped the edge of my first adze. And, now it can cut wood !

Adding water in the process really facilitates the grinding. (be cautious when you refine the edge, as grinding progresses fast on this part of the adze).

It took me 3 hours to reshape the edge : inexperience, polissoirs too small and malformed, adze difficult to grip, curved shape of the adze's edge, ...

Things to ameliorate :
- bigger grinding rocks,
- create depressions in the grinding rocks (in order to better hold the water and the sand)
- finer quality of sand,
- simplified adze shape : flat sides, straight edge

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• smooth
• stones
• stone
• axe
• adze
• neolithic
• Crovani
• Corsica
• chestnut
• tree
• Тесло
• Azuela
• Herminette
• Ascia
• 石斧
• Scure
• in
• pietra
• גרזן
• فأس

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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 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

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 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

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