These are still under construction as I haven't had a chance to make any birch tar yet--so the axehead and knife blade aren't fixed to their hafts. All of the tools were made entirely using stone age technology.
Firstly a small hafted knife. It's more like a scraper than a knife really. I can imagine it being used as a tool for cleaning hides.
An axe. The blade is made from a large flake of flint, bifacially reworked and pressure flaked. The haft is made from a limb of hawthorn. Unfortunately the wood has dried out a little too fast, leaving a minor crack through the axehead socket, but hopefully with some care I should be able to sort this out with some birch tar once I fix the axehead in position.
Detail on the head of the axe.
A small, lightweight atlatl, together with the tools used to make it. The atlatl is 20 inches in length and uses a length of bramble twine to engage with the nock on the dart (I haven't made any darts yet, but I have made some projectile points).
The atlatl's wrist loop is made from plaited bramble-fibre rope and seems very strong--I'm quite pleased with how that turned out! Much more difficult to harvest the fibres than with nettles, though.
Firstly a small hafted knife. It's more like a scraper than a knife really. I can imagine it being used as a tool for cleaning hides.
An axe. The blade is made from a large flake of flint, bifacially reworked and pressure flaked. The haft is made from a limb of hawthorn. Unfortunately the wood has dried out a little too fast, leaving a minor crack through the axehead socket, but hopefully with some care I should be able to sort this out with some birch tar once I fix the axehead in position.
Detail on the head of the axe.
A small, lightweight atlatl, together with the tools used to make it. The atlatl is 20 inches in length and uses a length of bramble twine to engage with the nock on the dart (I haven't made any darts yet, but I have made some projectile points).
The atlatl's wrist loop is made from plaited bramble-fibre rope and seems very strong--I'm quite pleased with how that turned out! Much more difficult to harvest the fibres than with nettles, though.
My problem always seems to be finding decently-sized flint nodules in the first place in order to get the right sized flakes. Either that, or sufficiently thinning the flakes. I tend to get lots of crushed striking platforms, probably because I don't have any antler hammers at the moment.
