Stone age carving with primitive tools weekend

[GGTBod]

Just got home and recovered from the best birthday gift I have ever gotten myself ever by attending the Primitive Carving Course with Will Lord and Scott Knight down in Bury St Edmunds at Prehistoric Experiences Beyond 2000 BC.


This was a truly legendary event that will be with me in my spirit for a long long time, we carved, we talked and we engaged with living history, the tools, the materials and even the setting were all perfectly intertwined together, let me explain that a little. The setting is very near Grimes Graves (please Google), we were using ancient chalk from the Grimes Graves area that our ancestors mined, we used the same tools they did trying to emulate the art of the era, the knowledge and experiences shared between Will and Scott creates this whole third megamind where their different experiences and skills intertwine and create a whole new deeper understanding of the hobbies they both passionately live day to day, for them both and anyone lucky enough to share in it all, then I have to mention the other people on the course, everyone of them was there looking for connections in the past to enrich their lives in the present, this created a mad group unity within minutes of starting carving and it was like we were a little tribe that had always done this, everyone had different experiences, knowledge and wisdom which was shared without prejudice or any sort of elitist nonsense, so much so I will make a lot of effort if needed to stay in touch with everyone I met whilst attending this course.







My first video from this experience
[video=youtube;Bc6tmYfpU6U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc6tmYfpU6U[/video]

more pictures and videos coming soon

 

[crosslandkelly]

Nice vid, looks like you all had a great weekend. Some nice carvings too.

 

[Dreadhead]

looks like a quality weekend superb mate. What was going on with those fibres I saw? were you making cordage or something?

 

[GGTBod]

Was really brilliant, the cordage was various wrappings and hangings and bindings for pendants and beads using lime basa for the materials and some nettle too

 

[GGTBod]

Some folks needed it for their projects and the rest of us joined in for the fun of it

 

[Leshy]

Looks brilliant!
His knapping skills are just awesome...

One day I might get to spend the day there too ...
Thanks for sharing Bob
👍

 

[Toddy]

Sounds really excellent Rob

Thanks for sharing

M

 

[Janne]

You seem to have had lots of fun!
Whose is that skull, a past participant that did not pass the final?

 

[GGTBod]

Thanks everyone it as definitely a special little gathering of like souls. The skull is my Youtube troll

 

[GGTBod]

There was a fellow on the course who is one of the UK's top suppliers of legal human bones, we had a femur and several tibia and fibia too and a big bag of various little human bones

 

[Janne]

Thanks everyone it as definitely a special little gathering of like souls. The skull is my Youtube troll

Made from a trolling BushcraftUK member?




I used to have a skull myself. Dad's old one. Used in his and mine medical studies.
But it had all the teeth still. I had a box for it, but it was on my desk. Used to freak the girls out!

I gave it to my old Faculty when I moved from Sweden.

 

[GGTBod]

I got quite attached to that one by the end of the weekend

 

[Janne]

Did you carve any of the bones?

 

[GGTBod]

I was tempted to make a human bones necklace but then got distracted by a petrospheres and a huge horn, when I finish them I will share them

 

[GGTBod]

Here is my second video from the Primitive Carving Workshop.

In this video Will Lord makes a flint blade with one hit on a large flint nodule and then seconds later uses this to process half a muntjac deer for us to eat that evening, you will be amazed how sharp a first strike flint tool can be, if you can not handle seeing wild game being processed please do not watch this video

<span style="color:#ff0000;">[video=youtube;ZPuSDeZNJjk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPuSDeZNJjk&amp;feature=yo utu.be[/video]

 

[Robson Valley]

That's exactly what was knapped for me. I use them for cutting up and trimming raw bison. Far better than steel.
I would have really enjoyed helping with the muntjac.

I wonder: when they find examples, do the archaeologists recognize those flint flakes for what they are?

 

[GGTBod]

I think world wide the functionality of the first strike tools was seriously understated in past education with words like primitive, the skill involved in manipulating the stones is anything but primitive even on the most basic of levels

 

[Robson Valley]

In the PaleoPlanet forums, I felt that I noticed a disconnect between the knapping process and the mundane application of flint and obsidian glass edges.

One knapper(?) kindly struck half a dozen finger-length blades for me. They are a real pleasure to use. Long simple, dragging cuts and meat prep is easy.
Just like your video. There's so little effort in the work.