Bone needles

[John Fenna]

I try not to do much hand sewing - so I persueded a friend to sew me some Iron Age clothing...
Unfortunately she snapped one of her bone needles in the process of sewing a fulled wool jerkin - so I took the opportunity to fashion a set of bone needles and a pin, some for her and some for me, from a deer leg bone I had around.
The big one I decorated with ring and dots using cinnamon as the dye.
I cheated and used modern tools, not stone tools, to make the needles.
The biggun is about 5" long (cloak pin) the smallest needle about 2.75"

 

[Dogoak]

Nice work, as ever, John, very nice indeed.

 

[Robson Valley]

Why are they all in two pieces?
Do you suppose that paleo people used an awl to puncture the material for the passage of the thread?

 

[John Fenna]

I have been reading up on Neolithic to Iron age textile technologies... as you do... and it seems that with leather and heavy and fulled woven textiles an awl may well have been used but for lighter wovens then the needle was used on its own.

 

[Broch]

Nice work John - but it brings on a question I have pondered for a while.

I am in the process of making a stone axe head from a lump of Preseli 'blue' stone. Is there an accepted way of marking such things to show that they are reproductions? Maybe in my case the lack of quality of workmanship will be enough - but otherwise is there a standard? - Perhaps Mary could tell us ….

 

[Robson Valley]

HA! Optical illusion with each needle being passed through the cloth.
I am reminded that the Inuit can sew waterproof seams between seal skins as coverings for their kayaks.

 

[Broch]

HA! Optical illusion with each needle being passed through the cloth.
I am reminded that the Inuit can sew waterproof seams between seal skins as coverings for their kayaks.

I confess, I was bemused by your question

 

[Robson Valley]

Broch: There's nothing at all over here for marking paleo/neolithinc replicas as such.
Because it isn't livestock, we can't register a branding mark.
Best that I do is brand everything, even carving my initials in stone, to mark my immitations.

 

[John Fenna]

Nice work John - but it brings on a question I have pondered for a while.

I am in the process of making a stone axe head from a lump of Preseli 'blue' stone. Is there an accepted way of marking such things to show that they are reproductions? Maybe in my case the lack of quality of workmanship will be enough - but otherwise is there a standard? - Perhaps Mary could tell us ….

I have no idea - all my flint knappings, bone and stone "recreations"remain unmarked....

 

[Toddy]

With pieces like these (nice work John ) context is everything.
Where was it found, even why was it found, what were the conditions in which it was found, was the context secure/undisturbed....were we sure it wasn't 'inserted' ?

Patina on materials like bone and wood is another good clue, because (again in context, wet, dry, seasonally flooded, anaerobic, shell midden, etc.,) natural materials age. Bone dries and cracks with micro fractures, it loses minerals, and then collagen, to the ground around it (note shell middens preserve bone and antler) and wood loses lignin but absorbs tannins if in peat.
All kinds of little clues to those who work with, identify and interpret lots of artifacts. We haven't even mentioned the scientific analysis either, even simple hand lenses show a great deal of detail and information on small pieces like these.

Good replicas are just the same as the items made all those years ago, but they are /were tools. Edge wear analysis can tell us a lot about how a tool was used, what it was used 'on', etc., very few modern tools get the same use, the same constant use, as those of the past, especially nowadays when we are incredibly tool rich and have little need of them for most folks.

Stone tools, like handaxes, are a lot of work to make to exacting replica standards. Folks cheat, they use a belt sanded to rough it out, or heavy rasps and the like. It takes a lot of work to remove every evidence of modern tools on their surface, especially microscopic ones. Then the stone itself tells us a lot. Where was it found, where did it come from, etc.,

On the whole experience is often the clearest indication that something is right or somehow not quite what it purports to be.

Metallurgy, best ask Dave Budd and for fine artifacts of horn and bone, well that's right up Tengu's street these days

M

 

[Broch]

Thanks Mary; I don't need to worry about my attempts then at all - and yes, I will be cheating

The only reason I have started on the handaxe is because I saw a beautiful example in the display in the new museum in St Davids - but, that may have been a replica anyway!

 

[Tengu]

The replica of the Pentire neck ring in Newquay museum is marked and dated.

But Toddy is right, contexts tells you lots...Mayhap these artefacts in the future will be dug up by non professionals who will not record the details? Too bad.

I havent seen horn needles but then that as a material doesnt preserve well.

it would be perfect for things like netting shuttles or table weaving cards....any application that we today would use a plastic for

I seem to recall I have some bone crochet hooks somewhere. No needles.

Also a few bone folders, -good hard dense bone, like low (or even respectable) grade ivory. (And the question `bone or ivory` is a big conundrum in itself)

(I think many museum artefacts marked `ivory` are not teeth...)

 

[Tengu]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-Natura...=352793687234217a91eb811042de8657c20e16ee6400

Yipe! I have no idea what happened there!

You can clean bones yourself but it is a faff. If you need a small bit then these can be used for all sorts of projects. You would get a load of needles out of that one.

This is pretty much the cheapest price

 

[John Fenna]

Most of my bone tools are made from sheep bones I find while out walking in the hills but also have a small stock of deer leg bone that I acquired from someone on this site ... can't recall who .... but I had to let the marrow rot out over a period of time.
I just hung them in the woods and let the insects clean the bones
Cooked bone does not seem to "work" as well as raw bone - I guess that the cooking changes the bone a fair bit...
A few other bone bits I have done..
.

 

[Tengu]

Yes, that is up to your usual standard.

I will have to have a go, I havent made anything in a while. I have a few useful bits and pieces.

Cooking would remove the collagen which glue it together. It would be brittle.

Which makes you wonder on all those clever things that prisoners made from bone; Theirs would be boiled to get every scrap off.

Bone is good stuff; its only big problem is that very few bits are good and thick.

Have you seen McGregors book, John?

Also what is the triangular thing and the double pronged thing?

 

[Janne]

Museum grade stuff!

Arrowhead and paleo style tick tweezers?

Dried collagen gives raw dried bone huge strength.
Composite material at its natural best.
Calcium rich matrix gives it strength and rigidity, collagen flexibility.

 

[John Fenna]

Harpoon head - designed to come away from the shaft and have a rope tether - and tweezers
McGregor? nope not read that don't even know of it! Tell me more.

 

[Tengu]

Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn. The Archaeology of skeletal materials

Lots of useful things made out of such things, (Though obviously preservation dependent...so not much horn) Also a bit about techniques

Theres a complete guide on how a Scandanavian antler comb is made

However its an archaeology book not a craft book

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bone-Ant...040399&hash=item360c3b0634:g:GUgAAOSwfa9Zrjx2

 

[Janne]

Wonder how humanity would have evolved if we were Vegan / Herbivores.

Interesting thought?

 

[Dark Horse Dave]

Really nice work - as always - John. How did you do the decoration?