Bone knife.

[crosslandkelly]

Quick question to the hive mind, what would be the best bone to make two primitive knives. One to be hafted to antler or wood, the other simply one piece.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Janne]

Shin bone?
I have been thinking the same. I want a straight bone, flatish with a thick Compacta.
Ribs curve to much.

I will cut a slit in the edge and glue in slivers of the local semiprecious stone called Caymanite.

 

[Robson Valley]

I looked in all my North American reference books.
Only Ellsworth Jaeger speaks to the Inuit using a bone knife in a cutlass shape as a snow knife for building snow houses.

Everybody else paleo was using stone (flint?) blades which were sometimes hafted in bone or antler.
My flint kitchen knives are no more than elongate flakes with no handles = no problems, either.
Fingr length and smaller.

Personally, I'd ask a butcher for a leg femur from a cow.
Thick and straight, you ought to be able to cut several useful pieces to grind into shape.

Other than that, know a flint knapper that could knick off some flakes?

 

[Janne]

Exactly. Shin or Femur.
Bone is to soft to be useful, other than a letter opener or an ear wax digger.
Stone flakes are a must.

 

[Bishop]

Shark teeth perhaps? Though more often associated with the ornate weapons of the Polynesian culture there are many examples of smaller hand tools for day-to-day cutting tasks.

 

[John Fenna]

I have used beef thigh bones in the past...

 

[crosslandkelly]

Thanks for the info chaps.
Nice pics John.