Papuan Axe Treat (not sure which forum to put this in)

[trekkingnut]

Morning all,

This will hopefully be a treat and something that we can all appreciate. As some of you may or may not know I am an expedition manager and drag poor scientists to some of the more remote parts of the globe.

Whilst on my travels I came across stone axes in papua and thought you guys would appreciate the uniqueness and craftsmanship that went into making it.

Though not strictly British bushcraft it is definitely the real deal.

These are hastily taken photos but hopefully show you the technique and materials (ish) used in the making of this beautiful hand Axe. (Stove is for size reference only and was not made my native Papuans)

Hope you guys all enjoy the photos!

 

[trekkingnut]

might need a mod to stick pic heavy on that title.... i resized everything to make it a lot smaller but doesnt seem to have worked so well on this site....

 

[John Fenna]

Is that ceremonial or practical?
Looks great!

 

[trekkingnut]

Is that ceremonial or practical?
Looks great!

that is a practical sized hand Axe made for use around the house/smaller tasks. they had a much bigger one for chopping down trees etc. though of course if they can get it they will use a metal one but this is how they have been made since the dawn of time in Papua and in many places still are made and used.

It doesnt rely on a whopping great amount of force to chop the tree as a metal axe does, if you try them like that then the head snaps off very rapidly. more a gentle whipping action that relies on a very heavy head compared to a feather light handle.

 

[trekkingnut]

Is that ceremonial or practical?
Looks great!

o and btw, they just called the head, blue stone, i have no idea what type of stone it is made out of at all.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Thats beutiful dude, Did you catch Human planet on the bbc the other night, filming the Korowai tribe western Papua? showed how effective this stone axe is, felling whopping great trees while they were building a lodge house at the top of a Iron wood tree. amazing place. love to here some of your tails someday chap.

 

[Toddy]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful
I have found hand neolithic handaxes and I have seen replicas but to see one that is still a part of a continuous culture is brilliant

Thank you for posting the photos
Do you know what was used for the binding ?

If this kind of thing interests you, have a look at the Pitt Rivers museum. It has masses of ethnographic artefacts along these lines. The man really appreciated the development of tools

cheers,
Toddy

 

[robin wood]

This is a really very very nice image. I would love to know more about how it fits in the culture. Are they still making these or is it an oldish one? are steel tools readily available and if so are they prohibitively expensive? are people using stone and steel tools alongside each other? Have you seen folk working with these and alongside folk working with steel tools?

It is an adze by the way rather than an axe, same thing really but the cutting edge is set 90 degrees differently, one used for cutting one for shaping.

I am really pleased to see it mounted on such a thin handle, I have recently been working with Japanese adzes which are similarly heavy (steel) heads on thin flexible handles. I feel most of the archaeologists I have worked with do not really understand these tools and as you say, use them like a heavy steel tool and they don't work.

PS we shouldn't really call these hand axes as that is a technical archaeological term used to describe the larger tools which were held in the hand and not hafted.

 

[trekkingnut]

Thats beutiful dude, Did you catch Human planet on the bbc the other night, filming the Korowai tribe western Papua? showed how effective this stone axe is, felling whopping great trees while they were building a lodge house at the top of a Iron wood tree. amazing place. love to here some of your tails someday chap.

hehe i did watch that program, even the documentary showed them with metal axes though that had clearly been brought in from somewhere. probably by the bbc in exchange for being allowed to film them.

that house was stunning! however, i cant help but think they built it that high for the cameras... they usually only build them a max 8mtrs or so off the ground...from what i remember at least. it seemed unnecessarily high, no flood waters will EVER get that high....

you arent far from swindon eh? drive over and have a look if you want....

 

[trekkingnut]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful
I have found hand neolithic handaxes and I have seen replicas but to see one that is still a part of a continuous culture is brilliant

Thank you for posting the photos
Do you know what was used for the binding ?

If this kind of thing interests you, have a look at the Pitt Rivers museum. It has masses of ethnographic artefacts along these lines. The man really appreciated the development of tools

cheers,
Toddy

fairly sure its just rattan to be honest.... could be mistaken... its what they pretty much use for everything though.

 

[Retired Member southey]

I will do chap, im a Moonraker from birth, family from Amesbury/Salisbury, I shall definatly give you a shout when headding over that way.

 

[trekkingnut]

This is a really very very nice image. I would love to know more about how it fits in the culture. Are they still making these or is it an oldish one? are steel tools readily available and if so are they prohibitively expensive? are people using stone and steel tools alongside each other? Have you seen folk working with these and alongside folk working with steel tools?

It is an adze by the way rather than an axe, same thing really but the cutting edge is set 90 degrees differently, one used for cutting one for shaping.

I am really pleased to see it mounted on such a thin handle, I have recently been working with Japanese adzes which are similarly heavy (steel) heads on thin flexible handles. I feel most of the archaeologists I have worked with do not really understand these tools and as you say, use them like a heavy steel tool and they don't work.

the more rural areas are still making and using these as they dont use money so cant go anywhere to buy metal axes, though through trade metal axes are becoming more apparent.

as stated below, you can see them being used side by side in the human planet that was on the bbc recently. not quite the same region if im honest but only a few hundred miles further south.

the handle is ludicrously thin and im always scared its going to snap!

 

[trekkingnut]

I will do chap, im a Moonraker from birth, family from Amesbury/Salisbury, I shall definatly give you a shout when headding over that way.

more than welcome, ive got arrow heads and head dresses i was thinking of posting as well...

as well as some other pits and peices, like a traditional bornean parang and hand made leather boots from peru etc....

anyone interested?

 

[Retired Member southey]

Yes definatly, show and tell time!

 

[trekkingnut]

Yes definatly, show and tell time!

just dont want everything to take so long to load as the pictures will be the same size.... maybe if i shove them all on a different web page then people can look at them like that?

 

[Retired Member southey]

[video=youtube;4wGNr3bb5xw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wGNr3bb5xw[/video]

the tribe who built the tree house. Fantastic and an interesting friction fire lighting method too.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Have you used photo bucket? very simple to alter the size of pics when uploaded to photobucket then copy and paste the img. code directly to your post.

 

[trekkingnut]

hehe you want a personal video of that being done as well???? hahah

 

[trekkingnut]

Have you used photo bucket? very simple to alter the size of pics when uploaded to photobucket then copy and paste the img. code directly to your post.

i resized them from super huge dslr size at 3mb a photo down to 56kb a photo and they were still massive, ill just do them half as small again.

 

[Galemys]

"o and btw, they just called the head, blue stone, i have no idea what type of stone it is made out of at all."

Trekkingnut,

Beautiful pic's thank's for showing!

I've got a 30 minute documentary on DVD about the quarrying and shaping of stone axes by the Yeleme people of New Guinea. They use fire to collect slabs of a blueish stone (I forgot he exact name, glau.... or something like that) from a rock wall and then make these axes by pecking, grinding and polishing them by hand. When finished these axes are traded far and wide with axes turning up over 150 miles from their origin, so your axe is probably made by them.

The DVD is made by a French archeologist couple by the name of Petrequin but you can switch to an English voice over in the DVD-menu. Besides the fire thong there's also another firestarting method (using a stone to strike sparks out of a special kind of bamboo) briefly shown in the documentary. If you PM me your address I'll send you a copy of the disc.

Cheers,

Tom