A "paleo" tomahawk

[Natureboy]

  I made this flint tomahawk to use as an educational prop, in my living history docent project at the Hudson's Bay National Historic Site in Vancouver, WA.  A major issue in the fur trade was the desirability of iron and steel items to replace traditional ones.  So I made a traditional one, with a handle of black walnut.  The flint blade is secured with pine pitch glue, "the super glue of the woods," and sinew wraps the handle to prevent splitting.  The handle was cleaned of bark with a draw knife, and then scraped.  It is stained, and finished with tung oil.  It's lighter than my iron and steel version.

[Joe S.]

Pretty cool,did you do the knapping as well?

[Natureboy]

Only a little.  I cleaned up the shape and sharpened the cutting edge, but I'm just learning to knapp (I already know how to nap). My goal is to make my own gun flints, and maybe an obsidian knife.  I don't plan to cut down any trees with it.

[Joe S.]

Another thing I wanted to try but never did,yet.My girl found lots of points,some blades,scrapers ect.

[Natureboy]

  I bought "Flint preforms" from Neolithics, instead of beating on a large piece of flint nodule to get to the blade shape.  Some day, maybe I'll be skilled enough to make things from raw rock.  I wanted to get this finished to use when school tours start.  Here's a photo of a completed obsidian knife that I bought from Flintknappers (Tom Tollett)--a work of art that will be an inspiration as I struggle with the techniques.


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[Joe S.]

Nice blade,figure you have to be able to really read the stone to get it to that point without an oops and breaking it.While not as precise as flint knapping I did some stone masonry and a certain amount of reading the stone was used.It was always a treat to see an old stone mason pick a stone flip it around a little bit give it a wack or two and pop it right in the wall.Take me plenty more whacks to get the same fit.Lot of years and experiance to be able to do that.