Phase 02 — Stone, bone, wood and fibre toolkit / About year 1
02.02
Hand axe
heavy two-faced chopper
AWhat it needs
Needs 3 other products in all, 1 of them directly.
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- 02.02 Hand axeMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
- 02.01 Knapping kitMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 01.02 HammerstoneMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
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BWhy
Until an axe with a handle exists, this is the heavy tool: a sharp-edged stone the size of the hand that chops saplings, splits bone, butchers large animals and digs. It is one stone doing the work of five tools.
CYou need
- A flattish lump of flint, chert or fine basalt, a little bigger than the hand
- The knapping kit (02.01)
DSteps
- Choose a lump shaped roughly like a flat pear. A large thick flake struck from a boulder is even better.
- With the medium hammerstone, strike a flake off one face near the edge. Turn the stone over and use that scar as the platform for a flake off the other face. Work round the stone this way, turning it after each blow, so the edge zig-zags all the way round.
- Leave the wide end thick and rounded. This is where the palm pushes.
- Change to the antler hammer. Rub the edge, then take long thin flakes off both faces to thin the piece and bring it to a pointed pear shape.
- Straighten the wavy edge with light blows that clip off each high point.
- Finish the cutting edges with the pusher. Leave the last hand-width near the butt blunt.
- Hold it with the thick end in the palm and the point forward. Chop with the side edge in short blows; do not swing it like a hammer.
EIt worked if
- It cuts through a green sapling as thick as the wrist in a few minutes.
- The edge runs all the way round the pointed end without a break.
FWhat goes wrong
- It snaps across the middle while thinning. The blow was too hard or the piece was held unsupported. Rest it on the padded thigh and strike lighter.
- A thick lump is left in the middle of one face. The flakes are stopping short. Rub the edge and strike closer to it, at a flatter angle.
- The edge crumbles in use. It was left too thin for chopping. Blunt it slightly; a chopping edge is a strong edge.
GSafety
- Wrap the butt in a scrap of hide or a wad of grass for heavy work. A bare flint butt opens the palm.
HIn the story
Bjorn has been breaking poles between two trees for a week and hating it. Hiro hands him the first hand axe without ceremony. Bjorn turns it over for a long time, says it is the wrong shape for wood, and uses it every day until he has something better.
IFigures
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