Phase 02 — Stone, bone, wood and fibre toolkit / About year 1

Bone awl and eyed needle

sewing

ClothYear 1Story day 13Stands on 5 earlier

AWhat it needs

Needs 5 other products in all, 2 of them directly.

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02.13 Bone awl and eyed needleCloth Year 1 needs 5 products
- 02.03 Stone knives, scrapers and engraving pointsMaking 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
      - 01.02 Hammerstoneshown above ↑← shown at left
- 02.04 Sandstone grinding slabMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
  - 01.02 Hammerstoneshown above ↑← shown at left

Open a box to see what it needs. A dashed box is a product already drawn in full: click it to jump there. In the org chart, drag to move around.

BWhy

Hides become clothes, shoes, bags and shelters only when they can be sewn. The awl makes the hole. The needle carries the thread through it. With these two tools every skin on the island becomes useful.

CYou need

Long straight bones: the lower leg bones of a deer are best; bird bones for fine needles
An engraving point and a fine borer (02.03)
The grinding slabs and the grooved stone (02.04), sand and water

DSteps

Clean the bone and let it dry for a few days. Fresh greasy bone clogs the stone.
Cut two straight grooves along the bone with the engraving point, a finger-width apart, working deeper with each pass until both reach the hollow inside.
Prise out the strip of bone between the grooves. It is a long straight splinter.
Awl: use a thick splinter, or the end of a leg bone with the knuckle left on as a handle. Grind one end to a long, round, sharp point on the coarse slab, then smooth it in the grooved stone.
Needle: choose a thin splinter as long as a finger. Grind it round and smooth, but leave it a little thick for now.
Flatten the head end slightly on both sides.
Make the eye before thinning the needle any further. Twist the fine borer into the flattened head from one side until it is halfway through, then from the other side until the two pits meet.
Smooth the edges of the eye with a tough grass stem dipped in wet sand, pulled back and forth, so it will not cut the thread.
Now grind the needle down to its final thinness and polish it by rubbing with a scrap of hide and fine ash.
Make several. Keep them pushed into a roll of hide or a hollow bird bone.

EIt worked if

The needle passes through an awl hole in thick hide, pulling a thread, without bending or snapping.
The eye does not fray the thread.

FWhat goes wrong

The needle snaps at the eye. The eye was drilled after thinning, or too close to the end. Drill first, a needle's width from the end.
The eye cuts the thread. Its edges are sharp. Smooth them with thread and sand.
The awl tears the hide. The point is flat, not round. Finish it in the grooved stone, turning as you draw it.

GIn the story

Yara has decided that nobody will go into the cold season barefoot, and she has counted: forty-eight feet. She breaks three needles the first afternoon and says something in Arabic that needs no translation. Hiro quietly makes her a borer half the size, and the fourth needle holds.

HFigures

not drawn yet

Fig. 02.13-aFour stages: a leg bone with two grooves cut along it; the splinter prised out; the eye drilled from both sides in the flattened head; the finished needle.diagram

not drawn yet

Fig. 02.13-bAn awl with its knuckle handle and three needles of different sizes, pushed into a roll of hide.thing

not drawn yet

Fig. 02.13-cYara twisting a tiny flint borer into the head of a needle, the tip of her tongue between her teeth.making