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

Antler pick, bone shovel and stone hoe

digging tools

MakingYear 1Story day 27Stands on 14 earlier

AWhat it needs

Needs 14 other products in all, 2 of them directly.

View

02.25 Antler pick, bone shovel and stone hoeMaking Year 1 needs 14 products
- 02.06 Sinew thread and rawhide lashingMaking Year 1 needs 9 products
  - 01.15 Fire-hardened spear ⚠Making Year 1 needs 6 products
    - 01.03 Sharp stone flakeMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
      - 01.02 HammerstoneMaking Year 1 raw materials only
    - 01.08 First fire and stone hearthMaking Year 1 needs 5 products
      - 01.06 Tinder and kindling storeMaking Year 1 raw materials only
      - 01.07 Bow-drill fire setMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
        01.03 Sharp stone flakeshown above ↑← shown at left
        01.05 Twisted plant-fibre cordMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
        01.03 Sharp stone flakeshown above ↑← shown at left
  - 02.03 Stone knives, scrapers and engraving pointsMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
    - 02.01 Knapping kitMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
      - 01.02 Hammerstoneshown above ↑← shown at left
      - 01.03 Sharp stone flakeshown above ↑← shown at left
- 02.08 Hafted stone axe ⚠Making Year 1 needs 13 products
  - 02.05 Pitch glueMaking Year 1 needs 6 products
    - 01.08 First fire and stone hearthshown above ↑← shown at left
  - 02.06 Sinew thread and rawhide lashingshown above ↑← shown at left
  - 02.07 Ground stone axe headMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
    - 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

The digging stick loosens earth a handful at a time. To dig clay by the basketful, open ground for planting, cut a ditch or follow a seam of flint into a hillside, the camp needs a tool to break ground, a tool to lift it and a tool to work it.

CYou need

A large antler; the shoulder blade of a deer or larger animal; a flat piece of tough stone or a large thick shell, as big as the hand
Three handles cut with the axe (02.08): one straight and as long as the arm, one with an elbow bend like the adze handle but longer, as long as the leg
Wet rawhide strip (02.06)

DSteps

Pick: take an antler with its lowest point still on. Remove all the other points by cutting a groove round each with a flake, charring the groove in the fire, and snapping it. The long beam is the handle; the one point left is the pick.
Use the pick by swinging the point into the ground and levering back on the beam. It is for breaking and prising, not for chopping.
Shovel: clean and dry the shoulder blade. Grind its wide thin edge smooth and slightly sharp.
Split the end of the straight handle a hand deep. Push the narrow neck of the shoulder blade into the split.
Bind the split tightly with wet rawhide, above and below the bone and in a cross over it. Let it dry hard.
Hoe: chip or grind the stone to a blade with one straight sharp edge. Shape the top so it sits flat on the foot of the elbow handle.
Lash the blade to the foot with wet rawhide, exactly as for the adze, with the edge lying across the handle and angled back toward the user.
To dig a pit or ditch: break the ground with the pick, chop and pull it loose with the hoe, lift it out with the shovel.
Keep the three together as a set. Rub fat into the rawhide.

EIt worked if

Two people with the set dig a pit waist deep in firm clay in half a day.
No lashing has shifted at the end of it.

FWhat goes wrong

The shoulder blade cracks. It was used to lever stones. It lifts loose earth only; the pick does the prising.
The hoe blade turns on its seat. The seat is not flat or the lashing is too narrow. Reseat and bind wider.
The pick point snaps. It was swung into rock. Feel for stones first with the digging stick.
The lashings go soft in wet clay. Seal them with pitch.

GIn the story

Omar has been waiting four weeks to open ground and has had nothing to open it with. Diego wants the same tools for a different reason: there is flint in the chalk above the beach, and better clay under the stream bank. They make two sets, argue about who needs them more, and discover they like each other.

HFigures

not drawn yet

Fig. 02.25-aThe three tools side by side: antler pick, shoulder-blade shovel on its straight handle, stone hoe on its elbow handle.thing

not drawn yet

Fig. 02.25-bThe shovel joint enlarged: the neck of the shoulder blade in the split handle with its rawhide binding; and the hoe blade lashed to the foot of its handle.diagram

not drawn yet

Fig. 02.25-cOmar swinging the hoe in a new plot while Diego prises a lump of clay from the stream bank with the antler pick.use