Shaping a Small Stone Chisel

Описание: Red Roots Evolution Project #1

Well here it starts…As a first project, I wanted a tool that could be easily carried around, solid, quickly made, and that could serve multiple purposes. I know quite a bit about forested environments and vegetal ecosystem dynamics but virtually nothing about rocks and minerals, and very far from flintknapping. So I picked up a piece of what there is a lot of around here; slate… or some form of schist, in which I have noticed quite a bit of variability in density and brittle aspects between pieces, they make different sounds when you hit them on other rocks. I chose one that sounded more « vitreous » than « hollow » if that make sense. For reference, I am in an area where the closest, suitable and real rock type for flintknapping is about 700km (East) from my location. So for now, I rely on honing, or shaping. It will definitely not be as sharp, efficient, and durable as a flintknapped chisel stone blade but still worthy and fast produced. I found a piece of schist on the river bed as close as the final shape I wanted to reduce processing time and physical effort. Some of you may say « Looks more like a nail to me! », and yes it does, and it turned out to be quite useful. I also selected two other rocks. One « honing » rock that resemble a strong and rough sandstone, and another one that seems very brittle that could deposit some initial, quite fine grains on the honing surface (and that I could keep as a portable honing stone). Because slate edges are naturally quite brittle, even for denser types, I chose a different geometry than a true chisel, in a sense that it does not have that flat side with a 25-30 degree angle edge. I thought that gradually shaping both sides into a point would make it stronger in this case. I also chamfered the strike edges to prevent chipping while hitting the chisel head, like you would do with wooden stakes. I still don’t know if that helped but this chisel has been used quite a bit so far and kept its geometry. Once the materials found, it took about two hours to shape and get it ready to use. Definitely a keeper. Use with a piece of dead wood, just like when batoning.

TOOLS ACQUIRED
Portable Honing Stone
Large Rough Honing Stone
Small Stone Chisel

TOOLS SO FAR
Portable Honing Stone
Large Rough Honing Stone
Small Stone Chisel