Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a happy new year. I should be back in about 2 weeks. Take care and enjoy the holidays!

Side hafted microblade

After seeing these on Elfshots blog http://elfshotgallery.blogspot.com/2010/02/palaeoeskimo-side-hafted-microblades.html I decided I had to make one. It was surprisingly easy, kind of like a Hoko knife. With modern tools (my Warren carving knife with a straight blade and a tiny gouge) it went quick, less than an hour. With stone tools and depending on experience it probably took the old ones maybe an hour or less. I used artificial sinew split up into many strands and no glue. The original article doesnt state if glue was found on the preserved artifacts and I really don't think hide glue was all that common on the Arctic and sub Arctic coastal areas. Tim Rast, the owner of Eflshot is a professional archaeologist and maker of things ancient. He has made a bunch of these out of wood, antler, and bone. Please take the time to peruse his site for the many excellent articles on Eskimo and related cultures and their artifacts.

This shows the groove where the blade sets.

Here's a shot of the handle with two notches for the cordage. I used cottonwood for this knife.

This shot shows the brace which is held snug against the blade when tied in place at the two notches on top..

This shows the notch in the brace which sets against the blade.

Here's the blade. I made it from a piece of flint I found in Colorado.

This shows everything set up ready to finish.

This is the completed knife. Overall length is 5 inches.

Closeup of the finished knife. Stone, wood, sinew-a simple but efficient tool.

Cattail arrow shafts

Today I harvested five nice cattail, Typha latifolia stalks. They were just ripe for the picking since all the leaves were about dead and turning brown, These should dry out soon and then the fun begins. I like to use cattail because they are light and most times need little "tuning", such as straightening. Cattail arrows are really easy to make and being light they shoot at a fairly flat trajectory from my bow which is a 35 pound pull. I keep my arrows at 30" length more or less. I have a 28" draw so this size works best.
First thing I did was strip most of the excess junk off the shafts and now I have them bundled, butt to nose, so it makes an even bundle. This bundle will set on my book case to dry. It should only be a few weeks since its warm and dry in my home. When they are dry I'll post a DIT article on arrow making. I use my own stone points and try to use found feathers.
Heres a link to a wealth of material on cattail arrow making at Paleo Planet:http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/search/text/?q=cattail+arrows&orderby=created_at&forum=&submit=Search+Forum#.TuWPOOyCmuI
Heres a shot of the bundle, well over 3 feet in length so I have room to trim.

Adze-an update

I worked on the wedge today and used it for quite a while to hog out some cottonwood logs. The cord is still as tight as when I put it on and the blade hasn't budged. I'm impressed. The blade holds an edge quite well. It still shaves off a piece of paper with no effort. The angle seems to be just right and there is very little stress to my wrist so all in all I must have got it right.

Making a wood working adze part 3 & finished!

Heres the finished adze I tried it out on a piece of oak and it works pretty good. I finished the blade and cleaned it up. Then I cut the channel for the tang and cut out a wedge from the ancient wooden carpenter plane. A piece of para-cord and its all done. I see that keeping it tight is going to be a continuous exercise but thats the simplicity of the wedge. It was a lot of fun making this thing.

I really like this guys idea and his pocket adze and pack adze: http://woodsroamer.blogspot.com/2011/02/pocket-adze.html

Making a wood working adze part 2

I cut the old plane iron today. I now have two blades to choose from. One is 4 1/2" x 1" and the other is 4 1/2" x 1 1/2". Thickness is 3/16". I like the shape of the off sided 1 1/2" wide blade so I'll use it. I guess I have a spare blade for a future project. I cleaned up the edges on the one I plan to use. Now I need to do the final work on that oak handle.

First off is safety gear. Eye protection and dust mask. The mask is a Northern and is the only one I could find that fits with safety glass's or reading glass's.

Here's the plane iron before cutting.

First cut.

Setting up for the second cut. I put it in the vise in a way that will hold one side and the other drop free. Notice the water jug. I kept everything cool during cutting.

Here I'm cleaning up the edge's.

This is the one I like.

The second blade.

I thought this would be interesting. This is the screw on the chip breaker that the plane iron rests on in the plane. These were made low tech and sturdy. They knew what they were doing and turned out a lot of these old wooden planes. Look at the screw. Entirely hand made.

Another shot.

And yet another.

Notice how the screw slot was made by a chisel strike. Simplicity. You can see how the screw was roughly hammered into shape.

I like this. The maker who forged these parts just did a hot punch through the chip breaker and ran a tap to thread it for the screw. I imagine they turned these things out by the dozen an hour or so.

Next::part 3 and the final setting of the blade.

Making a wood working adze part 1

I've had a good assortment of valley oak limbs I collected after last years wind storm. I have one piece in particular that I knew right off was going to be an adze handle. I've seen some good stuff about Northwest coast style adzes on some of the websites like Paleo Planet. Both stone and metal is used in them for blades. Tom Mills even made a blade from copper! Its very nice looking. I will use a piece of old plane iron. I managed to grab a few of those old, old carpenters planes made completely of wood. The planes themselves are a mess and all cracked and marred. I may be able to scavenge some of this 150 year old wood for some special projects I have in mind. Something like ancient beech is just too good to pass up! I'll post more when I start working on the iron.
The ax in these pictures is an old handmade ax just a little over a foot long. It was made by a steel mill worker back in my hometown in Pennsylvania. The steel mill was in Pittsburgh and before the big bust, almost everyone worked at "the mills". It was a 45 mile commute one way but gas was cheap and the money really good. This ax had some kind of red composite handles on them but the material was starting to come apart so I replaced them with some black walnut. I've owned this little ax for about 12 years now and I use it for most of my carving. Usually just to rough out a project. Its the only tool I used in this project as far as shaping the handle. Its good practice and so far I haven't been bitten by the ax. Its good high carbon steel and holds a razor edge for a long time. The sheath is from an old long gone "Plumb" company ax, but it fits perfectly.