It is interesting to compare the modern Steel Axe, Hatchet or other handled cutting tool, with the simple stone implements of prehistoric times and to note how, little by little, they have been improved and perfected. The present-day Axe or hatchet is comparatively light and thin and the handle is inserted through a hole or into a socket. Stone tools, no matter how the handle is attached, must be heavier and thicker, because stone will not stand the strain of hard use as will steel.
The Ohio Mound-building peoples simply lashed wooden handles to their ungrooved Axes or Celts, using rawhide thongs. These, when they dried, held very tightly and made a very useful tool. The ancient Indians also used this method, and in addition they pecked grooves around their Axes to supply a firmer fastening for the thong. The above drawings show the Grooved Axe, and how the handle was secured. This implement served as an Axe, a Hatchet or a Tomahawk, according to its size.
THE USE OF FLINT
Fig. 16—An Arrowmaker’s Outfit.
Primitive man used Stone a long time before finding what proved to be a very superior variety, Flint, a rough block of which is shown on the left in the picture. Possibly he chanced upon a piece of Flint and in using it as a Hammer Stone noticed that it broke into thin flakes with sharp edges, and with this knowledge he soon learned to make Flint Knives, Scrapers, Arrow-points, Drills, and other cutting and piercing tools. For example, from the rough piece of Flint, “A,” the arrowmaker struck off a few flakes with his Stone Hammer, producing the piece marked “B,” which has something of the shape of the final point. Then by means of the chipping tool of deer antler, marked “E,” he pressed off thin flakes from the edges of “B,” and produced “C,” and finally the finished point, “D.”
Fig. 17—Flint Cutting and Scraping Implements.
Perhaps the earliest tools made from Flint were simple flakes, struck from a block of flint by means of a hammerstone. “B,” in the picture, shows two of these flakes, which remind us, in shape, of a modern knife blade or a safety razor blade. At first they were simply held in the fingers, but later probably were mounted in wooden or bone handles. In “C” is shown the “core” of flint from which the flake or blade was struck off. In time primitive peoples, including the Mound-builders and the Indians, came to make more pretentious knife-blades, like that shown as “D.”
Scrapers of various sorts were made from flint, and served many purposes. The simplest form, a mere flake of flint, is the top specimen in “A,” while an improved type, with notches for securing it to a handle is shown below it. They were used for scraping wood, bone and stone, in making tools and ornaments, and for removing the fat from skins, before tanning.