Most types of spear-thrower carry a scraper embedded in a mass of resin or wax at the handle end. The scraper most favoured is either of quartzite or of flint, about an inch or slightly more square, and chipped on one or both sides of the cutting edge. It is almost wholly embedded, with perhaps only the chipped portion showing below the binding mass which helps to form the handle.
Similar stones are fixed at both ends of a curved or straight piece of wood, of circular section, which is then used as a scraping or chopping tool commonly referred to as an adze. Used as a scraper, the wooden handle is gripped at about one-quarter its length from the bottom, both hands being at the same level, with their fingers overlapping and the thumbs lying against the wood on the opposite side; but when used as a chopper the hands are held one over the other, each clenching the handle separately. Occasionally one hand only is used to direct the tool, while the other holds the object to be worked ([Plate LV], 1).
The small, sharp flakes which are chipped from a bigger piece during the construction of a scraper are carefully examined and the most shapely of them are collected for the purpose of sticking them lengthwise, one behind the other, to the two edges of a bladed, wooden spear head. This type of spear was common along the lower reaches of the Murray River and Lake Alexandrina.
In Western Australia a special type of knife called “dabba” is constructed in a like way, but the flakes are larger, three-quarters of an inch long, and embedded in resin along one side only of the stick. The implement measures about two feet in length.
The long, single flakes, obtained from a quartzite core, may be further chipped along the edges to sharpen them. This process is seen typically along the coastal districts of the Northern Territory, the Daly and Victoria River districts in particular.
But where the manufacture of stone spear heads is seen to perfection is in the northern Kimberleys of Western Australia. The north-western tribes are expert at making lanceolate spear heads with serrated edges and beautifully facetted sides; some of the specimens are up to six inches long and are delicately chipped all over. People who have not had the opportunity of witnessing the method employed in making them are perplexed to understand how it is possible to accomplish such delicate work without breaking the object; the point in particular of these spear heads is often nearly as fine as that of a needle.
The way it is done is briefly as follows. A rough flake or fragment is broken from a core, or rock in situ, by holding a bone chisel or stone adze in much the same way as one clasps a pen or pencil, and stabbing the block near the sharp edge, or by striking it with another rock fragment. The size of the flake thus detached will depend largely upon the purpose to which it is to be put; the fractured surface is always plane. The fragment is now taken in the left hand, its flat surfaces lying full length between the thumb and fingers, and its edges chipped by striking them from above with a sharp stone hammer held securely in the right hand. The flake is frequently changed about, so that what is now the bottom surface later becomes the top. The edge is always struck nearly at right angles to the flat surface whilst the chips break away into the hand underneath. The Yampi Sound natives call the rough primary flake “munna,” and the small chips resulting from the trimming of its edge “aroap.”
The original shaping aims at obtaining a roughly symmetrical leaf-form, truncated at the base where it is subsequently to be embedded or held at the end of a spear or haft. The flake is left thick at its base and made to taper towards its point.
At first the chipping is done by fairly strong, but well-directed blows from above; later by quicker and lighter taps. Occasionally the edges are rasped with a flat slab of sandstone at right angles to the plane of the flake—a process which breaks away small chips from either side of the edge which is being rubbed. The flake at this stage is called “ardelgulla” by the Yampi natives, and “arolonnyenna” by the Sunday Islanders.
