There is in use at Point Barrow, and apparently not elsewhere among the Eskimo, a special tool for shaving whalebone, a substance which is very much used in the form of long, thin strips for fastening together boat timbers, whipping spear shafts, etc. The thin, long shavings which curl up like “curled hair,” are carefully saved and used for the padding between stocking and boot. Whalebone is also sometimes shaved for this special purpose. The tool is essentially a little spokeshave about 4 inches long, which is held by the index and second finger of the right hand, one on each handle, with the thumb pressed against one end, and is drawn toward the workman. The collection contains three specimens of the ordinary form (sávigɐ), represented by No. 89306 [885] (figured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. III, Fig. 6). This has a steel blade and a haft of walrus ivory. The upper face of the haft is convex and the under flat, and the blade, which is beveled only on the upper face, is set at a slight inclination to the flat face of the haft. The edge of the blade projects 0.2 inch from the haft above and 0.3 below. The hole at one end of the haft is for a lanyard to hang it up by. The other two are of essentially the same pattern, but have hafts of reindeer antler.
Fig. 146.—Whalebone shave, slate blade.
The collection also contains six tools of this description, with stone blades, but they are all new and very carelessly made, with hafts of coarse-grained bone. The shape of the tools is shown in Fig. 146, No. 89649 [1213], from Utkiavwĭñ, which has a rough blade of soft, light greenish slate. The other five have blades of black or gray flint, roughly flaked. All these blades are glued in with oil dregs. No. 89652 [1225] is like the others in shape, but more neatly made, and is peculiar in having a blade of hard, compact bone. This is inserted by sawing a deep, narrow slit along one side of the haft from end to end. The blade is wedged into the middle of the slit, the ends of which are neatly filled in with slips of the same material as the haft. This was the only tool of the kind seen. It is very probable that shaves of stone were formerly used, though we obtained no genuine specimens. The use of oblong chips of flint for this purpose would naturally suggest itself to a savage, and the convenience of fitting these flakes into a little haft would soon occur to him. No. 89616 [1176] is such an oblong flint, flaked to an edge on one face, which is evidently old, and which was said to have been used for shaving whalebone. The material is black flint. Whalebone is often shaved nowadays with a common knife. The slab of bone is laid upon the thigh and the edge of the knife pressed firmly against it, with the blade perpendicular to the surface of the slab, which is drawn rapidly under it.
[Saws.]—
If the Eskimo had not already invented the saw before they became acquainted with the whites they readily adopted the tool even when they had scanty materials for making it. Crantz[285] speaks of “a little lock saw” as one of a Greenlander’s regular tools in his time, and Egede[286] mentions handsaws as a regular article of trade. Capt. Parry[287] found the natives of Iglulik, in 1821-1823, using a saw made of a notched piece of iron. On our asking Nĭkawa´alu, one day, what they had for tools before they got iron he said that they had drills made of seal bones and saws made of the shoulder blade of the reindeer. Some time afterwards he brought over a model of such a saw, which he said was exactly like those formerly used. Fig. 147, No. 89476 [1206], represents this specimen. It is made by cutting off the anterior edge of a reindeer’s scapula in a straight line parallel to the posterior edge and cutting fine saw teeth on this thin edge. The spine is also cut off nearly flat. This makes a tool very much like a carpenter’s backsaw, the narrow part of the scapula forming a convenient handle.
Fig. 147.—Saw made of deer’s scapula.