When he was tired using his knife, he played with some flint flakes. He ran his fingers over the sharp edges. Then he carelessly pressed off tiny flakes.
But Flaker soon tired of this and he picked up the antler again. He pushed a flint flake back and forth upon one of the prongs of the antler.
Flaker was simply playing at first; but when he saw that the flint was cutting, his play became real work. And he kept on pushing and pulling the flake until the prong fell to the ground. Then he sawed off other prongs, but he did not know he was sawing.
Flaker had never seen a saw and he did not know what it was. He did not know that when he pressed off the tiny flakes he made the teeth of a flint saw.
But Flaker had made a saw. It was only the rough edge of a flint flake. No doubt such rough edges had been made many times before. But Flaker learned to use the rough edge by pushing and pulling it back and forth.
A Cave-man’s dagger of carved antler.
When Flaker sawed the prongs from the beam, some of the places were rough. So he rubbed them with the face of the flint until he made them smooth. When Flaker did this, the flake, which had been only a knife, became a file as well as a saw.
Greybeard and Chipper tried the new daggers and found that they were sharp and strong. And the next time they went on the chase they took the new weapons along.