Hey Keven I appreciate your video, I collect Native American artifacts and your demonstration helps me to better understand how they performed their work and why certain stones were shaped the way they were. Great music too!
I have presented in the micro-wear patterning attributed to groundstone tool production at several professional conferences in the past, and I agree, it really is an interesting pattern to see! Thanks for watching. Peace.
very nice video! well done! it would have been awesome, if we could also see the traces of use on the edge of your chopper at the end of the manufacturing process!
@clayguy1 I gather this stone from the cobble beaches, typically it is found in with quartzite and sandstone cobbles as well. Any old tough rock will do though, obsidian is far too brittle to be any use here, but that is good as the materials for a decent chopper are far easier to locate than obsidian. Try chert, jasper, basalt, meta-volcanic, quartzite, etc. It just has to be a tough stone capable of being flaked into a point. And wear eye protection while you work! Peace.
@SchleyFam1 Hard indurated sandstone or granite would be a good bet for a mortar for that purpose to minimize powdered stone in the mix. It would work quite well for that. But I still suggest leaning with a softer stone first to develop the technique and muscle control as a harder stone bowl takes a great deal of both, as well as longer production time. Peace
For cooking, carve a bowl from steatite (soapstone) instead. Steatite resists cracking and is very heat tollerent and can be placed directly in the coals. It also has great insulating qualities so it will retain heat for a very long time which is why it was desired for arrow shaft straighteners in addition to bowls and comals in the old days. I hope that helps. Peace.
@lion14484 Sandstone is exactly that...stone made from sand. Look closely and you will see many homogenous grains of sand all cemented together, look near rivers and at the ocean. This is not the only material that will work however, volcanics (such as those light porous red or black rocks in peoples rock gardens), granites, and slates will also work for bowl making. Have at it. Peace.
Granite could work. Many granitic rocks are too soft to be decent choppers or pecking tools for most hard stones, but if the stone you intend to work is a little softer than it should be fine. What type of rock were you hoping to carve the bowl from? Peace.
Do you leave the dust in the bowl as you peck or do you blow it out every once in a while? I'm not sure how much it effects the transfer of energy. I'd imagine the dust would absorb energy, but then again if I get rid of the dust and there's too much energy I could crack the rock (which has happened).
+The Cloudwalker I shake out the bowl once in a while. Blowing into the bowl will almost certainly send this dust up the bowl rim and into your eyes. It does dampen the blow a bit if left in place, but does not seem to have too drastic of an effect on pecking efficiency.Regards
Would you use the same stones to use on granite?? I want to make a larger rock to grind corn and meal... Thanks and if you can list the type of stone you used in the video that would be helpful.... Thanks Arlene
Arlene Soong I would use a tough meta-volcanic or meta-sedimentary flaked stone pecking tool for granite. Wear gloves and safety glasses as a lot of grit goes flying in the process. For corn, a better shape than mortar and pestle is mano and metate (a quick search of the web will show you what I mean). These latter tools have been used for millennia for grinding seeds and later corn into meal. Good luck!
Any suggestions on what metal-based tools you could use to chip away at the rock? I've tried a mason's chisel but it didn't get me far with trying to shape a river rock.
Honestly I med a woman who did it with a rock hammer and it took her twice as long as me with stone tools and her metal hammer was totally worn to a nub by the end. I guess I would suggest whatever chisels and such that ancient Greeks and Romans used for their limestone sculptures. Figure out what those were and try their modern counterparts? What kind of stone are you trying to work?
Kevin Smith I'm trying to work on river rocks and quartz varieties, I literally took them from a river. And I did notice that trying to shape them with a chisel wears the chisel down. Now I've used a weting stone to make a defined line on the river rock, and that's the most progress I've had. It's really difficult to find non electric carving tools, especially for a decent price. Surprisingly, I saw diamond-coated chisels for carving fine details on stone for around $10 off of the Wal-Mart website. I think I'll give those a try because none of the craft or hardware stores have manual carving or chiseling tools.
Quartz is incredibly hard. It is so hard that like chert/flint it will shear off shavings of steel that the naked eye perceives as sparks. Are you engraving into the quartz or trying to make bowls? If engraving then the diamond hand tools may work... if for bowls then I would either select a different softer crystal like calcite or use diamond power tools.
***** Hey man,It has been a while. I was having issues with RU-vid and wasn't not able to reply to comments for a long while. I moved back to northern CA after completing M.A. and am now pursuing Ph.D. Check out my blog for some fun bushcraft and foraging stories...Countrymanforager.blogspot.com
Agreed with the Michael fellow. Interesting video, but having the music overlaying your audio make sit hard to understand what you're saying. Its a bit out of context too.
