MAKING TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN FISHHOOKS & SHARK HOOKS 

I appreciate your comment. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

I agree with your assessment about still writing. And you are so right to be areassuring about regular books being the more permanent source of saved material.

Thank you for your kind comment, Kevin. You are ever so right about knowledge of the past being lost. It was scarce when I first got into it 50 years ago, and now is all the harder to find. Plus the internet has loads of highly questionable, if not downright wrong, information, and that makes the seeking by anyone today all the harder -- as fewer and fewer Kūpuna (elders) who are well knowledgeable are around. I am so grateful for what was shared with me, both orally and in old journals and writings. And for having the eye and physical ability to patiently re-create the items of old. I'm 80 now and much want to pass it on. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

mahalo (thanks) for your comment. Yes, though highly busy recently, several more videos are in the works. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thank you for your very kind comment. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thanks for your nice comments, Jeremy.

Thank you for your kind comment. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thanks for your nice comment. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thank you! It is so nice to hear that you are able to understand my teaching. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

I'm so pleased you liked it. Mahalo (thank you) for commenting. Aloha, Kaimiloa

Thank you for your fine compliment. I am no geologist, but I have closely looked at many thousands of Hawaiian stones. On a single occasion I saw what looked like a vein of granite in a very small basaltic stream bed high on Mauna Kea Mountain of the Big Island. What I have just looked up about rhyolite makes me think of the "basalt containing crystals" that I have used as final smoothing tool for finishing off basalt objects and tools. I have closely examined a large boulder shaped like a shallow dish which had been much used as a smoothing and sharpening stone for stone tools. It appears to be basalt which contains many small crystals. These are what does the rock-smoothing and polishing. Obsidian is a rare find in Hawaii, especially good obsidian with shine and clarity. Regarding "knapped" Hawaiian stone tools, that can have a broad meaning and I, too, have been doing that with flint and chert since about age 14 or 15, but not in Hawaii. I don't think there was any pressure-flaked basalt by hand, tho there may have been skilled workmen who could pressure flake using some sort of levers. The grand majority appears to have been initially shaped by direct percussion with great skill, using hand-held hammerstones. I have never been where I could work on a good bit of basalt to produce the exquisitely hammer-flaked Hawaiian adze blanks.True works of art and the pinnacle of hammerstone flaking. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

I just heard a podcast (tides of history) where they discussed Neolithic and paleolithic stone flaking techniques in east Asia. It appears as different groups of people had knowledge of one or both techniques and that the knowledge of pressure flaking seems to have emerged, disappeared and been re-discovered at several times over the millennia. It is very fashinating to me and it is a tiny slit of a window into prehistoric cultures. The fact that some cultures, like in Hawaii and the Americas, has retained some of these artifacts of human knowledge into modern times is one of humanity's greatest treasures. Thank you for your work in documenting this knowledge. Is Hawaiian crafts listed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage? If not, you should look into the process of getting listed. It takes some bureaucratic navigation skills and a bit of collaboration from experts in the field, but it is a fairly manageable process.

I got a chuckle out of that comment, Rune, and of course felt honored. Yes, more videos are in the works, such as Hawaiian woodworking, polishing and paints; Hawaiian ornaments and their making; making the refined type of Hawaiian boars' tusk bracelets; making and using the Hawaiian pump drill and its points; Hawaiian tapa making and uses; Hawaiian musical instruments and how to make them, etc. And my new video camera arrives on Monday. So stay tuned! Aloha, Ka'imiloa

@@traditionalhawaiianculture while attending the 50th year aniversary of the Rainbow gatherings. i met two people who live in hawaii. i am excited to learn more from you. i hope to visit these friends in the futer.

Mahalo (thanks) for commenting. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Mahalo (thank you) for your notable comment, Kiwiproud. I only know of one Maori tribe (don't know which one, tho) which insists it came from Hawaii. Some dispute this, since so far away, yet they say they came from South Point on the Big Island and curiously, missionary William Ellis wrote about the Hawaiians as he toured the Island (he could speak Hawaiian since he had spent seven years in Tahiti and at that time (1822 or so) the two languages were very similar. He said that at a village near South Point the people were more tattooed than the other Hawaiians, tho crudely so, and mentioned that some were tattooed on their chins! I have not heard of any other Hawaiians with chin tattoos. Regarding the pump drill known in eastern Polynesia, the Maori did no that have this, suggesting that the knowledge of this more advanced drill came into eastern Polynesia in the past 800 years or so. The Maori used a two-string "whorl" type drill to make the shaft and point spin back and forth. I once made a moderately difficult bone fishhook, using deer bone which is strong, using only the original non-metal kind of tools. It took me 8 hours, starting with the pump drill and either a basalt or obsidian "saw" to cut the bone to rough fishhook blank. Someone took it while we were away and housesitters were at our house. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

@@traditionalhawaiianculture thanks so much for the information , that just makes me more convinced that there was more interaction between the different Polynesian tribes and islands than we commonly think of these days. There's actually a legend that a Maori chef had to send his son on a great bird to Hawaii to get more sweet potato seed when a blight wiped out the ones they had in his village in NZ. I'll definitely post another comment if I have any luck with making and using some traditional stile hooks . And definitely looking forward to more of your videos too .

Thanks for your kind words and comments. I believe the confusion lies with today's lack of knowledge of several things: Pacific geography, how persisting ocean currents and winds affect voyaging south and north of the Equator, translation issues, and lack of knowledge of the names of islands and island groups in old times. In the S. Pacific, it was relatively easy to sail to the east as long as it was below the equator, and the Polynesian peoples definitely knew about the other islands of the S. Pacific -- the moreso the Maori tribes, who knew where they came from originally. Omao, I believe the name was, was a highly knowledgeable Chiefly kahuna who knew all about the islands of the S.Pacific via his vast knowledge of what he had been taught, and was so brave and exploring that he left Tahiti with Capt. Cook on the latter's second voyage to the Pacific, and astoundingly drew maps for Cook showing all the different islands and groups. No doubt Cook learned a lot of the Tahitian language from him, making him able to understand Hawaiian language to a degree once he got there on his third voyage. I think there is understandable confusion about Maori origins being from today's Hawai'i (well up in the N. Pacific) vs. Havai'i, the old name for the most sacred of the Society Islands, which is now called Raiatea. Raiatea would have been a natural take-off point for important voyaging, I believe. Sailing from Aotearoa to get cuttings (not seeds) for the sweet potato, would have likely gone to Tonga or Samoa, or next the Cook Islands, and next Society Islands where Raiatea is. And remember, Savai'i, one of the major Samoan islands, is simply a modern dialectic version of Hawai'i, or Havai'i. So did the sweet potato voyage go to a Society Island homeland, Havai'i, or closer - to Savai'i, or far, far off and in the different currents and winds of the N. Pacific, Hawai'i. Logic strongly suggests it wasn't to Hawai'i, and the interpretation of the old legend simply needs thoughful examination. Also, the "great bird" of the legend would refer to a large and almost certainly double-hulled voyaging canoe, likely with two sails that look rather like vertical "wings". The canoes would "fly" along the tops of the waves in rapid fashion, considerably faster than European ships like Cook's, and were thought of as "flying" over the waves like a low-flying bird. Polynesians were very poetic in their speech and chants. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thanks for commenting via a question. The large shark hooks were no doubt baited with pieces of fish, such as a chunk from an ahi fish (tuna). There was no specific trolling with the hooks that I know of, but no doubt a baited hook was presented, or moved around via canoe, when a shark approached, or perhaps where sharks were feeding on something like the floating carcass of a dead whale. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

A video about Hawaiian adzes and their use is coming, and also a video about Hawaiian woodworking. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Good thinking. However, the old pump drill clearly had been in a fire, such that one side of the circular "flywheel" was burned off somewhat, and the about a third of the shaft at top was burned off. Hardening of wood with fire was mostly for the points of spears or purely wooden arrows, to best of my knowledge. A pump drill's point has to be quite hard -- more than could be provided by fire-hardening. So there were many possible materials that were used for the drill points in old Hawaii and elsewhere.

Curiously, they did not use the pump-drill technique to start a fire, probably because it was much easier to carry around the two sticks used for their "fire plow" method, or to simply find substitute sticks "on site" if possible. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thanks for this good comment, Rune. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

there may be much more evidence of human civilization, upon the shevels of the ocean. around the world.

If I am understanding your thought, Rune, yes -- the water levels were indeed different and 14,000 years ago there was so much water tied up in the massive glaciers of the end of the most recent Ice Age that the ocean levels were about 400 feet lower than they are now. But a that time there were no know people plying the open ocean, let alone in storm-worthy large canoes with sails, and it was not til 9 years later that people were first venturing out into the Pacific from Asia, as I recall. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

@@traditionalhawaiianculture as of yet, there is no evidence. though lack of evidence is not proof of ... i forget how it goes. lack of evidence is not evidence of absence. i only imgaine there is much not yet found, on our continental shelves.

or any other people, Inuit, Sami, ....my knowledge is lacking of other name of peopel using bones and wood to explore the oceans and seas.

the stereotype of Norwegians reaching, Iceland, Greenland, Pharo islands, and "America." "Ermerica"

You sure are right about that, Rune, and the saga is indeed remarkable. What the Polynesians did, without having metal, is almost unbelievable! Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thank you for your question. I'll be doing a video on Hawaiian adzes and how they were made and used before long. And yes, some of the Hawaiians were amazingly skilled at flaking the better quality basalt into adze and chisel pre-forms, using hard basalt hammerstones, which could them be ground to final form and the cutting edge in particular. Very little obsidian was available. There was no pressure flaking by hand that I know of, basalt is not suited for that. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thanks for your frank and useful comment. This video was made last year with our older videocamera. We now have a new one and the sound appears to be excellent. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Apologies, I gave the wrong info above. The video was made this year using my wife's iPad as the video camera, as we awaited our new camera. It allowed us to upload the video directly to RU-vid. But the sound wasn't up to par. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

The Hawaiians were remarkable in their many inventions and unique things, including the whalebone hook made to fit into the created mortice of a sharkhook made of a specific couple of woods. Hawaiians were not whale-hunters, and instead relied on dead whales occasionally washing up on the shores of the islands. Small pieces of ivory were available from porpoise teeth, and rarely a Sperm Whale would wash up, or perhaps the carcass of one was spotted at sea, and the extremely rare and valuable large whale-ivory teeth could be recovered. Whale teeth have a certain circular grain like the rings of a tree's trunk, and occasional flaws, so are not a good material for hooks. But whalebone could be made into large hook-points or actual large hooks as I showed in the video. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

@@traditionalhawaiianculture do you expect they made spear heads or other weapons of war of whale bone?

Quite a good comment, Bobby. There were very large flightless birds on the huge Islands of N. Zealand, killed off once the predators (people) arrived. Hawaii also had flightless birds in the past, though they died out before people arrived, to best of my recall. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

@@traditionalhawaiianculture Yes..... humans are worse in every way than most can imagine

Thanks for commenting. Yes, the Hawaiians used one side of the jaw of the "Ono" fish (wahoo), with its nearly straight row of teeth, as a sort of short saw. It takes an Ono of 20 + pounds or so, though. It works for cutting gourds, I've found, but also worked for cutting or grooving softer woods I think. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Glad you mentioned that, Rune. Others haven't mentioned it, but maybe they are watching on their cellphones. My wife and I made that video and the other recent one, using her laptop computer in video mode. That was to enable uploading to RU-vid. Our older video camera is fine, but the format does not allow uploading without elaborate and time-consuming conversion to mp4 format. We just got a new video camera, yet it had a problem and needs to be returned, but soon we will have the replacement. That should solve any size problem. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Thanks for your thoughtful suggestions, Rune. As you can readily see, my videos are made by my wife and myself and are unsophisticated in modern terms. My wife is my "techi" but she has found that trying to edit videos is difficult, plus we are not trying to get popular and make money at RU-vid. Instead, I'm now 80 years and much want to pass on what I know from old-time Hawaiian culture. That's why my videos are simple and straightforward. Perhaps my new camcorder will make editing easier -- I really don't know -- but I sure would like to be able to start and stop our videos while making them and still upload them pretty easily to RU-vid. Time will tell. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

@@traditionalhawaiianculture i sympathize. i look forward to more.

The Hawaiians of old did keep some of the long bones, and sometimes the skull, of their loved ones, but rarely were they used in honor in making something (or in insult by an enemy). They weren't used to make fishhooks, etc. That bone had to come in some other way. The thinking about human bones has changed greatly today, and it is a sensitive issue indeed. Aloha, Ka'imiloa

with an aquarium...or somthing.