During this video you get to understand the difficulties people went through 4 1/2 thousand years ago to make axe heads from the Cumbrian mountains that then went on to travel across the Uk and into Europe 
One of the most memorable experiences of my life. I’ll never forget the sound of you striking that rock - and hearing it echo through the valley. Love you Will.
I'm an archaeologist in Southern California, and we excavated a prehistoric site. One of the artifacts was a perfect teardrop point, beautiful gray and white banded monterey chert toolstone. There's a beach nearby that is littered with near identical natural gray and white banded chert boulders that the artifact was made of. I picked out a beautiful water polished piece, about 20cm in diameter, and have it on my display shelf and I think about that artifact and the Native Artisan who must have made it so long ago every time I look at it.
Thank you, I needed to spend time in the earth lodge today, listening to the stories and the sounds of the ancient rocks coming to life in your skilled hands.
Having scrambled up that screeslope on a hot August day behind my perents sustained by lovely windberys to take refuge from the sun in the mouth of the mine looking for our own neolithic axe head I know how atmospheric the area is and to see someone work the same stone while telling the tale of it's own selection took me back to that hard lovely day at least 48, years ago thank you
Dear Brother! I would be honoured to get that one finished up and polished for you. Just as it has been an honour to join you on this quest for the green stone Axes, its a great story and you tell it so beautifully. I had no idea when we set out on that trip the depth this magic runs to and how it gets in you blood and never leaves you, becoming that thirst you may never slake and the yearning for more green stone to grind that never ends no matter how many times you give in to the call and find another piece of this sacred stone. Thank you dear Brother for showing me the way in and for bringing me in to that most ancient arena.
It will be an honour to place it in your hands my dear friend and yes you totally enriched the reason for me going on that epic journey into the lap of the gods
Thanks for taking us on another delightful journey with your craftsmanship. It’s been many years since I stood on the side of Pike O’ Stickle and thought about the ancestors. I now live in Australia and have had the great fortune and privilege to stand in many places where The Old people ‘quarried’ stone, some of which are very remote indeed. Your conversation, your relationship, with the stone in your hands, and the place from which the stone was received, reminds me very much of the kind relationship Aboriginal Australians and the people of Papua New Guinea have with their ancestors. For them, The ‘raw materials’ (not just stone) and the objects that they become are so much more than that. They are the very essence of the Ancestors. I know of a remarkable story about an old Blackfella from the Wellesley Islands, Queensland, and his journey with making a boomerang. As he was cutting the wood from the tree, he was asking permission and talking to the tree. As he began fashioning the wood into the desired form, he spoke to the material in his hands as it became the boomerang. He told the story of the Ancestor Serpent whose body fell upon the land, and as the body decayed its ribs became exposed and turned white in the sun and eventually became the trees. The finished object in his hands was very embodiment of the Ancestor Serpent, and he knew it as if it where family. Objects and the very substances that they brought forth from can be people, and they have a story of their own to tell us.
To my untrained eye, it seems to me that stone you began with also provided you with many beginnings for other projects as well, many arrowheads or smaller blades. So even if the stone had not produced an acceptable axehead you could still make many other beautiful and useful objects.
I can't get enough of your videos. Amazing, informative content.. Now I'm going to have to source some greenstone here in Northern California and give this a try. What a beautiful stone.
Enjoyed your show on making the flint knife. I tried to knap a piece of flint I found in Virginia to make rifle flints. The rock shattered like glass and I accidentally got two useable sizes out of 10 lbs of rock (pure luck). However, they shattered like glass when I tried to use them. I think there was pitchblend in the rock.
The color change is demonstrable even in America. The major point being as you mentioned, moisture in the rock, added moisture from external sources such as rain, human sweat and skin oils, the dirt that inevitably mixes on the surface whether wet or dry grinding. The acids in the human sweat and oils will in effect burn and change the color. I find so many interesting color rocks in the UK but only from afar, I've never gotten to travel there. That's why channels like this are a blessing. I'm a fossil nut as well, and I follow some of the English fossil channels. The amazing coastal areas and the different rocks are interesting, the jet mines and I even heard them talk about lapis? Some of the fossil nodules/conceptions "look" as if they would be great knapping material.
I found a broken Greenstone axe head in Cornwall and gave it to Truro Museum. At the time I had stopped reading history for a while because of my history teacher. She told us the Celts were dead and gone- English/Saxon 'propaganda', just about her whole class was Celtic. She also said Greenstone and Greenstone axes were from the Mediterranean. Getting my History degree required not one fact she 'taught ' us. I guess someone was still scared of us.
Hi will I've just started watching your channel, and your videos are really good and interesting thanks for making them, I have a question can you tell me why you sort of rub the hammer stone across the edge please Once again thank you for the videos keep them coming
Hi Will, always a pleasure watching you knapp.. would you ever consider indirect percussion, such as a leg strap arrangement to get rid of islands or turtlebacks? I've been practicing this for a couple of years now and rely on it almost for difficult thinning and troubleshooting.. I know ow it's an American thing, or is it? I'm not sure but I see it alot on knappers over there removing well over center line when choosing to. Anyway, thanks for entertaining and teaching at the same time! By the way, sent you some stars with your bronze sword live video, they were free so I just gave them all to you simply because I've been following you for years! Not in a weird way thougb😅🤣🤣
Really interesting video and stories as always Will. I've often wondered how they made the greenstone axes, I didn't think it would knap like that. I used to live near Cumbria and know exactly where it came from. At the time I didn't know anything about it though, so at least if I return I can have a new appreciation for the site!
I am amazed youre allowed to take the rock. Here in the good ol' FREE America, the government would throw you in jail..well throw me in jail if I took it. Aholes.
Add plenty of sand/grit and water when you are trying to remove a lot of material at the start. I found that using the sandstone alone was excellent for finishing the axe but too slow otherwise. Also make sure to start with a rock already in shape or be prepared to thin it down with hammerstones if it is flint, Preseli Bluestone or Langdale Greenstone.
An honour and a privilege to watch you work your magic. When I was a kid my favourite book was Bran the Bronze Smith, I still have a copy today. The workmanship of my ancestors enthralls me and your videos demonstrate that those skills are not yet lost to us. Pure magic👍
Love your words of wisdom and philosophy as you work the stone. Just completed my first small spear point this evening out of a clear glass vessel bottom. Have learned a lot watching you work. Thanks again
Hey Will, i want to first thank you for sharing your amazing skills and wonderful content. I have watched (since yesterday) a few of your uploads and it has firstly for me given me a welcome distraction from the weights that life has placed on me, and given me a window of peace and calm just watching you revive this long forgotten craft/skill. The yearning to take the steps and try this myself is becoming overwhelming the more i watch you. In short thank you and i just want you to know i am eternally grateful for sharing what you do , please keep uploading brother
For a moment, when I first glanced at the thumbnail, I saw blond hair and glasses, and thought, "--Survival Lilly??" Then I realized no, no, that's Will Lord! (Which made more sense, given the topic.) But then I thought, "How cool would it be to have a collaboration between these two...?" You could compare neolithic shelter building methods with modern bushcrafting ones, neolithic bows & arrows with modern versions for making & using them, and so on...!
i like seeing different knappable rock from the uk being worked , i have been making arrowheads from "Arran pitchstone" , it works beautifully . i must try some more of the volcanics round my area and make an axe like this , lots of polishing ! nice job
Hi Will. Impressive how you worked that greenstone down. Can (was) that stone be used as an alternative to flint, given it was the readily available in the area. Were the axes exclusively polished or were they occasionally kept "knapped". Was that blank eventually ground and polished, if so can you update. Cheers 🤙🏻
Hi if they left the mountain they were polished, if the knapping went wrong they threw them over their shoulder . I don’t know what happened to the one I made during that film
its as if you are reincarnating our past it seems to me its so much more than your experience, its as if your craftsmanship is inherent. in your dna? you take us back in time by the recreate prehistoric sacred sculptures
I have to admit to getting the diamond angle grinder out on several of my attempts to make Flint axe heads both polished and knapped. I seem to often get those very annoying lumps that were impossible for me to knapp out. I also had to use diamond files to polish the stone as thats all I had but boy was it still hours on hours of grind!
Finally! Langdale tuff is my only locally available stone, all the Flint beds are 7 hours drive away. But it does not flake well compared to flint, you've got a great piece there and you’re obviously way more experienced than myself at knapping.
