http://newenglandbushcraft.blog.com/...e-stone-tools/
A real old-school alternative to metal blades - no fancy knapping skills here, but an effective way of making stone tools, KISS-style (Keep it Simple, Stupid) ;).
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http://newenglandbushcraft.blog.com/...e-stone-tools/
A real old-school alternative to metal blades - no fancy knapping skills here, but an effective way of making stone tools, KISS-style (Keep it Simple, Stupid) ;).
Thanks T^
Glad you liked it, AJ :).
I've always been disappointed that the few knapping schools in the northeast rarely ever use materials the local Natives would've known and worked into tools. Instead they import flint from overseas or get some chert from Texas and Oklahoma instead of looking into the geological structure of this region and figuring out what would've been used.
Every stone will be slightly different, and flint is generally much easier to work than quartz or quartzite.
Don't be so fast. They have found a gazillion stone age flint tools in Norway...there is no natural sources of flint here. They had to import it from Denmark, what is now the UK and probably from the now sunken Doggerland in the the North Sea.
My point being...flint can have come to the locals from far away.
But I still get your point. It would have been interesting to see what the locals here could have used. Hmmm, a trip to the local museum is in order!
True that, Rune ;). I know some of the lower Algonquin tribes in the Appalachians had access to chert via trade, and I wonder if the same was true with the local Mahicans with northern tribes. I'm not that familiar with New England's geology, but it is certainly possible. From what I have read, quartz and quartzite were the most commonly used, and fragments of these are most often found. Chert is a bit less common where I am, but further north and especially in Quebec you'll find lots of chert points.
Alas, the town's museum has little info on the Native inhabitants, let alone their stone knapping technology. Most of it was trial-and-error for me with the guidance of an amateur archaeologist/geologist. The Native Mahicans were kicked out of Connecticut by the late 1700s :(.