Celt halfting pictures and Full grooved ax experiment

[TripleCreek]

It has occurred to me that when collecting artifacts we hardly ever see the organic component (wood, bone, leather, pitch, glue etc.) that were part of the function of the ordinal stone tool.

In describing a halfting principle in another tread, I described what was needed to half a celt. I thought it would be good to do a pictorial thread to show an example of what I described. Celts are the most modern of the stone ax development. Full grooved axes, were the earliest, and half grooved were the next development, and then the halfting changed completely, to a simple compression fit, in a hole in the handle for Celts. No adhesives, glue, or binding was used in a halfting a celt. As "illustrated" a hickory tree made a good choice for a handle, and it was most often cut, upside down, with a tree limb knot used, to streathen the weak area above the celt. The pictures of the celt handle, are of a reproduction done with modern tools, but historically accurate. The celt was also reproduce with modern tools but finished with historically accurate method of grinding, and polishing.








The full grooved axe is a reproduction done, historically acturate, with no modern tools used. I did the full grooved ax as an experiment to check the efficiency of the stone tool. It took me about 25 hours. of pecking and grinding to finish this ax. I eventually cut down two trees with this ax. I had my son count the strokes required to cut these trees. The first tree was a walnut, about 6" in diameter, and it took 180 chops to cut through this tree. ( I cut the walnut tree by mistake, I thought it was a black locus tree, but did not realize I had cut the wrong tree till it fell) I wanted a black locus tree to use as a bow blank, and the leaves got mixed up at the top and; oops, it happens. The second tree was about an 8" in diameter, and was a black locus tree. At about half way through (the locus was a much harder tree wood) at about 150 chops, I got to the heartwood (the dark wood in the center of the tree) and kept hitting hard, and one hit spalled off a beautiful flake that traveled all the way up the side of the ax. (see picture) I should have stopped and resharpened the ax right then, but I continued and the bit of the ax started immediately to disintegrate. It took another 222 chops to fell the tree with a continually less efficient bit on the ax. Obviously, I need to reevaluate what I am doing since I can not imagine primitive peoples spending 25 hours making a tool that only cuts down two small trees. I believe that I did not have a steep and rounded enough edge going to my bit, that made it more susceptible, to spalling a flake off. Also, I think an ancient person would have "babied" that tool a lot more then I did, especially when chopping into that very hard heartwood on that black locus tree.







(Sorry about the poor quality drawings, I could'nt figure how to post "paint" drawings, so I had to take a picture of the computer screen)
3creeks

[Th3rty7]

Great demo and explanation Triplecreek. I appreciate you taking the time to put this post together. Couple of things just clicked the second time I read this post, thanks alot.

[TripleCreek]

Thanks, 37

I would have liked the photos to space out the way I intended. I followed the directions given, for posting pictures, but I must of missed something. I'll do some experimenting later and see if I can fix it. Thanks for the encouragement. I hope some readers gets some usefull info. out of the post anyway.

(Ok, I figured it out !!! Needed a lower case "a")

3creeks

[Jonzer]

Very nice.
Thanks for the info. I learned something today.
I understand the celt but how do you get the axe thru the hole since the ends are larger than the middle?
Do you split the handle and tie back into position?

[TripleCreek]

Jonzer,

The celt was still in use "post contact" so there is some written history about halfting for celts. Both the full groove ax and half grooved ax, were used during the archaic period. This time frame, 3000 to 10,000 years ago, is way before any recorded history, so there is only speculation as to the halfting method. The method that I perfer, and used during my experiment, was to take a green shoot of hardwood, about 3/4" in diameter, and heat treat to get a good bend, and wrap around the groove twice, so that both ends point the same direction, then bind the handle with either rawhide, or anything else, like tough vines etc.. This produces a very tight bind on the stone head, and after the wood dries, the handle is very tough. The 1/2 or 3/4 groove ax was made with a flat on the bottom, and I believe that this "flat" was a point to drive a wood wedge into the ax handle, to provide a way to "tighten" a loose head. This was an improvement on the full groove ax since when it finally did start to loosen, the only way to tighten the head, was to start over, and rebind the handle. All of this is speculation, since there is no record, and no one alive today can remember that far back; and, as far as I know there has never been an intact artifact found of a grooved ax.

3creek

[SoIll]

awesome

[Buckhunter]

i think your correct about the axe hafting, because the wear on axe blades is on the edge below the flat side. which is were it would be landing in use. Great post and keen insight to the past.

[DisplacedBuckeye]

Thanks TripleCreek ! How infomative that was . Sure wish I had time to do all that cool stuff .Absolutely fun to read

[Silver Eagle]

Cool post! Ive never attempted to make a ax or a celt! How long does the grinding process normally take?

[TripleCreek]

Thanks, Silver Eagle.

The grooved Ax took approximately 25 hrs. of pecking, and grinding to make. I would say that I could probably have improved my efficiency by about 25 %, with more practice. One thing about my ax was, that it was not finished completely, before I used it to chop down the trees. The rear of the ax was not shaped or polished. Almost all of the examples that I have found, or seen, archaeologically have been completely finished, or stopped during production. So, I imagine that finishing the rear of the ax would have taken about 25% more time. In conclusion, I think that about 24 hrs. of labor, to make a finished grooved ax, for an experience ax maker, would be a pretty good estimate for time.

There seems to be some element of "pride" in the ax making process. Simply, you can make a functioning ax by just grinding the bit, fairly quickly, within a few hours, but I do not see these "utility" axes represented, in any proportion, in what is found archaeologically. It seems that I have always found completely finished polished tools. Also, I am puzzled about the polishing that always seems to be present in the bottom of the groove. Notice that in my ax, I did not polish the groove area. For one, it seems that a "rough" groove would "hold" better, and, in addition it is not easy to polish that area. Also, it may be that the polish, that I see in the groove, on artifacts axes was caused by "use ware", but if the ax is halved correctly it should not be rubbing in that area. Also the polish in the grooves, that I see, is very consistent around the groove which would not happen if it was "use ware" polishing the groove. So I am still puzzled about "why polish in the groove ?"

Lots of questions that still need to be answered.

Hope that answered your question.
3creeks

[Silver Eagle]

Yea I would agree, if the polish was caused by wear it would be evident.. Thats interesting! Ive never made or used a stone axe, but could there be any advantage to allowing some slippage?
I know that when I knapp I polish/abrade to strengthen the stone! But im not sure if that would be an advantage on the hafting area of a stone axe.. I do know that abradeing can also be counter productive some times & cause breakage and/or larger/deeper than desired flakes..

Interesting post!

[joshuaream]

I've played around with cutting down trees with celts, and if you get it right it is surprisingly effective even when sort of dull. If you make another handle, try leaving an extra 5 inches or so above the hole (or leave it thicker and deeper than the rest of the handle.) The extra mass/weight really make a difference.

[junkboy]

Jonzer,

The celt was still in use "post contact" so there is some written history about halfting for celts. Both the full groove ax and half grooved ax, were used during the archaic period. This time frame, 3000 to 10,000 years ago, is way before any recorded history, so there is only speculation as to the halfting method. The method that I perfer, and used during my experiment, was to take a green shoot of hardwood, about 3/4" in diameter, and heat treat to get a good bend, and wrap around the groove twice, so that both ends point the same direction, then bind the handle with either rawhide, or anything else, like tough vines etc.. This produces a very tight bind on the stone head, and after the wood dries, the handle is very tough. The 1/2 or 3/4 groove ax was made with a flat on the bottom, and I believe that this "flat" was a point to drive a wood wedge into the ax handle, to provide a way to "tighten" a loose head. This was an improvement on the full groove ax since when it finally did start to loosen, the only way to tighten the head, was to start over, and rebind the handle. All of this is speculation, since there is no record, and no one alive today can remember that far back; and, as far as I know there has never been an intact artifact found of a grooved ax.

3creek

How do you heat treat the hardwood shoot. I also made an axe but I never could haft it properly. I'm definitely going to try your idea.

[PrimitiveOne]

From what information I have gathered celts took a very long time to produce and they were passed down like family heirlooms. If made correctly and from the right materials they are almost indestructible. With a little touching up and re-hafting every once in awhile theywould provide years of service. I saw a reproduction made from greenstone swung at a steel plate and didn't break. It barely chipped. One "fun fact" is that the celt is designed after the worlds best wood cutting tool below.




Did you guess correctly





I truly believe that one day a early native american was watching a beaver chewing down a tree and said I need a look at those choppers. He put an spear into the beaver and observed its teeth- took a piece of stone and reproduced the tooth on a larger scale.... if you look at most of the celts they all have the same shape.

[flintmel]

To be honest, I believe a limb with a crotch would not only require less work but the tool was designed to keep itself tight with eack blow. Even a hickory
stick without the cross grain of a crotch or burl would split with use

[Swims with Beaver]

What I dont understand is this. If it was hafted to a stick why would the polish go all the way back be under the stick. It makes me think celts were used as wedges. could they not use a log or piece of wood to drive it (celt) through another to chop wood. My dad use to use wedges to chop wood when I was a kid. I have one where the sides are very rough but the polishing goes all the back. check it out.