Make A Basalt Axe Head - Flintknapping Nightmares
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- Basalt is a funny stone that has the possibilities to be worked into some simple stone tools and more complex tools like polished axes, celts and grinding stones. Despite the earth being coverd in 90% of basalt...it's not the most ideal stone to knapp. However in a survival scenario it could be invaluable.
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Archeologists are going to discover your site 500 years from now and be confused. Hahaha. Keep up the great content, devil dog. I'm hooked
"can you make a tool out of bad quality rock"
"yeah"
Haha. Yeah! Thanks for watching!
The Orange Yellow Basalt is called Palaganite. This is basalt that has interacted with water when it was hot. It may become more dense asr the gases that create the vesicles in basalt are expelled. A denser form of basalt is ocean bottom basalt that gets subducted into the crust and upper mantle, compressed, remelted and then returned to the surface in violent uplift. This is Serpentinite and if from greater pressure and heating, Nephrite or sometimes mislabled jadeite. This last is very workable.
Donny, you are the FKNG real deal man. Thank you for the videos. Me and my 10yo and 6yo watch all of your vids and absolutely love them! I feel like you are one of the most genuine Ppl on TH-cam. I’m gonna keep saying so you don’t forget, anytime you ever come to IL, bbq and brews are on me and mine. Thanks for the vid brother. Appreciate all you do! We’ve already pre ordered Wild Wisdom! Aug can’t come soon enough! Wife and I are telling all our family and friends about it too. Keep on keeping on!
I appreciate that so very much. I’m here to just share what I know. I pumped to hear you and yours watch my videos. Thanks for that and tell them all I said hello. Beer and bbq…those are favorites next to Knapping. Haha. My best to you all. Thanks so very much. Appreciate it.
@@NewAmericanWoodsman thanks to you and sage smoke survival, humanity will survive the apocalypse
"Cheese grater of hate and discontent" is my new go-to phrase now.
I love to imagine that we can see the thought process of an individual pecking idly at rocks 2-3 million years ago while his community derides him for screwing around when good bone and wood working time could be had.
Thanks for this wonderful video!
I think maybe you should make an Indian lance along with the rabbit stick
Because of your content I am starting my journey with knapping. The primitive tools our ancestors used truly makes me realize how much we take for granted. I genuinely love your content and I hope you are doing well brother
Right on. Thats awesome to hear and I know you will enjoy the process. Stick with it and just make tools. Keep it simple!!!!
You did all that, without needing a bandaid.😂😂😂🤙🏼
I try!!! Thanks for watching!!
Another stone thats not so good but works is granite. I've made some basic hand axes from it and its pretty good stuff. Sharp edge that lasts a while and when its done you just make another. Gonna try to make some arrowheads from it too. Basalt is crazy hard stuff I'm suprised that you could get it done. Much respect👍
Absolutely. Granite is my choice for hammer stones. Lots of it in the Rocky mountains!!!
Love you videos. I wasn't having a great day at work. As soon as i saw the you posted a video i smiled and knew my day would get better.
You are so welcome! I’m happy to make your day I bit better. Thanks so very much for watching!
Many of those smaller flakes would make useable wood working tools, ie scrapers for tillering a bow stave or stripping bark for cordage etc .
Finally lol
Everything around my house is columnar basalt. Thanks Mt Rainier :)
I've been hoping for something like this.
Ok, note to self..Bigger rocks and break them at the river lol
Haha. Mt Rainer…I climbed when I was 15. It was a good time!
@@DonnyDustsPaleoTracks We made it to the snow line in August. Not quite base camp, but I did have our 18 month son on my back most of the way :) Best diaper changing station view ever lol
Well, I heat treated a small chunk of it for fun (and some white quartz I had)
That stuff is butter now lol Gave it a tap, "hmm sounds different" Dropped it on the garage floor to hear the sound better. Not throw, just dropped like 4 ft.
Shattered
The quartz is now a pink shade :)
That was fun :)
Sir, you are proving that the " cave people " was not so primitive after all! Like with flint... a knife and fire starter all in one... thank you!
Hey I know it's been two months, but you gotta know it's only media and pop culture that still says cavemen were "dumb." In reality, Homo sapiens has been anatomically identical for the past 70 thousand years at least up to 200 thousand years if you wanna overlook some minor morphologic changes in the face and neck. The consensus in anthropology and archeology has been that cavemen were just as smart as us if not smarter for the last 40 years. All they lacked was modern knowledge,
Donny is one of the few youtubers who i actively wait for new videos from and watch them all the way through.
Truly one of the best youtubers making this type of content.
Keep up the amazing work dude, you're an inspiration to me. Hadn't even considered basalt usable for knapping.
Appreciate that. Thanks so very much. I’m glad you enjoy the videos. Thanks again!!!
Am in Albuquerque new mexico. I enjoy your work
Thanks. I collected this basalt not far from ABQ. Thanks for watching!
Lol I’m in Santa Fe rn for vacation
I have lots of it where I am. Not the best kind but I’ve seen points made from it. I use it for improvised hand axes and stuff. I prefer andesite for axes but I have made one celt from basalt and it worked pretty well.
I agree. It’s a good “big tool” stone. You can get points out of it, but I’ve found basalt varies in quality and sometimes there are some detect options. Bottom line it cuts!!!
11:26 Never really thought about just how *strong* Donny has to be until I saw him casually holding that massive rock (that looks like it's got to be +10kg to me) up to the camera with one hand!
Haha. I lift rocks all day…you just get used to it I guess. Grip strength is key!!!!
Well sir I see that this stuff is very hard to work with but in a pinch it's workable thanks for sharing your knowledge it's much appreciated six stars brother
My pleasure. Thanks so very much for watching and following the flow. Much respect!
Bassalt is also prevalent in the farthest north reaches , never really knapped, worked but not knapped. The artifacts i am aware of as you mentioned mostly large "axes" ( I think they are more like war clubs ) and sometimes anchor stones or net weights. Projectile tend to more often be Bone or even ivory.
"A cheese grater of hate and discontent" might be the best description I've ever heard.
Impressed in your lack of verbal frustration, especially as you did it to yourself
As usual, great video. It's a pleasure to see the master at work. 👍👍👍
I'm recently new to following this channel and I really enjoy it love learning about ancient civilizations and weapons. So I have a question. You're stuck in the middle of Florida what are the first tools add weapons you will try to find/make no modern stuff you have to use the environment around you so I'm curious as to what you'll say seeing as I'm a Floridian I'd like to know.
Great question. First…check out Alone The Beast on Hulu, episode six and I did that/exact question. First…I’m going for some simple cutting tools out of shells or bones. Something to scrap and score cut with. Bones are likely the hardest materials in some regions. If inland that’s my option…if I’m coastal, I’m walking the shore lines to find all the treasures that was up. Weapons…absolutely a throwing stock to take game, and a long pole spear to test the ground I’m walking on and for keeping things at distance when needed. However, fire is my greatest cutting tool. I can pack mud or clay around a tree base about a foot off the ground, make a fire at the base and burn it over. This is for big timbers. Small stuff as well, but scoring around a 1-2 inch diameter tree and snap breaking it will give me the results I need.
Your awesome man! Appreciate your content and experience so much! Thanks for all the knowledge and demos you share, I absolutely love your channel!
I appreciate that! More importantly thanks so very much for watching. Much respect!!!
Thank you Donnie for exhibiting the difficulty working Basalt. Have you watched Coyote arrowheads channel in the Baja region? They find alot of Basalt artifacts and most are red in color indicating to me it was heat treated?
I will check it out. That sounds interesting. Heat treating is where I will do some research. I’m not familiar with heat treating basalt. Thanks for watching.
Thank you brother, it's very interesting indeed.
I have been reading about Basalt knives and I have been wondering how to work it, Thank you Donny!!! always a pleasure to watch the master work!
You are so welcome. Thanks so much for watching!
O wow man thanks for this treat ❤
My pleasure 😊
Many of those smaller flakes would make useable wood working tools, ie scrapers for tillering a bow stave or stripping bark for cordage etc .
Absolutely. Many of the flakes are tools as they fall. Appreciate you watching!!!
Always have totally dug your channel!
I appreciate that! Thanks so very much!
My Dad and I used to bow hunt the Sandia mountains from the early 70s to 90s .we covered top to bottom to the sun set canyon. Times of the past and memories.
I Miss my Dad but everything he taught me about the woods and native American beliefs and all of it saved my life.I always find my way home to the memories around the fire.. I love you dad.. your spirit rides the crisp fall breeze and above the golden trees Aspen.. my dad Charlie pk
Great channel. 😊
Appreciate it greatly. some cherts and quartz are sedimentary and can be worked. Just think of glass…it breaks and it’s smooth. The goal is to find stones that break like glass. The snap when hit with percussion tools. Waxy, glass, smooth and featureless are the ideal characteristics…along with that conchoidal fracture
"trying to carve out this peanut butter" 😂
Yeah!!! Just a metaphor I guess. Hahaha
Your take on basalt is maybe a little biased. Basalts vary a lot in quality. In California, some archaeological cultures appear to have deliberately based their technology on basalt. Specifically, you want to look at the Martis, and also some of the Central Valley "Middle Horizon". The matrix in proper basalt is, in fact, glass. What makes it hard to work is the degree of phenocryst development. In the Sierra, north of Lake Tahoe several specific basalt flows were preferred sources for knappable stone. Of the stones used for chipped stone tools, the igneous/volcanic materials that are best, are all materials that cooled with abundant glass in the matrix. The top of the list are rhyolitic obsidians, which has the same chemistry as granite. Ignimbrites can also be used, though they are chancy. Welded tuffs, and hard rhyolites also can be good tool material, depending on purpose.
I'm almost like working with a piece of wood with tons of knots in it
Absolutely!!!!
awesome to see a video on basalt, there isn't much flint easily accessible near where I live in southern california and seeing the characteristics of these rocks in this video reminds me of my own struggles as I've learned about all of this. It's extremely insightful to see you work this stone. I like how your videos are often in environments similar to where I live, I find that makes them very applicable to me personally, great work man
Very inspiring.
This weekend I will go search for some basalt stones and try this.
Give it a go!!!
There is one question that has plauged me off and on. People that knap alot and slab in the wild....is there any thought given to "poluting the record?" So to speak. Creating debris fields that are anachronistic and could possibly confuse future artifact sites ?
Yes and no. An archeologist knows what they are doing. Material culture is the thing. Flakes are not indicative of culture…projectiles, pot shards, fire pits, bones, fibers, grinding stones and flakes can give explanations of who was there. Just flakes…not so much. The American SW has areas that are littered with flakes and that’s it. Somebody’s long ago just knapped there. If the site is a quarry site…millions of stones will be broken in percussive ways….its a quarry site. More important time and the older something is going to be in the dirt, in layers. If I make a Clovis point and drop it on the top of the ground would raise some questions, but conclusion would be quickly drawn that it’s a modern reproduction.
Thanks Donny, always a pleasure watching you work
Heyo brother it's not my first time napping with basalt and I found out the best napping quality can best be described as salt butter think like black butter dacite either way I wish you the best luck
Very interesting description. I’ve found some decent stuff in the past, but wood quality stuff is out there. Appreciate you watching. Thanks.
it would possibly be better with wooden tools. looks like quartzite which over here in virginia is really common.
Not this piece…too many issues not to have some hard strikes.
Gnarly - Great work bro
what rocks are good for “Celt” (Celt as in pronounced selt) style peck and grind axe heads
Basalt is a good stone for this. Give it a shot!!’
What kinds of stone cannot be worked at all in a sensible way ?
Stones that don’t break in a conchoidal fracture and stones that are grainy and a collection of little stones!!!!
@@DonnyDustsPaleoTracks I see. So I suppose that sedimentary stones are not really workable ?
안녕하세요
😮🤙🤙👍
Hello. 🤙🤙🤙
Thanks man, in my region we have a ton of basalt and silificade basalt
Awesome. Give it a go!
Hey, that’s my stomping grounds! Except I’m in a wheelchair so not stomping much anymore. I’ve found fair basalt over by Los Lunas Hill.
Would love to see more desperate primitive tools like limestone, slate ect. Looking at indigenous Alaskan and Northern Canadian first people shows some interesting examples
Would also show people that tools are everywhere and knowledge is power
Absolutely. Those are all great ideas. I can absolutely do that. Thanks for watching!!!
I find it amazing when I find flint tools in North Western Ontario knowing how far it would have traveled. Not very much for edged tools in this area made from local geology.
Hey Donny Dust I Have A Question About Your New Book That Will Release On August 6 So Does It Teach What To Eat When You Get Lost In The Wild Like Eat Wild Plants Or Animals I Am Very Interested In Your Book And I Would Like To Know. I Hope You See This Comment Donny Dust Have A Good Day!
I found a1000yearold basalt tool outside of pugitSound outside of Seattle it 14years of beach combing to find it!
I didn’t know that I’ve been knapping a lot of basalt this whole time. I did most of my initial experimentation knapping with it because I didn’t care that I just made gravel out of it. I was pretty shocked how much easier normal material was.
Basalt is the stone that created the pacific island expansion. Here in hawaii and back in Samoa its all basalt of extremely fine grain
Silly question:
Are crystals knappable?
If there was a singular crystal (let's say, a crystal of salt or quartz) big enough, would it knap like obsidian or would it be a total rubbish?
🤙
Ive never personally knapped crystals, but quartz crystals are knappable and some crystals could break in the right way.
@@DonnyDustsPaleoTracks Thank you very much for quick answer 🤙
@@revol2933 no worries. Thanks for watching and sharing!
Basalt. A flintknapper’s worst nightmare. And a axe maker’s dream that he/she forgot about when they woke up in the morning.
We have some fine grained basalt here in Arizona that's fairly decent to work, at least by basalt standards😂
I mean…basalt isn’t the worst, it just falls low on the stone I go to collect. It has its place in artifacts and people used it.
@DonnyDustsPaleoTracks yeah locally we have a lot of chert and moss agate that are way better for points but I have found the fine grained basalt makes fantastic axes and heavy duty knives and choppers and with like a 90 degree strike leaves an edge comparable to chert in sharpness
Awesome video! Also just curious what are the pants you are wearing while you are sitting outside, they look very comfortable and I wanted to look them up.
It’s so hard to get right just like quartzite, a phrase that I’ve heard when it comes to knapping basalt, quartzite or agates, is stop all your ahead hahaha. Great video definitely shows a different side of stone tools (functional doesn’t mean pretty)
In my area we have a type of sandstone that can't be knapped but is ideal for peck/grind working, when you break it it has an almost gem like look and it's extremely hard but it doesn't flake, it kind of crumbles so you more or less have to work it like basalt.
Thanks so much for sharing your process working with less desirable materials.
Kinda funny to hear your consistent tone of disappointment 😂😂😂 while seeking out the good material hidden deep in the rock
why instead of a ground edge on an axe head could you not Knapp a much sharper edge like you make a arrowhead or stone knife , does the stone edge if it is knapped not last ?
Brother you good with all the weather we are getting
Doing great! No worries!
Have you tried knapping quartzite? I know that its a popular hammerstone material but Ive heard that it can be knapped.
Another great videos 😁
Videos plural?
Glad you like them!
Love your hability as usual Donny, you worked that basalt like it was flint or obsidian, amazing 🤩
My question is: you are very precise when you hit those rocks with a huge power... so, have you ever hit your hand instead of rocks? It must be very painful my friend..
I have hit my hands several times. It happens to everyone, but you learn quickly not hit them. Haha. Pain is a great teacher and have some nasty scars and bruises from FLINTKNAPPING gone wrong!!!!
So far what i found that was waxy glassy smooth wasnt featureless it was freeze cracked almost every few mm in 3 dimensions.
I much prefer it sped up as opposed to the cuts.
Noted. Thanks!!!
Well now we need a video of how to polish a turd.
Reminder of why stuff like steel kinves and hatchet's where such effective and highly regarded trade items.
From my own experience I really don't find basalt as good knapping stone but like you said if it's your only option, work with it it'll get the job done. Me personally I live in area where there are no good knapping stones so I work with bones, grinding them down and working them till they're good enough to throw on atlal or arrow shaft, great video, All the best
Totally agree. Would I take it over nothing? Yes absolutely, but bones are a great tooling option and have been used historically. Basalt, in my opinion is based for polished axes. Thanks for watching!
those bits would make those neanderthal scrapes with the thick backs
I have ground a nice hand ax out of basalt. Lots of work, but it works.
this vid was so cool, and the way ur able to work the stone tht fast even as gnarly as it was !!! also ur metate kinda looks like an asteroid chunk i thought tht was pretty cool
ooh where did you film this? It looks like Central Oregon where I grew up!
Love your videos!
Ps, love your sweater? Where’s it from??
get yourself some knife river flint.. best stuff iv ever worked. i love it. and i pay out the butt for for it too. great video brother
Now can you take a iffy stone and keep it in a fire pit for days or weeks and improve it's knapping quality
this makes me want to make giant stone weapons for fun > - < great video i love makin stuff!
video testing weapons?please
Ok!
Interesting, never knew that. Good video and educational.
the thumbnail was an ancient ratchet.
yes it was a craftsman.
Wonder if I can do something with dolamite
“a cheese grater of hate and discontent”- basalt
how long have u been doing this?alltogetger
Day 2 asking Donny to make a star shaped mace
Thought that was an ancient ratchet for a second
Thank you, Donny, I have lots of artifacts of rhyolites the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks ( east) . Great Video
Very cool! Ryholite is a tough stone. Great for taking some abuse. Great stone to polish into axes!!!
Ça ressemble vraiment a un cauchemar !
Est tu masochiste ? 😂
Hello Mr Donny! Thank you for another entertaining & informative video! I love the challenge of trying new material & its very satisfying to get a usable tool from it!
Super important to know!
I consider it priceless!
Really amazing ❤️
Is it magnetic?
I have a question for you. I live in the northeast, specifically rhode island. I learned that the indigenous peoples in my area used quartz for making arrowheads. Is this possible today or is the skill necessary to make them lost to history? Thank you for taking time to read this and have a great day!
Yes, absolutely. Quartz is doable. I have a video called, Will it Kill? Where I collect and Knapp quartz.
@@DonnyDustsPaleoTracks Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly!
See Men in Women
Cool, I did not know basalt was nappable at all.
Some pressure flaking also.
👍
Ok, so if knapping basalt is crap, why do it? Wouldn't it be more useful and interesting to show how to craft historical basalt objects in a reasonable, efficient way?
Haven't knapped in a few months, starting to get the itch, thanks man