Guaco—A paint medium derived from boiled plants, particularly “bee weed” (Cleome serrulata).

Once the clay has dried to a “leather” state it can be removed from the puki for scraping and thinning (Photo by Richard Jamison).

Mop on several layers of slip, working down. When the slip is a different color than the clay, add at least four coats. (Photo by Richard Jamison)

Hematite—A mineral. Red iron ore, used as a paint base.

Igneous Rock—Rocks formed by solidification of a molten magma, volcanic rock. Used for temper material.

Limonite—A mineral. Yellow iron ore, used as a paint base.

Manganese—A mineral. Black, used for paint.

Polychrome—Many—colored. Printed on a background of various colors. A vessel painted with two or more colors.

Puki—A bowl used as a base to support a vessel under construction.

Residual Clay—Clay found with parent rock.

Sedimentary Clay—Clay deposited by the action of water, also called alluvial clay.

Shard/Sherd—A broken fragment of a ceramic vessel.

Sinter—To become a cohesive mass when heated.

Slip—Clay in a liquid state used for a decoration or cement. Thin clay painted over the surface of a vessel to color and/or create a smooth surface for polishing.

Decorative techniques and designs such as these are adapted to their specific vessel forms. The two “ollas” at the top are plain ware, whereas the seed bowl to the right and the other bowls are painted. The bowl on the left has been decorated with a “punched” design and the one on the lower right is polished. (Photo by Linda Jamison)

Spalling—Small chips and “popouts” that occur during firing, usually caused by carbonates in clay.

Temper—Material added to clay to reduce shrinkage.

Vitrify—To turn to glass under heat or fusion.

A small hand axe. (Photo: Paul Hellweg)

Paul Hellweg and Donald B. Fisher

Stone Survival Tools

Almost any flake will suffice as an emergency survival tool; thus, you needn’t worry about striking perfect flakes with every blow of your hammerstone.

Have you ever used a big rock to pound in a tent stake? Chucked a stone at a squawking raven or the neighbor’s whining cat? Cut yourself on a piece of broken glass? Congratulations-for in an era of computers, space travel and telecommunications, you’ve just taken humankind back a couple of million years by proving the lasting effectiveness of stone tools.

For at least 2.5 million years, stone tools figured daily in primitive life, with uses ranging from hunting and gathering food to erecting shelters to making other tools from bone and wood. Stonework even played a part in ceremonial and religious practices.

Prehistoric stone-working skills are hardly lost or forgotten today. In our “modern” world we call it flintknapping, and although contemporary knappers don’t often produce tools intended for everyday use, these stone objects can possess great utilitarian value. Can you use stone-age techniques to create substitutes for modern tools? Are there any basic stone-working techniques that don’t require years of practice?

The answer on both counts is “yes.” In a survival situation, or evenjust for fun, prehistoric techniques work as well for modern people as they did for our ancestors. In just a few hours you can acquire the skills to create stone survival tools, and the materials you need are certainly abundant. Naturally, mastering advanced stone-working skills requires more time and patience, but you can make at least half-a-million years’ progress in a couple of afternoons.

The principle of the “Hertzian Cone” or “Cone of Force ”: When you apply force vertically to a flat surface, the force will spread equally, forming a cone. (Illustration by Michael R. Seacord from Flintknapping: The Art of Making Stone Tools, reprinted by permission of the author. (Canoga Park: Canyon Publishing Co., 1984)

Basic Principles

In a survival situation, three tools are of basic importance: a knife, an axe, and an arrowhead-though admittedly the latter is of limited value if you don’t already have a background in primitive archery techniques. All three can be made from stone with very little or no previous experience in flintknapping. But before you can make any of these, you must first understand basic stone-working concepts, and you must learn to choose the correct parent material for the kind of tool you wish to manufacture.

Instrumental to both is the “Hertzian Cone” or “Cone of Force” principle: when force is applied vertically to a flat surface, the force will spread equally, forming a cone. Think of a BB hitting a glass window. The spot where the BB strikes the glass results in a small, approximately one-sixteenth inch hole. But the side where it exits shows a larger hole, one-half inch or more in diameter. Viewed on edge, you can see the shape of the resultant cone (figured 1). Don’t have a BB gun handy? Throw a rock in a calm body of water. From the point of impact, the force radiates equally in all directions.

The second concept necessary for successful stone-working comes with understanding the principle of conchoidal fracture. A conchoidal fracture looks like the inside half of a bivalve shell, and it results when you shear off a flake by striking a piece of useable stone. If stone will not fracture conchoidally, it is unsuitable for producing sharp-edged materials. Useable stone includes flint, obsidian, chert, jasper, agate, chalcedony, quartz, quartzite, and basalt-in essence almost any rock containing silica.

If you can’t yet identify these kinds of rocks, just experiment by picking up a stone now and then, striking it with another, and noticing if the stone flakes. You will soon develop an eye for selecting likely material, even if you can’t name it.

Striking Flakes

Merely striking a flake off a usable piece of stone is the quickest and easiest way to create a cutting tool. Assuming you use the correct type of stone, the resulting flake will taper off to a thin and sharp edge. A flake tool doesn’t look too impressive, but it will work wonders at cutting soft materials: leather, cloth, meat, plants, and so forth.