Another Bone Knife

Bone knives are excellent for tasks requiring a more sturdy edge than stone normally is. For example, while cutting true tinder fungus with a stone is a pain, shaving it off with bone is easy. Bone is also sharp enough for cutting non-fibrous vegetables, gutting fish and skinning small animals. In the latter task bone has the advantage of not normally being sharp enough to slice through the skin, especially if you have a rounded tip on the knife. Though I prefer to work with fresh bones I have been in short supply of bones for a long time since last hunting season so in this case I had to use an old sheep leg bone I found in a field.

Start by sawing halfway into the bone at the lower end margin of where the blade is supposed to be.

















Score around the sides and top so that the front piece is freed from the rest without cracking the rest of the piece. Score almost all the way through. Using water will help a lot.

















Split from the top and break off the waste. This waste piece was made into a small chisel. It might not be of very great utility, but I'll try it on green wood.

















Afterwards the blade was ground thinner and pointy. For cleaning fish I would ideally want a thinner tip, but I want a stronger edge on this one for broader application.

















I already had a birch bark sheath from a now broken knife to reuse.

Fish Trap

I've finally finished my fishing trap. This is the style Patrick McGlinchey uses and Jon have also made one of them. This trap is all willow and was quite frankly a pain to make. The willow bark works fairly well as a binding, but it takes time processing as much as you need. Compared to wickerwork it also seems to slip easier.

















The result is fairly pretty and I look forward to testing it, but the next time I will make a trap in the same way as the burden basket a little while ago. This method simply takes way too much time to be worthwhile.

Two New Creations

Nothing great to report. I've been gathering some nettle fibres for fishing lines, a carrying net and a fishing net. I have tested some new techniques for making willow basketry, since this was a crude attempt at a burden basket I will not post anything about the techniques I've tested them further and gotten better at it.






















Both Patrick McGlinchey and Jon_R have recently been experimenting with coiled basketry and that has inspired me to give it a go. To start on this type of project I needed to make a needle first. This one is out of a thin, flat section of reindeer antler. I expect the thinness to be an advantage in this kind of work.

Small and Simple Antler Comb

Start by scoring and breaking off a palm of antler. The antler in question here is reindeer/caribou antler. As usual, use hot water when working antler.














Score or scrape along the edges so you can split the piece with a wedge. My split wasn't totally successful, but I actually think the result got better because it ran off. It gave a stronger handle.














Start scoring the teeth.














The teeth should be rombic in cross section and of course have a little spacing in between. This you can achieve by scoring, splitting and abrading with a rough piece of quartzite between the teeth.














The handle was engraved with a stone flake. Take several turns, score first superficially, then deepen the grooves. The grooves can be highlighted with a mixture of charcoal and wax (best in my opinion) or charcoal and fat.

Summing Up the Stay at Lofotr

For six weeks have I now worked as a craftsman at the Lofotr Viking Museum and I am now back in Trondheim. The total production of items (during work hours) was:

• 3 needles of whale bone.
• 1 needle of elk (moose) antler.
• 1 large fishing hook of cow bone.
• 1 medium sized fishing hook of elk (moose) antler.
• 1 engraved cloak pin of cow bone.
• 1 netting needle of cow bone.
• 1 engraved button of whale tooth.
• 1 coracle/currach.
• 2 hide scrapers of reindeer (caribou).
• 1 small engraving knife of iron.
• 3 slate sharpening stones.
• Hafting for a bowdrill bit of iron.
  

Unfinished projects:

• 4 metres of a 50 metres long salmon net of linen.
• A composite antler comb (reindeer/caribou antler).

Not much may some say, but keep in mind that this museum has on average around 500-700 visitors per day, making questions from the public a major occupation.

Some of the projects on the photo below.














A closeup of the cloak pin. Poor quality because of the bad light in the house.














The museum owns three viking boats. This is the larges one. Note the new horse head in the front, carved by Doreen Wehrhold.














Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to go back next year to finish the unfinished projects + do a number of new ones.

Hide Scraper

Making this type of hide scraper is easy. First score around the edge of a reindeer/caribou "skovle" (what we call the flat pieces of the antler here). Brek off the irregular front and then score along the sides. As usual, using hot water will help you a lot. Split the piece along it's lenght. Tidy it up and make the lower edge sharp.














This type of scraper is quite effective, but the width is too large for my strength at least. Adding a long handle to it would make it better of course, since you then could put a lot of weight into it. It is used with a chopping motion, or by forcing the corners under though points. These scrapers were used to scrape both the flesh and hair side of the skin of the new coracle/currach/bullboat I've been making for the museum. A post about that will hopefully be up within very few days.

Viking Era Shoes

I've been to the Viking Museum Lofotr for over one month now. There I have been making quite a few items which I'll post over the next weeks. PS! A warning for the purists: These things are not made with stone tools only.

The shoes were made on an evening course run by viking era shoe maker Fanny Larsson (she makes shoes on order for those who are interested). Though they are a little too big for using without woolen socks they are very comfortable. The pattern is taken from Hedeby, currently in Germany, but formerly in Denmark.














I've used these types of shoes and my bare feet only now for almost 5 weeks straight and the 2 times I've tried on my modern shoes it has been an awful experience.

Arrowsizer

Here is the arrowsizer I started making before Christmas. It is carved as an eagle flapping it's wings. More detail may be added when I feel my skill is up for it. I think it looks acceptable regardlessly though.

Aspen Bark Container Part 2

The container is sewn after it is dried. I drilled the holes with a flint tip. The rim was willow bark and so was the lashing. There are many possibilities of how to do this. If you use a good type of bark, which doesn't curl that much, you can butt the sides against eachother, but with aspen you pretty much have to overlap. This basket type is very sturdy and well worth the effort in making.

Aspen Bark Container Part 1

This type of container is to me the quickest way to make high quality containers there is. It has the limitation that it is to a great deal only usable in spring and summer. After the bark has been folded you have a ready made container. To make it more durable and useful however, it is an advantage to dry it before you do the final steps. Otherwise you will experience curling and shrinking of the bark, making the construction loose and without a great fit.














First choose a section of Aspen (or specie with bark of similar structure) which is fairly straight and knot free. Score around the tree in the top of the piece you want, and do the same in the bottom. Then score diagonal line connecting the other two. Make sure you score all the way into the wood. You will kill the tree anyway, so there is no reason to be careful.














I use my flat moose antler wedge to pry loose the bark.














Determine the middle of the sheet by using a folded line. I have no picture of the process, only the curled sheet.














Score a shape across the sheet, resembeling the cross-section of a convex lense. I did this on free hand this time, but to get a more regular and beautiful shape you could make a simple birch bark pattern.














Fold it over and pull it over a log stump, bind around and leave it to dry. This is to prevent it from curling inwards. Not very easily achieved primitively, so I am currently testing another method, which I have never seen demonstrated anywhere. If it works out well, it will be presented in a book.

Sewn Birch Bark Box

Birch bark is extremely versatile and resilient. Consequently it can be used for making a lot of different things. You need bark of a certain quality to make this type of box.

Take a long piece of bark and roll it up double. Sew it up with some type of cordage. For such high strain, static applications, split spruce root is ideal.














I had limited amounts of spruce root available this time, so for the rest I used strips of willow bark. The bottom of the box and the top of the lid is doubled with bark in two different directions for added strenght. Stitching across the grain is always important to do when using birch bark. Otherwise the bark will most likely split.

That's the basics of it all, an excellent box for storing all sorts of small items. There are many tips and tricks regarding fitting and similar that doesn't fit in here. A more in depth tutorial will be in the upcoming book(s).

Moose Antler Axe in Action

Here is footage of my recently reworked moose antler axe in action. It is very heavy and packs a punch. I need a new shaft though as you can see it almost popping off all the time. It is also split. The tree (a dead, dry spruce) took about 10 minutes to get to the ground in total. A little slower than a dull steel axe. Thanks to Halvor Hylland Olsnes for filming.



Here is a photo of me chopping down a goat willow tree. The tree was down in two minutes approximatly.

Buckskin Leggings Tutorial

It has been a while since I made a pair of leggings. My last set was stolen out of my friends pickup truck during a trip. The bag held all my buckskin clothes and was the only thing taken. It's been long enough now that I smile when I think of what the person who took this bag must have thought when they got home and opened it up!

When making clothes of any kind with buckskin it is crucial that the skin needs to be washed first. I don't mean a trip through the washer (which you can do with buckskin!) but rather a dip in some water. When buckskin is worked soft in a frame, which I do, it tends to come out in a 2 dimensional shape. Deer are obviously not 2 dimensional so getting the skin wet and slightly working a little as it dries allows it to come back to a more normal shape. After giving the skin a dip I wring out the smokey water, catching it in a bucket to be used later for a braining. The smokey water helps keep the brains from going sour and also make it a little easier when softening the skin. The reason you want to soak the finished skin is because if you don't you might end up with one leg that wants to twist weird ways or a sleeve that is shorter than when you started.

One should also try to find matching skins when making clothing. That is to say that the skins should match in overall thickness as your first priority and optionally in coloring. To help with color matching smoke two skins of the same thickness together. The skins I use here were not smoked as a matching set and you can tell the difference if you look carefully.

I have found it much easier to use old clothing that you like the fit of and taking it apart rather than useing patterns or measurements. I went to the second hand store and picked up these old jeans for 2$. I simply cut out the crotch and then split them up the outer side seam. They are now my pattern. You can see in the pic where I have laid the "pattern" on the washed skin. You will note that the skin is not flat but has curves in it. This is normal. Buckskin is not like working with any other material. Your finished garments will never look like they came out of a factory.

I traced an outline of the pattern onto the flesh side of the skin. You can use some sort of straight edge to help make up for the ripples but again, it's never going to be perfectly straight. Be sure to keep track of which side of your skin will be the front part of your leggings and which part is the back. The side of the pattern where you can see the old pocket from the jeans is the front side. It will be that side that is eventually made into the fringe.





This pic shows the buckskin that has been cut away from the back side of the legging and also the crotch area. Before you cut into buckskin make sure you think about what your doing, then think about it again as you cant really fix a screw up too easily with buckskin. I made the cut about 1/2 inch away from the exact tracing line of the back part of the leggings. This is to allow for a little overlap in the seam of the sides of the leggings. Next I used an awl to poke holes on the line of the back side of the leggings, or the side that has been cut. Do not expand these holes by shoving the awl through the holes. Leave these holes small. All holes exposed to stress will become larger over time. This is why you want to leave the holes small. These holes are about 1/2 inch apart. You can space them wider or smaller to charge the appearance but much further apart and you run the risk of the seams becoming saggy over time. Much closer together and you run the risk of having the seems rip into each other.





This pic shows the seam on the outside of the skin. This is called a running stitch. In this case this would be called lacing as this skin is not really stitched as much as laced together. There are many variations of making seams. I like this one for it's simplicity. You can get really crazy and make seams that look like little x's or seams that look braided. Whatever seam style you decide to do you want to make sure that when you cut your lace that you take note of the different thicknesses of the skin. Thinner areas on the skin will stretch much more than than thicker areas. So when you cut your lace make the cut wider in thinner areas and a little narrower in thicker areas. Get your lace wet and pretstretch it. No need to let it dry before using it but you can. Note also how the same side (hair side of skin) is showing on the lace as well.





When I lace I lace from the bottom of the leg and work my way up. I leave about 8 inches of lace on the bottom just in case I need to make adjustments somewhere. When I finish off the end of a lace I tend to just weave it on the inside of the garment rather than tie it off and cut it. That way I have something to work with later if needed and I also know I have a little stash of lace on me in the event I need one and don't have one. I don't lace the the very top and will show what I like to do there next. Now we have the skin laced up the side. The big flap on the right can be left as is or made into fringe. To me half the fun of buckskin is the fringe and as you will see I love to get nuts with the fringe.





There are a number of ways to make the part that keeps the leggings on you. Some folks suggest a suspender type set up while I prefer a belt. To make the belt loop I lace the inside part of the flap that is left on the inside of the legging. I fold it over to create the loop and include this in with the lacing on the top and keep going all the way up, folding over the outer extra skin. That way I have a strong loop that does not want to stretch.





Making the fringe is pretty simple. Just cut strips of skin until they are as small as you would like them. I like to make some initial cuts all the way along the lateral flap just to make sure my fringe is as even as I can get it.





I like the look of twisted fringe which was practiced by some aboriginal American tribes. I wet the fringe and then stretch each individual part of the fringe and twist them tight, giving a nice pull on the end.




I really suggest wearing the whatever your making around a bit before you do a lot of trimming. Again, you can't correct mistakes too easily and buckskin takes a lot of work to get to the point where you're making clothes and don't want to waste all that work. After you've worn it a while you will see and feel where you want to make some different trimmings. I am going to leave the upper parts of these intact for a while before I do any trimming.

And there you have them, leggings.

I really prefer leggings to pants for several reasons. My favorite reason is that they are adaptable. When you get up in the morning you put your skirt/breech cloth on and then add your leggings. When it warms up you simply take off your leggings, no need for a wardrobe change. When it cools back off then your leggings come back on. Leggings also cut down on laundry especially when used with a skirt which I what I prefer to wear with leggings. This makes them go for longer stretches where they don't need to be washed than do pants. While buckskin is pretty breathable it can get hot and musty in a hurry. Leggings cut that right out. Leggings also allow for much greater flexibility and range of motion than do pants and you never get butt sag as buckskin pants tend to do over time.

Some may think this a little drafty of a system but I have never had any problems with it having lived year round in a skirt and leggings outdoors. Buckskin is so naturally warm that a little ventilation is nice and the extra ventilation helps keep one cleaner in my opinion.

In final analysis the most important part of leggings is that leggings are just damn sexy!

Needle Case

Needles are as a rule; small and fragile. Consequently being prone to loss and breakage. The needle case does the job of containing and protecting them towards breakage and dulling. Needle cases can be made very elaborately or very simply, from wood, antler, ivory or bone. This one can only be classed as very simple and is made from sheep bone. When I get my hands on some reindeer (caribou) leg bone I will make a bigger, more beautifully carved version.

This design is of Inuit origin, but I know that other natives, including the Scandianavian Saami used similar designs. The idea is simple. You have a hollow case, a leather/buckskin strip and two stopping devices. When closed it looks like the photo below. The needles are then protected inside the tube.














To open it, simply pull the opposite stopping device.














The needles are stuck into a buckskin pad.














A proper belt hanger could be made for it, but for this one I used only a stick to make sure the thong doesn't go all the way through. I will just carry mine in a pouch.

Toe Bone Fishing Hook

This winter I have made a number of antler and bone hooks made in several different ways. A method I tried fairly recently I would say is more than likely my new method for making a bone hook. Bone has two major advantages over antler as a hook. It gets sharper and isn't as affected by water (antler softens a lot after some time). The disadvantage is usually that bone isn't as flexible and has a strong tendency to break, especially where cut agains it's grain. The toe bone hook follows the grain all the way and can be left thinner, which faciliates easier bait attachment and possibly higher overall efficiency. With other words, this is yet to me, probably "the ideal" primitive fishing hook. I know that the barrel cactus have even more suitable hooks, but that plant is unfortunately not to be found here.

First you need a toe bone. Clean it up well.














Grind both sides until you expose the marrow in the middle, this will make into a natural, hollow rectangular(ish) piece of bone.














Clean up the inside.














Cut at what you judge to be the most suitable place and cut the shape of the hook.














Round the edges of the hook and make it sharp.

Carved Snow Googles

I've made a couple of pairs of these before, but this one is the first with stone tools only. I didn't take any photos during construction, so I hope that my explaination will suffice.

First you need to find a bent piece of wood, mountain birch being a good alternative. I chopped it down with my moose antler axe and when I got home I split it in half so that one piece has the split surface facing out of the curve, while the other has the face on the inside. Use the one with the split face on the inside.

Determine how it will sit on your face and use a flake to saw it to lenght and make the groove for your nose. Clean it up with a beaver tooth or a flake. Beaver teeth works better when hollowing out the nose room since the edge is stronger. Take your time, making such googles isn't done in a flash. Try to do as much work as possible while it's green.

Next, measure where your eyes will be and carve out the eyeroom with beaver teeth. After this is done, chances are the wood will dry out very quickly, so do as much as you can at once. The slit through should be as long as possible, to allow for the best possible sidevision. Carving the slit is easily achieved and can be done both from the inside and outside. For maximum light blocking, go as narrow as you can.

Drill one hole in each end for the string. I used a hand drill tipped with a very thin bone point. It will burn hole more than anything else, but it works. Drill from both sides and punch (carfully) through with a bone awl. Finish it up, attach a line and coat it with charcoal (not done in photo) on the inside of the eyes.

Processing Sinew

Torjus has talked about using sinew for sewing so I thought I might show a little photo tutorial on how to process sinew. These instructions won't be exactly in chronological order as I won't be showing how I remove sinew from the critter until I butcher my next goat. The sinew I will be working with here was saved for me by my friend the meat processor who I worked with in gathering up my deer skins for my year. They were already cutting the sinew off of the loins so I just showed them how I wanted to keep it as long as possible and they supplied me with bags and bags of deer and elk sinew. I keep finding these bags in my freezer and I have more sinew than I know what to do with! You may wish to become very good friends with your localmeat processor or butcher as they can supply you with many things that you may not have access to if you live in an urban area but like to play caveman.















The first pic is of elk backstrap sinew that has only been cut away from the rest of the loin. When I remove sinew it seldom has this much meat left on it but I am not complaining. In my hand I am holding a piece of slate. On the sinew is a obsidian flake.
















The next image shows the actual removal of meat from the sinew. You want to work perpendicular to the sinew, not at an angle. You don't want the tool your using to be very sharp as you can cut the sinew. The longer your sinew is the better it is to work with in most cases. I am simply "pushing" back and forth.

This pic shows the elk backstrap sinew getting cleaner. There is some connective tissue on elk that isn't on deer that I used the sharper obsidian on.
















This pic shows the connective tissue on elk that makes meat removal a little harder.
















You want to clean both sides of the sinew. You will find that the side of the sinew that faced the dermis of the critter doesn't have all that much to remove but you do want to remove as much of the fascia as possible. Every little bit helps. Any meat or fat left on the sinew can weaken the sinew. This pic shows fascia or connective tissue that you want to remove as much of as you can. Elk especially is very tough when dried out.

I will post the next part on Sunday.