Making a Celt Using Stone Age Technology

There’s not really a word for making something without the use of any modern tools.  In primitive skills communities people say you’re doing it “abo” (short for aboriginal) if you aren’t using modern tools.  But that still isn’t very clear because sometimes people are “abo” flint knappers, using only antler and hammerstones but they are using all sorts of grinders and files to shape the antler.  I think we need a term that describes something that has never been touched by modern tools.  I guess there’s not a very high demand for this word in our current culture.  Not many people have ever made something with no assistance from modern tools – have you?  I’m a survivalist/primitive skills guy and even I have only made a couple things totally “abo”.  I’m amazed at how rare that is.  For the vast majority of our time on earth we were all making everything without any help from modern tools.

I finished my abo axe which technically is a “celt” by the way the stone is wedged into the handle.  I couldn’t wait for my green handle to dry so I went and made one out of a dry piece of oak.  Several pros and cons to working with dry wood over green:

1. Green wood is softer and much easier to work which is a huge help when using stone-age tools.

2. Green wood will shrink and warp as it dries – dry wood won’t.

3. Green wood has to dry which takes a long time and it might crack as it dries – dry wood won’t.

4. When using fire for shaping, green wood can pop and crack – dry wood won’t.

5. Finding a dry stick that is the right size, shape and has no rot can be very difficult or impossible in some environments.

In this situation I was able to make a handle with the dry oak pretty quickly and put it right to use.  I had to move to a bigger antler chisel to knock out the hole but otherwise, everything went pretty smoothly.

Chopping through dry oak with a hand ax is difficult and time consuming.

My little antler chisel that worked on green wood doesn’t cut it on the seasoned oak. I upgraded to a larger one and it worked great.

I like to chisel a bit then scrape out the chunks with a chert knife.

All the way through!

A “celt” works by wedging the stone on the top and bottom. If the sides touch it will split the handle when you’re chopping. When the stone is wedged correctly its extremely durable. Imagine trying to rip a stick in half by pulling on it from the ends…

With use the stone will get polished and shiny.

I split off the sides with the antler chisel to help thin it down. Next step is using fire for smoothing and final shaping.

I used the fire to char the wood then scraped off the burnt areas with a chert knife. This method is very efficient. I was able to shape the handle exactly how I wanted very quickly.

Smoothing out and thining down…

Finished!

This is a California walnut tree that I’ve selected to make a bow out of. Time to test out the celt…

Chopping through the green wood easily.

In about 15 minutes I was able to cut down the tree and cut it to length. I also got a possible adz handle out of a branch further up on the tree. The celt worked great and shows virtually no wear.

Now its time to let the branch dry out nice and slow.  I’ll seal the ends with clay and show the process of making it into a bow in later posts.  Its so simple but in some ways feels like the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life – making this ax from nothing and using it to make a tool that will feed me like its fed all of our ancestors for thousands of years.  I’m typing on this incredible piece of technology but it all began with these two simple things… a stick and a stone.