making a ground stone axe.

" />you gotta love the Americans. They're so understated.

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At least no one would break into your cave and be able to run off with it

Fred Flintstone is real, well I never.

The thing I love about the first picture is the guy in the background, he looks really unimpressed. Maybe his axe is even bigger...

The guy with the axe is Larry Kinsella, and I think the old guy in the background used to post flint tomahawks on pp and got sick of Larry saying "have you found one in the archaeological record? have you chopped a thousand trees down with it?" 

Awesome +5 Face of Curmudgeonlyness too.

Wilmaaa!

mr.hertzian cone wrote:The thing I love about the first picture is the guy in the background, he looks really unimpressed. Maybe his axe is even bigger...

   lol - I think your right - I am told it doesn't matter how big your chopper is its how you use it lol.

" />Now this is a lump of Serpentine, Nice and soft, should make for a good non-functioning Jadeite replica.

" />This is a lump of sandstone with some pounded flint waste flakes to add some extra abrasion, that and some water, messy but it works.

" />
Every now and then I washed everything down and started again. Hammer stone at the ready to pound those flakes into grit.

" />The last grind was done with just water.

" />After some non-authentic grades of wet and dry sandpaper, the Serpentine was waxed with a tinted polish.

" />Just don't try to chop anything with it

Holy crap, that much have taken hours, where'd you find the sandstone?

wow how smart is that   love the finished item and thanks for the stage pictures, - where did you find the stone? did you know it would look so good? - Jadite next

Thank you, the sandstone was found in the woods along with a bunch of fly tipped garden waste. Garden centres sell decorative lumps like this so I guess that's where it originally came from. It doesn't look like local sandstone. The actual grinding only took an afternoon with several breaks. The crushed flint grit really helps to speed things up. The serpentine was actually used in prehistory to make regional copies of jadeite axes and the mountain tribes of Papua New Guinea even today make ceremonial axes from serpentine and they look great!
The stone itself came from an artist in Brighton called Reante who gets it herself from Ghana though there is also an outcrop in Cornwall at Lizard. I tried a supplier from there but had no luck. Hope I've answered all the questions and this helps guys

Yup, now you have to polish a flint one.


They have sandstone paving at B&Q it's very cheap but on 2.5 cm thick, I'd guess too thin.

I lasted about half an hour with the last one I tried to grind till I said sod it. I was really taken with the clip of the European knapping event you posted recently, there was an axe being ground by two people with a jig with two handles each end and a huge stone on top to take some of the effort out of this task. Hmmm... now that makes sense.

That sounds like a plan, and more realistic than the lone grinder using the method below.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSA42nDXEnw



Some series stone axe making going on here. Not sure what material they are knapping at the beginning, slate perhaps..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a8jB1SSzds

wow he did a great job in 15 hours - think i would of had to give it another 15 to remove the rest of the flake marks

Hope you don't mind me adding to this.
This is my attempt. Took around 30 hours of manual grinding in total. The handle is Holly reduced in a fire and shaped with flint.

You managed to season holly without it cracking, well done, I've only managed that once. 

Have you tried using it yet?

I've cut through a few 8-10 inch logs with it. It's an ornament now, i'd hate to break it given the work i put in.

How did you grind it? Water and sand? 

You've definitely inspired me, I must really have a go at making one.