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Obsidian Knives... (Read 12835 times)
bigkahuna
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Re: Obsidian Knives...
Reply #30 - May 14th, 2006 at 9:23pm
 
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Now how could natives without any sophisticated tools have any chance at all of cutting up steel pots and succesfully shaping them??!?! I would say that Badgerdude is actually right, that often just whipping up another flint point is easier than just going out and buying a steel one. Sure they could get their hands on metal, but where ever you are getting your information from must be pretty dubious.

Those Natives were able to build pyramids that were larger than those in Egypt and walls with tighter spacing than any thing in Europe at the time. All without "sophisticated" tools. Metal can be easily worked with stone. That's why you sharpen a knife on a "stone".
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Re: Obsidian Knives...
Reply #31 - May 16th, 2006 at 7:43pm
 
I have used a lot of both good Obsidian Knives break
good steel knives don't. I have made a few Obsidian Knives i get cut a lot more making one than when i make a steel knife
but remeber the natives did switch to steel
so theres your answer to really whats better
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Re: Obsidian Knives...
Reply #32 - May 16th, 2006 at 7:51pm
 
one must take in to consideration the job the blade is intended for.  if you are going to be hacking through a tree or soing something else, a steel knife will work better because of it's duratbility, though you may have to sharpen it a few times.  if you are going to perform precision eye surgery, you might reach for an absidian blade, as they are up to about 500 times sharper than a steel scalpel, having an edge only a few microns across when made properly, an obsidian blade is better for this because of it's superior edge, you will not have to sharpen it if you do not abuse it.

everything needs to be put in context.  you can not put out such a blanket statement like steel is better than obsidian, though for most of our purposes here on the site, it is.  it is comparable to saying the bow is better than the sling, just because you can fire it faster, or something like that.
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Re: Obsidian Knives...
Reply #33 - May 29th, 2006 at 7:05am
 
I once read an article about a man, who had a change to try real flint tools in some african village. And he made a bow with those tools.

In the end he said that flint tools were ALMOST as good as steel tools.

He had to handle them carefully though
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Re: Obsidian Knives...
Reply #34 - May 29th, 2006 at 1:58pm
 
I would say they are.
More flimsy though, more delicate.

It would be a lot harder to chop down a tree with a flint axe than a steel one for sure...but it would still be pretty sharp! Grin
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Re: Obsidian Knives...
Reply #35 - May 29th, 2006 at 6:58pm
 
the technique for chopping down trees with stone tools usually was something like
-burn a ring around the bottom of the tree
-hack and dig out the ash
-burn deeper into the space
-rinse and repeat
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Re: Obsidian Knives...
Reply #36 - May 30th, 2006 at 11:59am
 
Techniques for stone tools, and the tools themselves, varied, and vary, a lot from area to area.  In Irian Jaya, native guys just hack away at the big tropical trees using stone heads on long flexible axe hafts - but in other - particularly temperate - areas, such as in America or prehistoric Europe, trees might be completely cut down using fire.
  In any case: for ease of use, I personally favour steel knives for carving, because they are a lot quicker.  However, in Micronesia, the first Europeans in the area tried to trade their iron and steel axes for island produce, but when the Micronesians tried out their new axes for making a canoe, they found that the steel cut too deep and they couldn't control it like they could a shell adze.  So it is not possible to generalise about tools - it is all subjective.
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