Ancient axe technique and modern application to mid-sized knives

R

Return of the J.D.

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Nov 29, 2005
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Several years ago, I learned from some instructor about how to use a stone axe-head of the variety that one sees in paleo-Indian museums in the desert Southwest. It's different from how one uses a steel axe. With the steel axe, one can lift it up to head level, or much higher still, and use a high-impact, long swing.

I was a little surprised to learn that that's not how one uses a stone-age stone axe. Instead, I was told, what you do is chew away slowly at the wood with a long series of little chops, with swings only a couple of inches long, at the maximum. I was given the opportunity to try that, and was surprised at how well it worked--and also at how quickly such minimal-length swings let the axe eat through the wood being chopped.

It occurs to me that if one adopts a similar lots-of-little-chips approach--and the patience that implies--one could get somewhat-respectable chopping results out of knife blades that are not usually associated with chopping. I'm pretty confident, for example, that you could cut down a decent-sized pine that way in less than an hour with a standard US military issue Ka-Bar, and probably even with a pilot survival knife. It'd certainly be more time consuming than with a dedicated chopper like a khukuri or a Ranger RD9, but I think with a little patience you wouldn't find yourself out of the chopping game even with a fairly-heavy five-and-a-half-inch blade.
 
Funny you mention that... or perhaps, not funny...

One experiment I've been told to try, but never have, was to use a stone axe to take down a tree. A few different sources, human and written, have chorused that a stone axe when used properly can take a tree down in fairly short order.

Sure, not as efficiently as a modern axe... but pretty dang close! More so than most folks realize.

It seems you've done the exercise, and found the trick to doing it. For that, I'm grateful! Thanks for sharing!

Interestingly, the technique you're describing seems to be one I've seen a lot of machete and kukhuri users do: short, controlled chops as opposed to power swings. Why am I not surprised?
 
Are the chop mechanics different? Do you drive straight in to the wood, or is there a draw, or slice movement involved?
 
I've never actually taken a stone axe to a live tree--just downed wood. The chop mechanics are kind of boring: it's basically just straight in. The axe heads I have in mind are maybe about the size and shape of, oh, say, two adult hands cupped together, as if in prayer--maybe somewhat bulkier. That's a pretty heavy piece of stone--maybe (just from memory) twice as heavy as a steel axe-head, so it's got some real intertia. The "bit" is not nearly as sharp, but maybe butter-knife sharp or a little sharper (maybe like a dull restaurant steak knife). The interesting "mechanics" aspect is what happens to the wood: you don't get a chip cut out of the wood as with steel, but more of a pulverizing effect on a small area. You're kind of crushing little segments of the log, like maybe around couple of cubic centimeters or so with each blow. The impressive part is just how these little chops add up over a few minutes.
 
This is interesting but I can't quite follow what is being said here. As my bother would say "type loud and slow so I can follow". I would really like to learn more about this technique. Pics maybe.
 
So how would the weight of a mid size (for this forum at least) 5-7" knife work on that principle. A knife can't crunch the fibre, nor do they weight as much as an axe.

I'm also curious to see some pics.
 
Seems chopping with a 5-7" knife would be greatly enhanced by using...
...a baton.

(Here we go again.)
 
Well every room has more than one corner.. batonning was my thought as I read this. I once used my small Boy Scout folder to cut up some heavy saplings for tent and ridge poles by "tapping" the spine with a stout peice of stick taking out small chips. I found out in later years I was botonning... :)
Bill
 
My thinking is that both the stone axe and the smaller knife are limited in the amount they can cut per stroke. Still, just as one counts on taking one's time and using a lot of light blows with a stone axe to get through a log, I could see similarly getting through a sizeable piece of wood with a lot of little chops from a small but heavy-bladed knife such as a USAF survival knife or a Cold Steel SRK--or certainly a Ka-Bar USMC-issue knife. The knife's lack of weight might be roughly offset by the fact that it's sharper than the stone axe. You wouldn't be taking massive divots out of the wood with each blow, but you'd amass a lot of little chips using either a small/midsized knife or a stone axe. Three potential advantages over batonning the knife: (1) it does not take both hands, but can be done with one; (2) lack of hard blows to the spine of the blade, which strikes me as a little risky if you're in a survival situation with just the one knife, regardless of blade quality; (3) if your knife's spine geometry for whatever reason does not conduce to being struck with a baton, you can still carry out little chops.
 
One advantage I see to batonning that I do not see mentioned is an increase in saftey. I have met a number of folks that have had hatchets skip and cut them(likely due to lack of attention) and have seen two people injured while hacking away with a knife. Batonning gives me much more control as I always have one hand controlling the knife and the batonn is the only part likely to skip.YMMV
Bill
 
My stone axes cut, they don't pulverize they cut. My stone hammers pulverize. The technique is the same and as described short chopping blows. Let the tool do the work. Most people look at a stone hammer and think it is a Axe and it is not. I have also made and used copper axes. Made a long bow start to finish with only a copper Axe and a flint scraper.
 
Short history lesson.

Back in the 1500's in the early days of Brazilian exploration one of the main products was Pau Brasil (Brazil wood) used to make red dye back in Europe.

The Portuguese had a great technique for loading their ships with it. They would gather a group of friendly natives and chop down a Brasil tree with a steel axe. They would then say, "You pile up x number of Brasil logs on this beach and when we come back we will give you an axe like this."

All they had to do was come back and the very impressed natives would fill their ships at a phenomenal profit. The natives did it with stone but soon went into business with steel. Brasil wood is now very rare. Mac
 
You would do it many times faster chiseling the knife into the wood by beating on the spine.

-Cliff
 
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