Was the knife mans first tool?

just because something occurs in nature doesnt mean that it cant be used as a tool the first tool was bone or stick or something similar that a half monkey pre man creature used to bludgeo something moe than likely another pre-huan tha was in the way of it food :D
 
Its all very hazy, by strict definition fire is not a tool but a rock can be. Yet fire is used to make tools and tools are made to contain, control and start fires. It’s a little like fire is a spirit we call upon to do work for us. Fire can be unleashed by us, used by us, but it is not an inanimate object and can not always be controlled by us.

Is it plasma is it ethereal, like I said I think too much about this stuff :o)
 
knife first? unlikely

Chimps have observed pulling the leaves off twigs so they could poke the stick into a termite infested log and pull out termites. Anthropologists have said that such an action is making a tool, modifying a naturally occurring object so as to make it more suitable to do something.

I'd imagine that the early "man" things did the same as chimps before they began making sharp flakes of rock. But since all evidence disappeared there is no way to prove it.
 
There is a theory that its quite possible the first tool was a knife and also some professors, two of which taught me anthropology in college, teach that its likely the first knives for cutting and slicing were those made and designed to be held in the hand by woman to prepare the food the men brought home with clubs and wooden spears sharpened on the ends. The theory continues that when the men saw the tools the woman made out of flint with their sharp edges, they liked the idea but they had to be redesigned slightly to hold in place on their spears. One professor joked that its likely the first couples argument was about the man taking her kitchen knife! :D

Personally I think the oldest tool is probably a club or sharp stick not a knife but it follows suit that a knife would follow shortly. Chimps have been seen to be making a tool out of sticks wetting it with their saliva to insert into ant nests and pull out a string of ants to snack on so if that is any indication perhaps the first tool was nothing other than a stick for such a purpose or a rock maybe or something like that used to hurt another they were angry at for whatever reason.

STR
 
STR said:
There is a theory that its quite possible the first tool was a knife and also some professors, two of which taught me anthropology in college, teach that its likely the first knives for cutting and slicing were those made and designed to be held in the hand by woman to prepare the food the men brought home with clubs and wooden spears sharpened on the ends.

Personally I think the oldest tool is probably a club or sharp stick not a knife but it follows suit that a knife would follow shortly.
Click to expand...

It is impossible for a knife to have been the first tool used by man! A knife requires a sharp edge, and to get that sharp edge, the object to be used as a knife (or spear) had to have been sharpened. Therefore, the first tool would be the sharpener, which was most likely a hard piece of rock.;)

Regards,
3G
 
Knife is for sure man tool. Rocks, sticks is ape tools. But knife is tool which were not picked from the ground but processed is real tool.

Mankind are predators same as apes, which have quite sophisticated hunting process, more complicated then wolfs and lions have because they hunt in jungle in 3 dimensions catching smaller monkeys. It was recently discovered by using military planes and IR-vision - otherwise it is impossible to see (until you are in this 3 dimensions rain forest). So gathering was good addition to real food, but only protein source was animals (I do not remember which protein our body can not produce, but there is one we can get only from animals, not from vegetation).

Knife I thin is first tool which gave significant advantage to human because it works as horns for stubbing and as claws for cutting increasing area of damage. Even now slow and weak civilized man sometimes may kill bear with a knife, but our wild ancestors was way more dangerous in close combat with knives then without.

However I am not sure was knife first or it was spear with sharp stone head?

Thanks, Vassili.
 
nozh2002 said:
However I am not sure was knife first or it was spear with sharp stone head?
Click to expand...

Either way, the sharpener came first, as the end product, the knife or spear, didn't start off with a sharp edge, unless of course it was a jagged rock or a broken piece of wood/bone with a sharp edge.

Regards,
3G
 
It's debatable whether sticks or stones were the first tools. Behaviour of apes show both in usage but I suspect sticks were more likely to be used first - as a probing and digging tool rather than for hunting. Australian Aboriginals were still living in a stone-age culture when Captain Cook arrived ~220 years ago and while they had stone tools, most of their weapons and utensils were made from wood and/or animal parts. Snail and clam shells also made excellent cutting/scraping tools and were readily available - I remember a doco (Malcolm Douglas circ 1970) where the elders used a clamshell knife for a coming of age circumcision ceremony
 
3Guardsmen said:
Either way, the sharpener came first, as the end product, the knife or spear, didn't start off with a sharp edge, unless of course it was a jagged rock or a broken piece of wood/bone with a sharp edge.

Regards,
3G
Click to expand...

You're wrong amigo - have a look at artifacts from around the world - especially Pacific Rim countries that had suitable, dense hardwoods. Spears were not always tipped - many were simply sharpened by rubbing on rock until sharp and then fire straightened and hardened. Stone tended to shatter when it missed the target so not always the best option.
 
antonio_luiz said:
You're wrong amigo - have a look at artifacts from around the world - especially Pacific Rim countries that had suitable, dense hardwoods. Spears were not always tipped - many were simply sharpened by rubbing on rock until sharp and then fire straightened and hardened. Stone tended to shatter when it missed the target so not always the best option.
Click to expand...

You were saying?;)

In case you're a little slow, see my above posts.
 
I find it interesting that if you go back to when Homo Sapiens Sapiens first shows up on the time line that that is precisely when you find the first cutting tools. And if memory serves me correctly the use of cutting tools predates the use of fire by a significant length of time. The much later stone spear points (Clovis points) are generally regarded as one of the greatest breakthroughs in hunting/gathering technology during the Ice Age.

I think that very early on people found that finding a flake of stone with a thin jagged edge was a tremendous boon...but probably didn't start trying to MAKE them until a little bit after they started just simply finding them on the ground and putting them to use. So technically the first cutting tools were most likely found stone chips, and then people got the idea to try making them instead of spending all day looking for one. :)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I find it interesting that if you go back to when Homo Sapiens Sapiens first shows up on the time line that that is precisely when you find the first cutting tools. And if memory serves me correctly the use of cutting tools predates the use of fire by a significant length of time. The much later stone spear points (Clovis points) are generally regarded as one of the greatest breakthroughs in hunting/gathering technology during the Ice Age.

I think that very early on people found that finding a flake of stone with a thin jagged edge was a tremendous boon...but probably didn't start trying to MAKE them until a little bit after they started just simply finding them on the ground and putting them to use. So technically the first cutting tools were most likely found stone chips, and then people got the idea to try making them instead of spending all day looking for one. :)
Click to expand...

Good points, 42Blades! We probably did find em' before we made 'em. Just look how far we've come. From a flake of stone/piece of flint, to S90V! From a smooth stone, to a Spyderco Sharpmaker!

"First we made things sharp. Then we made sharp things." -Spyderco

Regards,
3G
 
It is a fascinating subject, how long did it take to go from utilizing flakes of flint to the realization that they can be knocked off a larger rock. At sites of large game processing many little shards of flint are found, the general thinking is they knocked them off the mother stone as needed.

The sharpening of these more time consuming Clovis points was much different than rubbing an edge on a rock, they used a pointed blunt piece of bone or antler and pressure flaked off little semi-circles of flint giving the edge a very symmetrical scalloped serrated edge. I have tried my hand at knapping flint and I have a buddy that has mastered it making the most delicate bird points out of Opal. I believe that this technology is the apex of many many years of Stone Age tool development.

If I can find that point I’ll put a picture up.
 
Thanks for creating a great thread, Hushnel!:thumbup:

Regards,
3G

P.S. I'd love to see that pic!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top