What it took me a long time to learn

[jackknife]

IIRC you told a story of watching a Park Ranger skin a roadkill deer with a small two inch flake of rock he'd knapped off something and had no trouble with the job at all.
Whats that saying, its not the size, its what you can do with it that counts ?

Well, what my old man always said about his Case peanut was, 'It doesn't have to be big, just sharp."

That park ranger was a huge turning point in my knife theory, a true light bulb moment. When I saw how easy he was slicing through that haunch of venison with a little flake of obsidian, I re-set my thinking on knives. Then I saw my old friend and co-worker Andy do that opening day deer with a Buck 303 cadet.

I went small and never looked back. One great thing about the little cutters is, you can carry more of them!

 

[Hairy Clipper]

I had a chat with a surgeon many years ago that gave me a little insight as to why that little flake of obsidian was so effective. I have never looked it up and I assume he was being truthful ... and I know what assume means. I was told that when you knap that obsidian you make an edge down to the molecular level of the material and it is why it used to be what surgical blades were made from. Ok, I just looked it up and you might find this interesting.>>>> https://bulletin.facs.org/2018/02/the-history-of-the-scalpel-from-flint-to-zirconium-coated-steel/

 

[Getahl]

I had a chat with a surgeon many years ago that gave me a little insight as to why that little flake of obsidian was so effective. I have never looked it up and I assume he was being truthful ... and I know what assume means. I was told that when you knap that obsidian you make an edge down to the molecular level of the material and it is why it used to be what surgical blades were made from. Ok, I just looked it up and you might find this interesting.>>>> https://bulletin.facs.org/2018/02/the-history-of-the-scalpel-from-flint-to-zirconium-coated-steel/

There's a really cool comparison pic on Wikipedia, of a comparison between the edges of an obsidian scalpel and a steel one, under a super high powered magnascope. Might be molecular level, I don't know. The obsidian is smooth, while the steel is jagged. The obsidian one supposedly makes cuts that heal quicker, on account of how smoothly they slice the skin, but aren't approved for use in human surgery. It was a neat article.

 

[jackknife]

Sooooo, to put it in a nutshell, Otzi's flint knife was buried in a glacier for 5,000 years, and is still sharp????

Ha, lets see the wonder steel of the month do that!!!

 

[Wild Willie]

Folks do tend to overlook the fact that mankind got by with stone tools for 10's of thousands of years. Steel is a recent development in the grand scheme of things.

 

[CSG]

The main issue with stone tools is keeping an edge under demanding tasks.

 

[jackknife]

Folks do tend to overlook the fact that mankind got by with stone tools for 10's of thousands of years. Steel is a recent development in the grand scheme of things.

As late as just over 200 years ago, Lewis and Clark set off to explore the western territory that Jefferson had got with the Louisiana purchase. They made contact with native Americans that has never seen a white man. Those Indians used flint tipped spears to kill a bison and then used flint knives to process it.

They did just fine with no steel.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

There's a really cool comparison pic on Wikipedia, of a comparison between the edges of an obsidian scalpel and a steel one, under a super high powered magnascope. Might be molecular level, I don't know. The obsidian is smooth, while the steel is jagged. The obsidian one supposedly makes cuts that heal quicker, on account of how smoothly they slice the skin, but aren't approved for use in human surgery. It was a neat article.

For some reason I am not finding the Wiki page you mention, if you have a link I sure would appreciate it.

jackknife: That old guy from the glacier was an amazing find!

 

[Getahl]

For some reason I am not finding the Wiki page you mention, if you have a link I sure would appreciate it.

My mind must be going, because you're right. Having issues with Photobucket, but you can find it by plugging Obsidian vs steel scalpel into Google. It's really neat looking.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

My mind must be going, because you're right. Having issues with Photobucket, but you can find it by plugging Obsidian vs steel scalpel into Google. It's really neat looking.

I use the Brave Browser most of the time and it gives different responses to search words than other browsers, but, it also has a built-in ad blocker which speeds up page loading. I just switched to Google and it popped right up. Thanks for mentioning Google and the search terms you used, it made the difference.

Some years (25-30) ago my brother Bob and I went to a nearby gun show and there was a fellow there that had a couple of obsidian knives that he had made that had deer antler handles. We had separated and after he purchased one Bob came over to show me his new knife and I was so impressed with it Bob took me over the makers table quickly and I purchased the other knife before it got sold to someone else. I still have it ... somewhere ... if I could only remember where I put it. Anyway, when Bob showed me his knife he gave me fair warning and told me it was very sharp ... then he showed me he had cut his finder with. I had two red bandanas with me and I gave him one to wrap around the blade and I did the same to prevent more bloody clumsiness.

 

[James Y]

IIRC you told a story of watching a Park Ranger skin a roadkill deer with a small two inch flake of rock he'd knapped off something and had no trouble with the job at all.
Whats that saying, its not the size, its what you can do with it that counts ?

It wasn’t so many decades ago that a pocketknife with a 3” blade would have been considered large. My late dad had always carried some kind of small-to-medium-sized jackknife, usually Camillus-branded ones. I doubt he looked for the brand; he probably just got what was at the store. I’m certain he would have stayed with small knives, if not for his fingers, thick from a lifetime of labor, losing more and more dexterity from Parkinson’s. I think the last work knife he bought was a Buck 110. I found the heavily-used 110 after he passed, in its sheath. It was an older version, not as thick or as rounded in the handle as more recent ones. It would have been much easier for him to operate than trying to use a nail nick to open a small blade.

Jim