One week vacation build: Making a stone axe at the beach

As the year before, I spent a week at the Danish coast in 2021 and used some of this vacation time to work on primitive projects. The first one is this stone axe, made from a rock found at the beach and shaped into a stone axe head by pecking and grinding.

0:29 finding the perfect stone
1:18 creating the rough shape by "pecking"
2:18 grinding
2:50 more pecking and grinding
4:11 making the axe handle
5:57 testing the stone axe

I have made stone axes before:
   • Stone tools 2: Hafted stone celt axe / hat...  
   • Stone tools 3: Primitive stone axe progres...  
... but these were made from soft limestone, since I usually only work with materials found where I live, and it's pretty much all limestone around here.

But for my vacation projects, I get to work with the materials found there. And the Danish beaches offer a huge variety of rock types, shapes and sizes, thanks to scandinavian glaciers pushing them all the way south during the ice age. So I decided to make a durable axe head from one of these.

The wood selection, however, wasn't nearly as great. A branch recently fallen off a plum tree was the best I could find at the location. Possibly due to the method of "burning a hole into the handle" (instead of using a stone chisel), it developed quite substantial drying cracks. Nevertheless, it seems to work really well so far.

For those interested, here are my vacation projects from last year:
Firing pottery:    • Primitive pottery 3: Firing pottery in a c...  
Flint knapping:    • Stone tools 5: Knapping hand axes and othe...  
Pump drill:    • Stone tools 6: Primitive cord drill / pump...  

#primitiveskills #primitivetechnology #stonetools