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 tools 3: Primiti...
... 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: F...
- Flint knapping: • Stone tools 5: Knappin...
- Pump drill: • Stone tools 6: Primiti...
#primitiveskills #primitivetechnology #stonetools

[@seansmart2756]

I love this channel. That turned out really well. The chopping was pretty good too wasn’t it? Nice work. Inspiring as always to get back out again! Thanks

[@michaeldriskell2038]

This video makes me appreciate all the more what an nativeAmerican went through to make the one I found in a field!! Excellent job!!

[@Roadrun98]

Glad your back

[@primitive.and.ancient]

Excellent work, great axe carving technique.

[@Monuments_to_Good_Intentions]

Nice build. I have a few axes to restore.

[@paleoindio9094]

Good job bro! Great Stone axe!

[@mr.mississippi2292]

beautiful axe

[@khangtran0822]

❤❤❤

[@fadeintoyou5341]

Really nice stuff! Worked like a charm. Looking forward for future builds. Perhaps a spear? :0)))

[@HugoBolzer]

really nice job ! How fast do you think you could make it ?
would it be possible to make a axe in a single day or even faster if you do nothing else ?

[@MakeItPrimitive]

In a place like this, with such an abundance of rocks, I'm confident I could make an axe head in a day. But I would need another day for the handle (finding a suitable branch, chopping it off and shaping the grip using the axe head as a handheld tool, and making the hole either with fire or with a stone chisel).

[@HugoBolzer]

@@MakeItPrimitive thank for the very fast answer

[@rexdoesroblox1135]

Why would I do this if I could just use a knapped blade?

[@MakeItPrimitive]

Knappable rocks are not available everywhere. And knapping an axe head isn't as easy as you might think. Plus, if you want your flint axe to last, you'll have to grind it smooth after knapping, which takes absolute AGES.
But no doubt, if you live somewhere where there's flint, and you know how to knap an axe head, then doing that will get you a useable axe quicker than pecking.

[@rexdoesroblox1135]

I do not have flint in my area. Just regular rocks.
I mostly just break a piece off and cut wood that way. It seems to work well for me, I always sharpen it when it’s dull.

[@blattspitze]

Interesting. You should try flint pecking stones, they work great and resharpen during use. Pecking with flint is what the old timers also did. Grinding is also faster without the sand, as you just spent energy and friction crushing and rolling the sand to dust. Also when pecking, it is good to put the wristwatch aside ...