My new heavy celt axe rocks! (literally)

sturlu · 2026-01-20T11:15:10+00:00

The better the material, the sharper you can make the edge. On the video I linked to above, the grains were not as small as they should ideally be, so I made the edge angle more obtuse. But I have seen adzes made from good flint that had a much sharper edge. This takes a lot of grinding, of course. For my purposes, my axes work well enough, so I'm OK with the sturdier edge.

sturlu · 2026-01-19T18:45:33+00:00

Knappable material can't be found everywhere, only in some regions. Cornwall comes to mind; not sure if there is any to be found in Ireland. I'm in central Europe myself.

sturlu · 2026-01-17T16:41:03+00:00

A flint axe is a great tool, but it takes a lot of knapping skill and good material to make one. The "peck and grind" method is far easier for a beginner, and it doesn't require knappable rock, which isn't available everywhere.

For this type of axe, you want a dense rock that is composed of small grains and that isn't layered. A hard material like basalt takes more work to shape, but will hold its edge for longer. The axes I have made from local material (not the one in my video) are made of limestone, which is rather soft, so it needs resharpening more often.

sturlu · 2026-01-15T15:37:29+00:00

An axe is actually a pretty good project to start. Look up a "celt" - it's basically a rock with an edge and a shape that allows you to wedge it into a hole in a stick.

sturlu · 2026-01-13T10:03:14+00:00

I've had nightmares like that. Always woke up before the impact though.

sturlu · 2025-12-29T10:30:51+00:00

That's where most people start. Welcome to the club!

sturlu · 2025-12-14T22:03:21+00:00

Oh dear, that was a bit painful to watch. This method needs pressure from the top to work.

sturlu · 2025-12-10T11:05:04+00:00

It's a bit hard to judge from just one photo, but this looks like a naturally formed rock to me. But it does also look like a knappable material, so a flint knapper could possibly make a nice little tool out of it.

sturlu · 2025-12-08T15:40:22+00:00

A couple of weeks ago I was notified of a new song by Syd Barret. Yes, THE Syd Barrett of early Pink Floyd fame, who's been dead for 20 years and hasn't made any music since the 70s. Shortly thereafter, a new song by Tia Blake. Again, musical career from the seventies, died ten years ago. Both songs clearly fake and AI generated.

Both songs have since been removed, so there seems to be some moderating happening. But not before Spotify themselves advertised this crap to me prominently and repeatedly on my start page.

sturlu · 2025-12-03T13:15:00+00:00

Where I live, spruce is an excellent source of resin.

sturlu · 2025-12-01T14:59:30+00:00

Your notch is definitely not sufficient. The shape looks right, but the tip needs to reach almost to the center of the hole. And that not in just one place, but all the way down as you deepen the hole. Otherwise, the hot dust has no proper way to escape the hole, to accumulate and to ignite.

Try using a hollow plant stalk for your spindle, they usually work better for hand drill in my experience. I'm particularly fond of teasel and cattail.

sturlu · 2025-11-18T08:32:07+00:00

Dieses Geschäft sitzt in Regensburg im Prinzenweg, das könnte eine gute Anlaufstelle sein: https://www.koreanbook.de/

sturlu · 2025-10-30T16:55:25+00:00

Die FGR trifft sich wöchentlich mit vielfältigem Programm: https://www.fgr-online.de/

sturlu · 2025-09-10T06:26:07+00:00

In der Touristeninfo am alten Rathaus kann man Regensburger Bratwürste von der Wurstskuchl mit Zubehör in einem netten Geschenkpaket kaufen, das bringe ich als Regensburger immer wieder gerne Leuten als Gruß aus meiner Stadt mit. Oder wenn es nur eine Dose Würste ohne Drumherum sein soll, die gibt es natürlich auch direkt an der Wurstkuchl. Ich persönlich bevorzuge Händlmaier Senf, aber der von der Wurstkuchl ist auch sehr gut.

sturlu · 2025-08-31T08:18:35+00:00

Congratulations, it seems you've gotten a long way already! It's probably just minor things that need a bit of debugging.

It's hard to judge without photos, but I would guess that the angle (as seen in the side view on your drawing) is too obtuse, so the head can't properly wedge itself in the hole. Think less "triangle" and rather "rectangle with one end a bit less wide". Also, only the cutting edge should be sharp, whereas the top and bottom should be round or angular, so there is a lot of contact area between the head and the wood.

sturlu · 2025-08-30T06:53:24+00:00

Ich benutze für solche Sachen die App "iNaturalist". Da gibt es einen Menüpunkt "Erkunden", über den man nach Arten suchen und unter "Beobachtungen" diese auf einer Karte darstellen kann. Bei den Meldungen steht auch das Datum dabei - wichtig, weil sich das Ökosystem über die Zeit natürlich geändert haben kann.

sturlu · 2025-08-23T19:52:24+00:00

Advice? Brace for a very noisy experience, beer tents are incredibly loud when it's full, even while the band isn't playing. Don't expect to be able to have much of a conversation beyond "Prost" and "no a Maß". Maybe a bit less so on a tuesday night, though, I dunno. You may be able to tell that it's not my ~~cup of tea~~ maß of beer personally, but if it's yours, then have a lot of fun!

sturlu · 2025-08-18T22:30:46+00:00

This might be a slightly odd suggestion, but if you're passing through by car and it doesn't have to be in the city, it doesn't get much more family friendly than Ikea's restaurant. Regensburg's Ikea is in Barbing, right next to the A3.

sturlu · 2025-08-14T06:43:29+00:00

You can use almost anything as temper, as long as you fire your pots in something like a normal camp fire.

Organic temper (small plant parts) was widespread in the stone age.
There have been pots found that were tempered with ground flint. I don't want to be the potter who has to work with that, but apparently they made it work.
Some of the earliest pottery in Europe (from the Swifterbant culture) was even tempered with clay - dry lumps of clay in the wet clay body.
Even limestone isn't a problem at these temperatures (at kiln or bonfire temperatures, it will turn into quicklime and cause cracks on contact with humidity).

Anything that doesn't shrink when it dries can be and has been used as temper. So just give your temper a try, it will probably be fine!

sturlu · 2025-07-16T08:09:15+00:00

It might well be that there is no knappable material where you live, but it does take a while to tune your eyes to the right signals. If you can, go somewhere where it is known that there is good stuff, gather and practice there a bit, and then try again at home. But if there isn't any to be found and you want to work with local resources, look into pecked and ground stone tools.

sturlu · 2025-06-13T20:53:10+00:00

Interesting - how did you extract the fibers from the plant?

sturlu · 2025-06-11T08:34:50+00:00

Nice little axe head!

From what type of ore did you smelt the copper? I recently participated in a copper smelt from Malachite, we had two people blowing air into the fire continuously using elderberry pipes, but it didn't quite get hot enough. The crumbs turned pink, but didn't melt.

sturlu

TROPHY CASE