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Hands-On Archaeology: How to Make a Discoidal Cutting Tool

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Allen Denoyer, Preservation Archaeologist and Ancient Technologies Expert
Allen Denoyer - blog

(July 3, 2020)—This project involved flintknapping, whittling, and drilling.

I started with a roughly circular piece of rhyolite I’d gathered in Mule Creek, New Mexico. I flaked it into a biface, then thinned it so that it would be easier to drill (here’s a video showing how to flake and thin bifaces).

Original piece of rhyolite
Original piece of rhyolite

After about 30 minutes, I had thinned the biface from 18 mm thick to 7 mm.

Rhyolite after thinning.
Rhyolite after thinning.

Drilling was the most difficult part of the project. I used stone drills hafted with pitch. I wore out 30 drill bits! And it took 6 hours to complete the perforation. I had to don gloves after about an hour—my poor hands! I did spread the process out over three days, though.

Drilling
Drilling
At the beginning.
At the beginning.
Finished.
Finished.

Next, I cut out the forked handle.

Cutting the handle.
Cutting the handle.
Sawing with stone knife.
Sawing with stone knife.

Next, I carved a small stick to fit through the hole I’d drilled. I made sure the stick was long enough to go through the forked part of the handle. I drilled holes through the forked tines to run the dowel through. Getting it all to fit properly was a little tricky. This part of the project took about 45 minutes.

Carving the stick
Carving the stick
Drilling the holes.
Drilling the holes.
Fitting the dowel.
Fitting the dowel.

I pushed the dowel through the disc and into the other side of the forked handle. I cut two thin leather strips and ran a bead of adhesive down one side. I wrapped these on either side of the disc to serve as washers.

Adding the disc.
Adding the disc.
Cutting the leather strips.
Cutting the leather strips.
Adding the leather washers
Adding the leather washers

I used a bit of adhesive to hold the dowel into the handle, as well. Now the cutter was ready to go!

Finished cutting tool.
Finished cutting tool.

My son found the perfect thing to test our cutting tool on…

Son finding something in the road

Roadkill pizza

Removing critter

Looking at the pizza

Using the stone pizza cutter

Enjoying the pizza

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