known to him, and of course fire; time was, perforce, 

 of less importance. The canoe builder had to learn 

 by experience and close observation how to work the 

 material available. The wood-working tools of the 

 stone age were relatively inefficient, but with care and 

 skill could be used with remarkable precision and 

 neatness. 



Felling of trees was accomplished by use of a stone 

 axe, hatchet, or adze, combined with the use of fire. 

 The method almost universally employed by primitive 

 people was followed. The tree was first girdled by 

 striking it with the stone tool to loosen and raise the 

 wood fibers and remove the soft green bark. Above 

 this girdle the trunk was daubed all around with 

 wet earth, or preferably clay. A large, hot fire was 

 then built around the base of the tree and, after the 

 loose fibers were burned away and the wood well 

 charred, the char was removed by blows from the 

 stone tool. The process was repeated until the trunk 

 was cut through enough for the tree to fall. The 

 fallen trunk could be cut into sections by employing 

 the same methods, mud being laid on each side of 

 the "cut" to prevent the fire from spreading along 

 the trunk. Fire could also be used to cut down poles 

 and small trees, to cut them into sections, and to 

 sharpen the ends into points to form crude wedges 

 or stakes. 



Stone tools were formed by chipping flint, jasper, 

 or other forms of quartz, such as chalcedony, into 

 flakes with sharp edges. This was done by striking 

 the nodule of stone a sharp blow with another stone 

 held in the hand or mounted in a handle of hide or 

 wood to form a stone hammer. The flakes were 

 then shaped by pressing the edges with a horn point — 

 say, part of a deer antler — to force a chip from the 

 flake. The chipping tool was sometimes fitted with 

 a hide or wood handle set at right angles to the tool, 

 so that its head could be hit with a stone or horn 

 hammer. The flake being worked upon, if small, 

 was often held in the hand, which was protected from 

 the slipping of a chipping tool by a pad of rawhide. 

 Heat was not used in chipping, and some Indians 

 took care to keep the flake damp while working it, 

 occasionally burying the flake for a while in moist 

 soil. The cutting edge of a stone tool could be ground 

 by abrasion on a hard piece of granite or on sandstone, 

 but the final degree of sharpness depended upon the 

 qualities of the stone being used as a tool. Slate 

 could be used in tools in spite of its brittlcness. In 

 general, stone tools were unsuitable for chopping or 

 whittling wood. 



S+one hammer 



iJj Sfone wedge 



S+one knife wifh rawhide 

 fhong handle 



Splitting was done by starting the split at the upper, 

 or small end, of a balk of timber with a maul and a 

 stone wedge or the blade of a stone axe, hatchet, or 

 knife. The stone knives used for this work were not 

 finished tools with wood handles, but rather, as the 

 blade was often damaged in use, selected flakes fitted 

 with hide pads that served as a handle. The tool was 

 usually driven into the wood with blows from a 

 wooden club or maul, the brittle stone tool being 

 protected from damage by a pad of rawhide secured 

 to the top, or head, of the tool. Once the split was 

 started, it could be continued by driving more 

 wedges, or pointed sticks, into the split; this process 

 was continued until the whole balk was divided. 

 White cedar was split into quarters by this method and 

 then the heartwood was split away, the latter being 

 used for canoe structural members. From short balks 

 of the length of the longest rib or perhaps a little more, 

 were split battens equal in thickness to two ribs and in 

 width also equal to two, so that by splitting one batten 

 two ways four finished ribs were produced. The 

 broad faces of the ribs were as nearly parallel to the 

 bark side of the wood as possible, as the ribs would 

 bend satisfactorily toward or away from the bark side 

 only. Black spruce, however, was split in line with 

 the wood rays, from the heart outward toward the 



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