Bone knives

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Phoynix

Joined
Dec 21, 2013
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Never really considered bone knives, came across this video on youtube, guy tests out a bone knife he made on deer meat.
Not knowing anything about bone knives I was surprised, figured others may like a gander.
[video=youtube;HDFuvVNK8OU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDFuvVNK8OU[/video]
 
Cool experiment! I did note that he constructed the tools to resemble modern tools, both hafted with modern type handles and shapes. Many archaic knives were "finger" or "palm" knives with no handle at all. But they worked quite well. In fact, it is my understanding that many knives were not finely worked at all but were what we would call "field expedient", made or used as found and tossed. As to his smooth edged bone knife, it would cut even better with some serrations like a steak knife. That is the effect that pressure flaking has on stone, a series of sharp edges that can be resharpened with more flaking.

Thanks for posting this!
 
I knew bone made good puncture tools.. hooks, arrows and awls, but I didnt know it could hold a good edge, turns out tempering bone in a fire along the edge can allow it to get shaving sharp.
It cant hold its edge like glass or steel, but its more then enough to properly butcher animals.
Having never considered bone for a good cutting tool figured others may be in the same boat... searching the forums showed very little on bone knives so decided I would post for some others to see just how effective a bone edge can be.
As you stated the knife in the demo is modern... actually making a blade like that in a survival situation would be next to impossible, using a heavy rock or stick to shatter a animals leg bone and picking out shards roughly sharp and fixing them up a bit is likely how it was commonly made.
 
You happen to have rekindled my interest. It has been quite some years since I have done this, but I will see what I can do with a deer bone in a week or so. There should be some usable pieces remaining from last fall's butchering where I dump the skeletons in the woods behind my house. Fileing and shaping on soft rock, tempering and final edging. We'll see what I come up with. FYI deer leg bones have a natural pommel attached. Come to think of it, my firebow is a bison ribbone. I'll try to take pictures of that as well if there is interest...
 
I'm impressed! I wonder where I can get a piece of bone long enough to make a knife....
 
Petco or any place that sells dog bones. Or the woods behind my house if you want to use a deer femur instead of cow or pig.
 
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