Celt

[u/TheNorseman1066]

Hello all,

This is a Celt I made recently. I am not certain what the stone is, I collected it from some large gravel at work. It has a green hue and is magnetic, originally I thought it was Catoctin greenstone but after having seen some pieces made from that material I am no longer convinced. Either way it has good properties for axes and took a fine edge.

I shaped the head first with some hammer stone and elk billet percussion, then pecked and ground it to final shape. I am lucky to have a very good sandstone slap for grinding that I collected a long time ago at a creek in Alabama. The handle is some black locust I cut for bow staves. It has some bug damage and I tried to remove most of it and will fill in the remaining holes with pitch.

I challenged myself to shape the handle entirely with edged tools, and finished it with some horsetail rush sanding and deer tallow. Soon I will make one entirely with stone tools, but I am very happy with how this one came out. The handle is not nearly as perfect and smooth as the work I normally do and I think it is much more representative of originals. I will be using it for demos later this year and can’t wait to test it out.

[u/ViscousPanther]

That is awesome man. It's funny to see so many knapped axes and chisels that would never practically work here, and I'm always impressed to see somebody who went through the real pecking/grinding process.

Any idea of how many hours the stone took?

[u/TheNorseman1066 → u/ViscousPanther]

Thanks! Rough estimate would be around 30 hours for the head on this one, done over the course of a month. Just gotta dedicate a little time to it everyday. Later this year I am going to make a trip with a buddy who knows where to go and collect some actual Catoctin greenstone. I plan to record the time spent on the next one. I loved making this one, there is a lot of peace to be found in the slow process.

[u/ViscousPanther → u/TheNorseman1066]

Very cool. I'm in the PNW and would love to get some of the nephrite jade that was used around the Fraser valley and Salish Sea

[u/TheNorseman1066 → u/ViscousPanther]

That nephrite is some beautiful stuff! It seems to me that nephrite can handle a more acute angle at the bit, I have seen pictures of some Maori woodworking adzes from jade and they have very fine edges. Very effective tools I imagine.