Primitive Technology
1 HN recommender · recommended in 3 months, 2019–2023
4:23 · 39M views · May 22, 2015
The Primitive Technology channel shows the making of a stone axe (celt) using only primitive tools and materials, from shaping and polishing a basalt head to making the wooden handle and hafting it.
HN people value its authenticity: no cuts, no cheating, and real tool use done entirely with materials found on site.
3 comments from Hacker News
If this fascinates you, be sure to check out this video on making a Celtic axe using low tech methods. this video This entire channel is fascinating and strives to be very “authentic” about doing everything without turning off the camera and cheating.
I haven't read Postrel, but the idea of twine being necessary to secure a stone tool to a wooden shaft seems wrong to me. Jon Plant secures a stone tool head to a shaft by building a stone axe called a "celt" with more primitive methods [0]. The friction fit he achieves is likely more robust than a twine lashing because it helps deliver a higher impulse to the work-piece than a mount made of cordage. [0]: this video
The state space here looks pretty small, it seems to me that with so much training it's just a case of brute-force search. When I think of "tool use" in regards to the intelligence of early humans, I imagine something more like [0] where the state space is enormous and it takes a good deal of reasoning and planning to get to a desired result. [0] this video