A 10-inch-long handaxe from 300,000 years ago was found at an Ice Age site, revealing early human mastery over materials and tool-making. The discovery raises questions about knowledge transfer and social interactions among early humans, and highlights their resourcefulness in adapting to harsh conditions. This handaxe is a tangible link to our ancient ancestors' resilience and creativity.

#prehistoric #toolmaking #humanancestors

https://www.anthropology.net/p/discovery-of-a-300000-year-old-giant?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=HariTulsidas%2Fmagazine%2FMind+and+Matter#:~:text=Discover%20more%20from%20Anthropolog

Progovac, L. (2021). Was Syntax Borrowed from Toolmaking? Biolinguistics, 15, 23–33. https://doi.org/10.5964/bioling.9183 #OpenAccess #OA #Article #English #Language #Cognition #Syntax #Toolmaking #Linguistics @linguistics

Made a quick marking gauge. Let's call it a prototype :)

It's surprisingly difficult making a precise square hole by hand.

The tip is one of the drill bit stubs I broke off the other day, ground to a sharp point. Never throw away good steel! It's stuck in tight enough not to move but can be pulled out with pliers for sharpening.

The locking bolt could do with a better handle, which I can weld on.

It works fine for now, but is a bit coarse.

#CoarseCarpentry #ToolMaking #DIY #Woodworking

Learning day, I guess. Was going to make some dovetail joints for that drawer but got distracted with making and breaking tools instead.

Made a marking knife from a scrap blade. Wanted to add a handle, but broke two drill bits because this scrap was super hard (good for knives, bad for drilling into). The knife, sans handle works well though. Maybe I'll just wrap it or something.

#DIY #Tool #ToolMaking #Woodworking #Carpentry #Joinery

More #ToolMaking, here a spokeshave.

He documents the process really well and with basic tools, plus a simple way of hardening the blade and troubleshooting the spokeshave until it works nicely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZwzBbcwbgU

Giving me ideas 😸

#Woodworking #DIY #Tools

https://phys.org/news/2023-07-early-humans-weapon-woodwork-experts.html

Early humans were weapon woodwork experts, study finds

#archeology #homosapiens #hunting #toolmaking

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-invisible-technology-prehistoric-philippines.html

The invisible plant technology of the prehistoric Philippines

#archeology #neolithic #toolmaking

I wrote up the process I used to make a bedan (a #woodturning tool) for a buddy last year. https://write.as/davepolaschek/bedan-for-a-buddy #tools #toolmaking

My manual winch has 200 feet of loose cable...do I really need to hand winch it back?

No!

Introducing the take-up-slack-o-matic!

(Hmmmm, need to fabricate the tension-o-matic now....)

#ToolMaking
#DIY

Needed to add support for ultra-widescreens for my #Bubblemania mini project (see previous toots). Luckily, there's not much else required here than adjusting the camera's viewing angle (FOV) for different aspect ratios, a great use case for https://thi.ng/ramp, which provides linear & hermite "keyframe"-based curve interpolations. Keyframes don't need to be time based, e.g. here I'm using aspect ratios (from 3:1 portrait to 4:1 landscape) as key frames to compute the desired FOV... easy, peasy! :)

#ThingUmbrella #GenerativeDesign #ToolMaking

I have decided to start blogging a bit more about some of the other things I get up to. I have diverse interests, but maybe some of this could be of interest to a subset of music fans who share some of them…? Let me know what you think, and what sorts of topics you’re interested in. (Besides making music, I’m a modular synthesizer maker, a jeweller, a visual artist, and lots more!)

https://bit.ly/3RXlVYj

#VintageSinger #Sewing #restoration #repair #ToolMaking #MetalWork

Ancient stone tools found in Kenya made by early humans

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64595418

#stoneage #toolmaking #Paranthropus #kenya #africa #oldowan

While in the shop, I also assembled the saw I’ve been refurbishing. I think it came out ok for something that was essentially thrown in with a miter box I bought. #woodworking #toolmaking

Got the first coat of oil on the handle before breaking for lunch. It’s looking kinda pretty. #woodworking #toolmaking

Out in the shop this morning, drilled the holes in my saw tote. 7/32 from one side (then chiseled to ¼ inch square holes) for the medallion and flat screws, and 9/32 inch from the other side for the split nuts. Of course I got my sides confused, so now the medallion will be on the right instead of the left. Crap. It’s always something. #woodworking #toolmaking

Finished with the “2D” shaping yesterday, plus started defining the lamb’s tongue. This morning was almost exclusively east work, rounding corners and refining transitions. #woodworking #toolmaking

Started making a new tote for a saw of mine yesterday, but it went /poorly/ so I started again this morning, and apparently the lessons I learned yesterday stuck with me long enough that I didn’t make the same mistakes again. #woodworking #toolmaking

This morning, after our volunteering at the local food pantry, I transferred my writeup of my Dovetail Saw Restoration, which included a new handle. It's possible to find decent saws for cheap on eBay, but it helps if the saw looks horrible in the photos there. This one actually was worse than it looked. https://write.as/davepolaschek/dovetail-saw-handle #woodworking #handtools #toolmaking

I migrated another batch of my “Handy Tools” series over this evening. These were all built or acquired in the process of making a dovetailed octagonal box I built for a swap that happened in March of 2018.

https://write.as/davepolaschek/handy-tools-mirror-for-cutting-dovetails
https://write.as/davepolaschek/handy-tools-scratch-stock
https://write.as/davepolaschek/handy-tools-45-degree-jig
https://write.as/davepolaschek/handy-tools-octagonal-guillotine

#woodworking #toolmaking

@wion If you get stuck, I might have an idea or two. The groover looks an awful lot like one of my failed attempts at making a screwdriver. I’m also hoping to get my heat-treat operation up and running this winter so I can easily anneal and re-harden tool steel. :-/ #toolmaking