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Primitive Technology: Stone Axe (celt)

Primitive Technology · 38.6M views · 2015-05-22 · 4:23

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

HN people value its authenticity: no cuts, no cheating, and real tool use done entirely with materials found on site.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2019–2023

Topics

Home, DIY & practical skillsWoodworking, metalworking & workshop skills
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stone axehaftingbushcraftstone toolsmaking

What people said

Waterluvian · 2022-12 · Strong recommendation

If this fascinates you, be sure to check out this video on making a Celtic axe using low tech methods. [VIDEO] This entire channel is fascinating and strives to be very “authentic” about doing everything without turning off the camera and cheating.

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elevation · 2023-04 · Reference

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]: [VIDEO]

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dooglius · 2019-09 · Reference

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] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Primitive Technology, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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