urnesBeast Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 Apparently the heat treating part of blacksmithing goes back to before metalworking:Early Humans Shaped Stone Tools with Fire : Discovery News Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBower Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Very interesting. I wish the headline didn't say that they "shaped" stone tools with fire. What the author means is that they used fire to make stone easier to shape. Much like annealing steel, really. Modern knappers sometimes do the same thing with tougher rocks. There's an old myth that American Indians made tools by dripping water onto hot stone, causing flakes to spall off. Pure hogwash. The headline kinda plays into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don A Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Matt's right. You can go to any knap-in (like a stone-age hammer-in) and find all kinds of heat treated stone for sale and trade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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