Stone Age Survival Tools (Arrowheads, Spears, Hand Ax)

Survival in the wilderness is making do with what you have around you. I have no desire to be stranded in woods for a weekend or to spend two weeks in a survivalist camp or to be stranded upon a deserted island. Yet I could foresee a situation whereby I would have to resort to making stone age tools to survive. Roughing it like our Stone Age ancestors is no picnic. To paraphrase the comedian Gallagher, for me, roughing it means Black & White TV.

Still, I could see myself stranded overnight, alone in the rural country, 50 or more miles from the nearest town with no prospect of being found for a day or two. While I can do without microwave frozen food, cell phone, internet access and television, I would intend to be warm, to be protected from the weather and to have some sort of defensive protection from the animals, and of course, to eat.

History of Stone Age Peoples: Immediate Needs Are the Same

The last item on my list of must-haves, to eat, is probably the easiest but requires the most time to achieve just by virtue of the fact that one needs to do this several times per day. Knowing what wild foods are edible and how to build a fire without matches is most helpful. Some edible plants require a bit of work to acquire, digging up the deep tap root of an edible weed might take an hour or more of intense labor unless you know how to fashion an impromptu tool. Some edible plants like wild leeks however can be dug-up almost entirely by hand in some locations. The point is to not burn-up more calories than the wild foods you scrounge can provide. If you have a tool or can make a tool, do so, and use it.

Stone Age Tools Made for Necessity

Just like how the Stone Age Neanderthal tribes figured out how to create simple stone tools, knowing how to fashion a stone into even the most modest of a hand-ax could come in very handy to digging-up edible roots in a survival situation. This tool also would be useful in busting apart rotted tree stumps in search of grubs, termite or ant eggs and other edible insects. Here is a method to quickly build a impromptu stone ax, and a smaller and more portable stone knife.

With some refinement an even more complicated spear point or arrowhead can be created, a spearhead which could be attached to the end of a long straight stick.

Find a Large Rock with Flat Perpendicular Edges

Almost any rock would do. I like large rocks such as ones on the edges of streams. Porous rocks with cavities, fossil-laden and rocks that have many cracks likely won't produce the most useful creations. Choose the solid type without visible flaws. I prefer source rocks that are heavy enough to remain in place and you can pound-away at the edges with grapefruit-sized rock without greatly risking injury to your fingers, hands or other bodily parts. Injuring yourself in the creation of a tool is counterproductive to your survival needs.

Using a large hammering rock, and strike the upper leading edge of the source rock. Selectively striking the edge causes flakes and slabs of rock to shear off. Many of these will be unusable but there will be some that are promising. Various sizes can dictate what their intended purpose is for.

Here, a large slab came off and it could be used just the way it is, as a hand ax. Suitable for digging and uprooting plant roots or chopping vines to create a tangle-net upon which limbs, branches, tree bark and mosses could be laid to form a sheltered roof. This tool is a bit too heavy to carry around and its best function is as a very short-term, possible single-use tool. The blade is simple and it will dull fairly quickly with use but it still can save you hours of digging for subsistence roots using just your bare hands or even using a stick.

In order to break-off such a large chunk or slab of rock, a fairly sizable 'hammer-rock' would be necessary. Something that you can lift over your head and hammer or launch with great force down upon the source rock will get the job done. Be mindful of flying shards that will likely break away and potentially strike you in the legs, arms or face. Again, self-injury in the attempt to create a useful tool is completely unhelpful and will negatively affect your ability to fend for yourself.

It will take several tries to get the result you want, but when it happens, it usually only takes one good strike. You'll know it when it happens. Making this stone ax took about three tries and the third strike caused it to break free. Unmodified, this post-modern stone-age hand axe is basically ready to use as-is.

One could make a handle for this and lash it together to form a hoe or more familiar short hand-axe, but we're not planning on staying lost for long. Rescue is coming. Hold to that belief. In the meantime you need to survive.

Smaller flakes that come off of the source rock (such as the single flake shown in the two images below) make a nice-sized portable stone knife. This smaller tool is more suited to delicate work such as opening-up and cutting-apart animal flesh.

This is fairly sharp and reasonably effective. Its smaller size is advantageous to carry if you must travel out of your location through zones that have no source rocks. You may find yourself in a place where there are no suitable rocks later on, such as a deep forest or grassland, so make some tools now.

Make more than one or two to carry. Losing or breaking the edge off one won't be a complete loss. The expected breakage and dulling from use won't matter much if you have more than one spare stone knife in your pocket. You will always have at least one more ready when you really need it.

Stone Age Knives Made to Order

Stone Age Knife or Axe: Knapping into a Spearhead or Arrowhead

You could even refine this Stone Age knife by reductive 'pressure flaking' the edges. Using another stone with a pointed tip, hold the stone knife flake in your hand and press the pointy tip of the second rock against the edge first one, pressing hard enough causes flakes and chips to break-away. Using this method, you can craft your own spearhead which could be attached to a long stick or branch. Tied in place with a bootlace, you just made a simple spear. Flint-knapping entrails exactly this; pressure flaking and calculated repeated strikes stone against stone until it shatters in a desired way.

(left: ) Four spearheads that I created a few years ago, using several combined techniques including methods described here. It is unlikely that you will be throwing a harpooning spear at a bison or deer but In a survival situation, encountering a slow-moving mammal on the ground such as an opossum or porcupine (or venomous snake) would make this tool on the end of a long stick most useful. -Anything to stop the meat from running away before you cook it.

The delicate stone knife created above would come in handy for field-dressing the animal after it has been killed. If you're hungry enough and committed enough to getting though this ordeal, you can do it with some degree of dignity. The hardest part is keeping your wits about you and making the necessary preparations on-the-fly to survive under more primitive conditions.

(all images and items depicted created by author)