If you’ve ever tightened a screw with a butterknife or a dime, you realize that tool-finding is a very natural trait we humans have. In a survival situation, had you no knife, you’d go looking for what could be used to accomplish various tasks, and you wouldn’t worry too much about how these tools looked as long as they worked.

On day 1 of a survival camp, you may need to– • chop some branches to size for a shelter, or at least whack off side branches of a ridgepole, • scrape out charcoal as you burn a water container, • split a piece of dry cottonwood to make a bow drill fireboard and handhold, • abrade points on the bow drill spindle and abrade a notch in the fireboard, • hand-drill a starting hole in the fireboard, • scrape some yucca preparing it for cordage, • cut some tule reed or willow to make a collecting basket, and • cut and notch a bunch of trap sticks.

Later, you’d need to chop and abrade a point to a digging stick; scrape the bark off of green wood for tool handles; shape a stave into a primitive bow; scrape an arrow shaft to size, abrade a tip, create a nock and trim some feathers; skin an animal and slice its hide...well I could go on and on.

All of these tasks can be accomplished with simple tools, primarily of stone. One of our first priorities is to let go of the expectation that we may have to make finely created stone implements like those that modern primitive technologists create, and think far more simply. One reason is that it takes considerable skill, developed over time, to be able to knap a fine flint or obsidian knife blade. More to the point, we are limited by the quality of material that’s usually available.

Rob Remedi, my co-instructor for the Stone Tool Kit class we taught in March 2012, and I can attest to this truth, because both of us explored many southern California locales from coast to mountains to desert, banging rocks against one another trying to find good raw materials for this class, with marginal results. There were ample hammerstones and abraders, but few rocks that would flake to create sharp and durable edges either for knife blades or choppers. Yes, such stones exist, and indigenous people here found them at specific quarries, but if you’re not near one of those places you’ll probably have to adapt to different materials.

In the photo here, the crude chopper “A” was made by hitting a cobble with another rock, to split it. Though the resulting edge is not particularly sharp or acute, it worked fine to chop green wood to size and taper it. The other stones on that row include a hammerstone “B” (to knock a flake off of another rock) and two standstone pieces “C” and “D” that worked well to abrade a stick to a point, such as for a bow drill spindle. The rock “H” has one sharp edge and served to scrape bark off of green wood, to split a wood handle such as the elderberry stick “E” (by using it as a wedge and striking it with a stick) and to chisel wood away so as to make a wedge “F.” The wedge-shaped rock “G” was found “as is,” and abrades a perfect notch in a fireboard. Item “I” is a small drill that was knapped from a flake and can be used to make a hole in a piece of wood. “J” is an obsidian flake whose un-processed edge is sharp enough to cut leather or hide. The stone hammer “K” was made by pecking a grove–a project taking several hours–and hafting it to a willow branch with rawhide.

A simple stone knife can be made by percussing a flake off of a rock and using it as is, or else mounting it onto a handle. Without having really good raw material and the advanced skills to shape it, such a flake, struck from a larger stone, will likely be uneven, often with a sharp edge on one side and a bit of a bulge on the other. Mounting this blade is nevertheless easy, especially using a handle of elderberry or a similar pithy wood. The handle is first split in half using a stone wedge, as shown is photo 1. Then, the pith can be scraped out and the handle scraped as necessary so that the stone blade’s bulge fits snugly inside the hollow inside of the handle (photo 2). The result is a side-mounted knife as “E” above, or a top-mounted knife.

EARTH SKILLS NEWS www.earthskills.com © Jim Lowery

1113 Cougar Ct., Frazier Park, CA 93225 • 661-245-0318 • jim@earthskills.com

April 2012

THE LEARNING CIRCLE: NOTES, THOUGHTS & PROJECTS

I. Primitive Stone Tool Kit

A B C D

E F

G H

I

J

K

1113 Cougar Ct., Frazier Park, CA 93225 • 661-245-0318 • jim@earthskills.com

Both ocelot and jaguar have been sighted within the past year in southern Arizona, a jaguar on November 19, 2011 and an ocelot on April 16, 2011, both in Cochise Co. The jaguarundi has been the subject of some unverified sightings. The first two species are listed as endangered within the United States.

To further our tracking knowledge about felids, Earth Skills will hold a two-day felid tracking workshop May 5-6, 2012. We will spend part of Saturday at Working Wildlife in Lockwood Valley, where we will study gaits and movement of a captive-born cougar as we study its tracks. Then, at the Feline Conservation Center in Rosamond, CA, we will study and record tracks of captive ocelot and jaguarundi as we learn about these cats’ behavior and biology. On Sunday, we’ll spend the day surveying habitat in nearby scrubland and forest, recording and mapping bobcat movement and behavior.

Adjacent are previously recorded photos of ocelot and jaguarundi tracks from the Feline Con-servation Center. Photos by Nancy Vandermay.

II. Uncommon Felid Tracks–I

1. Splitting a handle 2. Mounting the blade

Above: Jaguarundi tracks next to standard sized plastic card. Right: a jaguarundi pair.

Track of a captive ocelot.

1113 Cougar Ct., Frazier Park, CA 93225 • 661-245-0318 • jim@earthskills.com

In September 2010 Mary and I were going for a run in a forested area in southern California, when we came across tracks of a bobcat female with her kitten. Between the mother’s tracks was a drag mark, probably of a rabbit she was taking into the brush to eat; the visible trail was at least fifty yards long. By the time I returned to photograph the trail, the sun was setting but I was able to study the tracks for a short time.

The photo shows that the female’s tracks (larger red arrows) are not only straddled much more widely than in a normal walk, but also both the front and hind tracks are pitched outwardly. The gait is an overstep or pace walk and the stride, about 8 1/8 inches, registers about 31% shorter than an average walking stride for that size track. The two outside toes of each front foot show considerable grip-ping, while the hind tracks show a roll to the inside with each step. Meanwhile, the kitten’s tracks at left (blue arrows) show a longer stride than expected for its foot size, irregularity in foot placement as well as more scuffing and motion than in the mother bobcat’s tracks—suggesting that the kitten is working to keep up with its mother.

III. A Bobcat Prey Drag