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Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

arstechnica.com

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Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#11

Post by sillysaurusx »

I’ve found myself infected with a desire to have a machine shop. I don’t exactly know what I’d use it for, but there’s something so cool about making your own stuff.

This fellow inherited his grandfather’s machine shop https://youtu.be/hearLttbrLo?si=r2CHxdepmhQ71xJq and used it to make… a pen. https://youtu.be/j27RKTHMLkA?si=f5OPN7ZJ10EBSZa4 And it’s an addiction I didn’t know I had.

The gateway drug that led to all of this was a video about a $200 CNC mill https://youtu.be/K9pjduKSsKs?si=mOJGCF9X6_s7d-J9 which led to a tour of his machine shop https://youtu.be/bHnfvtYHn7k?si=w65ZPfYm_5xpdkcD and a video about making a library. For his apartment. With a ladder that rolls along the shelves. https://youtu.be/DPRQaPVuRxU?si=uyR5xMDWgrYzHqlp

I’ve been making things for… I probably shouldn’t have calculated it, but it turns out to be 23 years now. They’ve all been digital. Somehow it never occurred to me that you can just make things yourself rather than buy it from Amazon. It sounds stupid to write it out like that, but it’s an easy thing to overlook, because you can go your whole life without thinking about it.

There’s also no limit to the stuff you can cobble together. Here’s someone whose channel averages about 30 views per video, who made a vacuum pump out of a refrigerator compressor. https://youtu.be/4Zg0EXvyD-4?si=f6oB8ScuhDd64T6n (His channel also has hundreds of videos with dozens of projects, including making his own friggin’ laser CNC machine from scratch via arduino and time. https://youtu.be/0z-zXQ2INp4?si=Y0Ao6dwr1YpQVqU7 I have no idea how no one has noticed him yet.)

All of this culminated into an intersection of everything I’ve been interested in recently: 3D resin-printed molds for plastic injection molding. https://youtu.be/wMRSPXt48CI?si=5IeQnSi89byrr0Il You can make practically anything you can think of, and they don’t feel cheap. Not to punch down on normal 3D printers; some people love them, but a larger contingent dismiss most of what they can make as cheap toys. They’re not wrong.

It’s interesting tracing a line from the Stone Age tools to these. The people back then were smart and industrious. If you gave them a lathe, I wonder what they would have made.

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#12

Post by profsummergig »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #8

Obligatory link to Primitive Technology on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@primitivetechnology9550 Although, he doesn't recreate past technology - I think he researches what technology could have existed, given the knowledge of our time. Things like his blowers, and his iron smelting processes. Of course, there's only so much you can do with rocks & sticks, so most of what he makes ends up being pretty similar to h…

This channel is so, so important, I can't say enough.

Selections of this channel's content should be included in children's school curricula.

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#13

Post by marcellus23 »

pbj1968 wrote: post #10

Would have been better had they gotten machinists or rural people that otherwise work with their hands to do this. A bunch of scientists playing make believe chopping wood and scraping bone doesn’t convince me much. We would have been just as specialized back then as we are now. And don’t we have 30,000 year old jewelry with intricate carvings? Why the amazement at “wow, this pointy stone chops wood, man?”

> We would have been just as specialized back then as we are now.

Can you please cite some evidence for this? My understanding is that specialization into trades was an outcome of the agricultural revolution, which happened quite a bit later than 30,000 BC.

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#14

Post by username135 »

pbj1968 wrote: post #10

Would have been better had they gotten machinists or rural people that otherwise work with their hands to do this. A bunch of scientists playing make believe chopping wood and scraping bone doesn’t convince me much. We would have been just as specialized back then as we are now. And don’t we have 30,000 year old jewelry with intricate carvings? Why the amazement at “wow, this pointy stone chops wood, man?”

Don't we have small populations around the globe that still do this? Wouldnt it have neen easier to observe them?

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#15

Post by [deleted] »

pbj1968 wrote: post #10

Would have been better had they gotten machinists or rural people that otherwise work with their hands to do this. A bunch of scientists playing make believe chopping wood and scraping bone doesn’t convince me much. We would have been just as specialized back then as we are now. And don’t we have 30,000 year old jewelry with intricate carvings? Why the amazement at “wow, this pointy stone chops wood, man?”

[deleted]

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#16

Post by defrost »

matt3210 wrote: post #9

Who first decided to melt the rocks and get the iron?

Somebody watching lava flows, slag, and wondering if they can recreate that heat.

Metal work also started with softer easier to melt metals from much purer near surface veins and worked outwards toward harder less pure more deeply buried metals.

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#17

Post by tooltechgeek »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #11

I’ve found myself infected with a desire to have a machine shop. I don’t exactly know what I’d use it for, but there’s something so cool about making your own stuff. This fellow inherited his grandfather’s machine shop https://youtu.be/hearLttbrLo?si=r2CHxdepmhQ71xJq and used it to make… a pen. https://youtu.be/j27RKTHMLkA?si=f5OPN7ZJ10EBSZa4 And it’s an addiction I didn’t know I had. The gateway drug that led to all…

I’m on the same boat, currently working on making my own multi tools. I reckon it can be a rabbit hole as I see all that’s involved in knife making and blacksmithing.

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#18

Post by Kerb_ »

pbj1968 wrote: post #10

Would have been better had they gotten machinists or rural people that otherwise work with their hands to do this. A bunch of scientists playing make believe chopping wood and scraping bone doesn’t convince me much. We would have been just as specialized back then as we are now. And don’t we have 30,000 year old jewelry with intricate carvings? Why the amazement at “wow, this pointy stone chops wood, man?”

Your first couple sentences really confuse me. The scientists playing make believe are playing make believe with years of knowledge and experience studying stone age tools. They are seeking to accurately make believe how the tools are made and used by investigating tools in various states of assembly and wear. Machinists would be playing make believe with a bias toward modern manufacture, materials, and design, and rural people would be playing make believe without any tool making experience because they just buy axes from the hardware store instead of knapping stone and wrapping string. Their input would absolutely be useful, especially with regards to situational use, and I think more fields need cross-participation for this reason, but these scientists aren't less qualified than anyone else for studying prehistoric tools

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#19

Post by defrost »

username135 wrote: post #14
pbj1968 wrote: post #10

Would have been better had they gotten machinists or rural people that otherwise work with their hands to do this. A bunch of scientists playing make believe chopping wood and scraping bone doesn’t convince me much. We would have been just as specialized back then as we are now. And don’t we have 30,000 year old jewelry with intricate carvings? Why the amazement at “wow, this pointy stone chops wood, man?”

Don't we have small populations around the globe that still do this? Wouldnt it have neen easier to observe them?

They're not frozen in time.

Spear fishing hunter gatherers, for example, are out there but they've moved on to using steel rebar for barb points over stingraytail barbs, wire wrap for binding over chewing just the right branch fibres, and iPhones over smoke signals.

It's similar but not the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gmCX7R-W4c

Re: Scientists built their own Stone Age tools to figure out how they were used

#20

Post by Ace_Archer »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #11

I’ve found myself infected with a desire to have a machine shop. I don’t exactly know what I’d use it for, but there’s something so cool about making your own stuff. This fellow inherited his grandfather’s machine shop https://youtu.be/hearLttbrLo?si=r2CHxdepmhQ71xJq and used it to make… a pen. https://youtu.be/j27RKTHMLkA?si=f5OPN7ZJ10EBSZa4 And it’s an addiction I didn’t know I had. The gateway drug that led to all…

I think there's really a modern disconnect for a lot of people (myself included, a lot of the time) between needing/wanting "a thing" and the idea that you don't always need to buy that thing as a product from someone else. That creating, modifying, or even repairing something yourself to serve whatever purpose is really not that far out of an idea. My partner and I have been infected by the same desire and have been starting to acquire various tools and machines over the years, and even now I find myself still defaulting to searching for something on amazon when I run into a problem/"a thing" that I want without even considering if I could DIY it myself. Obviously its not always better or even cheaper to DIY something, especially considering tool and material accessibility and cost, but I think at large a lot of folks don't even consider it an option. It is one of those things that when you first realize you don't _have_ to buy the thing off of amazon, it feels incredibly obvious and that you should've known that from the start, but I really thing it is a somewhat uncommon idea nowadays. (There's probably a conversation you could have about the millions of reasons why that's the case re: modern consumerism, less emphasis on "blue collar" skills and the general perspective that they're "lesser" skills/pathways than their "white collar" counterparts, etc. But that's a whole nother topic :) )

I do think there's some resurgence here with a lot of the modern "maker" movement, which is awesome! But at least in the content bubble I live in, it seems there's still _a bit_ of a disconnect between the newer, more digital "3D Printing, Code, Electronics etc." spaces and the more analog "Wood, Metal, Paint, Clay, etc." spaces. (I think this gap is slowly closing, though!)

Re: Injection molding, you might be interested in a few videos from Evan Monsma's youtube channel [1] where he makes an incredibly cheap injection molding machine out of a drill press[2], and explores super inexpensive mold making materials like steel epoxy putty[3] (also highly recommend checking his channel out in general, it's recently been becoming one of my favorite smaller channels!) [1] https://www.youtube.com/c/EvanMonsma [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kovD-FPOVlo [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwbxNOAg3Pc

Happy Making!

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