Chapter 18 Polishing the Stone Ax
The production of the stone ax will definitely be handed over to the crafts team headed by Butterfly. After all, the scope of 'handcraft' is very large.
But before that, he had to study it himself. If he didn't understand it himself, how could he teach the butterflies?
Considering the current background of the times, there is no doubt about the importance of stone tools.
It is no exaggeration to say that before they discovered copper-iron ore and obtained the technical conditions to smelt and forge it, stone tools were their most important tools.
Under this premise, the simplest and earliest approach is to find a suitable stone and use it directly.
And if you want to improve, you have to add the ‘polishing’ technique.
Polishing does not mean that you just take a stone and grind it there. The word "beat" in polishing actually means to beat.
Others don’t know, but Zhou Xu did similar things in the village when he was a child.
At that time, in addition to breaking off some branches to use as swords for play, they sometimes also liked to find some stones, click them, smash them, and then find some from the smashed stones. A stone with some edge in shape, played as a weapon.
The ‘beat’ in polishing roughly means this.
Of course, in actual operation, you must not be as casual as you were when you were a child, you have to be more meticulous.
Take the stone ax as an example. You need to find a suitable stone first, knock out the rough outline, and then start sharpening it.
At this moment, Zhou Xu, who was holding a stone and starting to beat it, felt a bit like returning to his childhood, and he felt a little happy inexplicably.
Now that I think about it, this child’s wisdom is almost the same as that of primitive people.
It's just that children do it for fun, while primitive people do it to make tools for survival.
With Zhou Xu’s tapping movements, the sound of rocks colliding continued to echo in the camp.
Including Butterfly and the others who were making bark bags at the time, the tribe members who stayed here couldn't help but cast curious glances at him.
In this regard, Zhou Xu ignored them and continued to be busy with the things in front of him.
This is undoubtedly a strenuous job, especially when there is only one meal a day.
Not to mention that the accuracy of this tapping cannot be guaranteed at all. In many cases, the tapping effect cannot meet your initial expectations.
In view of this situation, Zhou Xu could only let himself relax.
In this era, they have no way to set requirements for accuracy.
He polished ten stone axes and it was natural that each one looked different.
With this mentality, work went much smoother.
The first stone ax was struck by Zhou Xu here and there, so it was inevitable that he would have to grind it for a while.
"Well, it should be almost done."
Shaking his hand that was already sore from shaking the stone, Zhou Xu looked at the stone in his hand that already had some outlines. After looking at it for a while, we finally entered the grinding process.
The effort and time required in the grinding stage is actually more than that in the beating stage.
In fact, this stone ax can be used now, but Zhou Xu still plans to polish it and spend enough time and energy in exchange for a more useful weapon. He believes in this investment , definitely worth it.
Unknowingly, with the sound of grinding, a morning passed quietly. Looking at the more and more beautiful stone ax in his hand, Zhou Xu couldn't help but grinned.
To say that the stone ax has been polished completely smooth by him, it is certainly not true.
In his own opinion, his work was rough polishing at best, but it was definitely enough for now.
Pick up a bark rope of suitable thickness. The next piece is his strength. "Done!"
Holding the first stone ax in his hand, Zhou Xu couldn't help but wave it twice. At this moment, he was smiling like a child.
When I was a child, as long as I picked up a branch called the 'Dragon Sword', I would be happy all day long, but when I grew up, I never had it again.
From a modern perspective, this stone ax may look like a rough piece of junk, but in this limited environment, he poured his time, energy and sweat into it. It was polished carefully and step by step!
The strong sense of accomplishment generated in this process is something that no exquisite modern object can bring to him.
The stone ax in his hand allowed him to find the most primitive and pure excitement and satisfaction at this moment!
"Here, take this! Cooperate with me to test the new weapon."
I couldn't wait to call a tribe member who was responsible for patrolling, and handed over a wooden stick suitable for making a bone spear. Throw it to him.
"Hold it sideways, yes, that's it! Get ready, I'm coming."
After saying that, Zhou Xu rushed forward, picked up the stone ax in his hand, and struck at the opponent. The wooden stick in the hand maintains the horizontal position.
In an instant, there was only a crisp sound of 'clicking', and accompanied by flying wood chips, the wooden stick broke at the sound, leaving the tribe member in charge of holding the wooden stick stunned on the spot.
Zhou Xu ignored him and immediately checked the edge of the stone ax, then smiled with satisfaction.
Basically, if you can do this, it will be no problem at all.
Walking to the fire, under the admiring eyes of the tribe members, Zhou Xu drank up half the bowl of water. Just as he was about to make another stone axe, he asked two tribe members to watch and learn. When they started to teach them how to do it, Dashan came back with the members of the collection team.
Unlike the hunting team, the gathering team will accumulate a sufficient amount of supplies after half a day of collecting.
So they usually choose to go back to the camp to drop off supplies, drink water and rest before setting off.
"Da Shan, you came back just in time."
As soon as he saw Dashan coming back, Zhou Xu quickly signaled him to come over, and then picked up the stone ax in his hand.
At this moment, I really felt a little reluctant to let go, but in the end I gave it to Dashan.
“This is for you.”
The moment he took the stone ax into his hands, Dashan’s eyes suddenly lit up as he subconsciously weighed it.
His talent as a weapon master should be at work. Although Zhou Xu hadn't explained it yet, he already had a rough idea of what it was doing.
“Thank you, leader!”
The acquisition of new weapons undoubtedly made Dashan very excited.
At the same time, it also further enhanced their confidence in exploration.
“How are you exploring the outer reaches of the Black Forest?”
"It feels like it's almost done. If nothing else happens, we should be able to slowly start exploring the inside of the black forest tomorrow."
Zhou Xu, who learned about the progress of the exploration from Dashan, nodded and had something in his mind. number.
[For tomorrow, work faster today, ask a few more people to start polishing at the same time, and you should be able to catch up. 】
(End of this chapter)