| Ground Stone Work |
| Traditional ground stone work was accomplished by shaping with percussion, pecking into shape with a harder angular stone, smoothing with finer grained sandstones, and polishing with animal fat and sand or other grit. Hours upon hours of work went into various axes, celts, gouges, birdstones, banner stones, pipes and adze forms. I've made some reproductions the old way as described above, so I can appreciate the process. Offered here are ground stone reproductions finished with a combination of old and new processes. I take the raw stones down with a modern angle grinder tool, peck the entire surface to remove the modern tool marks, then smooth and polish the old way with grit and sand stones. In effect the moder grinder cuts the production time by more than half. The end result is the same because the pieces are finished with the traditional ways. All pieces will be permenantly signed by me. |
| Here is one of my very first ground stone attempts with the above described process. It's made from NY graywackie material and replicates a gouge I saw in an Afton, NY collection. It's perfect in every way. At 3/4 inches long, 2 inches wide, and a hair under and an inch and a half at it's thickest part. |
| GS09-01 Gouge $30.00 |
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| This is a great Adena Celt. Perfectly shaped with great color and a sharp bit. Whatever type of stone this is doesn't take a high polish, but then again, some stones did not anciently either. This would make a great addition to any case of artifacts to dress it up a bit or to a nice frame of Adena culture artifacts. Ancient celts this nice are in the $100 price range, so you can own one for a lot less and enjoy it just as much. At a hair under 4 inches long, 2 1/4 inches wide at the bit, and an inch at it's thickest part, this is a perfect celt. |
| GS09-02 Adena Celt $40.00 |
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| Last Updated 1/8/10 |