During some late night research, I came across articles on the Lithics Casting Lab Website about micro drills. Micro drills are small (no more than an inch and a half at most) flint or chert drill tips used in the production of beads. The article focuses on shell bead manufacture at Cahokia, and there are many great pictures of these drill tips in various states of use, including reproductions used in studies to determine exact use and effectiveness. One finding stated:
" Morse (1983) states that drilling experiments showed that it took about 10 minutes to drill a bead. Larry Kinsella timed the process a little above that. If it took 10 minutes to drill a bead during the Mississippian period at Cahokia the drilling process of the 60,000 beads found in Mound 72 alone would have taken 1,250 eight hour days of steady work to complete!"
I have a collection of clam shell pieces out back, and so I've decided to give this a try. I've known about this technique of drilling, and its not a new concept to me (I use flint drills to drill through bone and wood all the time), but the specific design of using a very small flint tip inside a cane shoot, is something I'd like to try. Plus, Ive been wanting to make some shell beads and now I have a sound design to try.
You can read more on Micro Drills here: http://lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2002junemicrodrillspage1.htm
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