Primitive Tools in the Windward Islands

The Windward Islands of the southern Caribbean have a lengthy history with primitive peoples. Moving out of the South American continent, they settled their way across the islands in a series of migrations. Much has been written already on these peoples and their interactions, but little appears to b be available on their ways of life, skills, and tools. It is well known that the Arawak were sophisticated craftsmen who produced high quality pottery, but as of yet I have seen little of their lithics. This leads me to wonder what the natives of these islands were using to cut, scrape, gouge, saw, and drill.
I have spent much of my time in the islands seeking out museums with the answers, as well as looking to the environment itself for those answers.


You can see that with relatively little difficulty, one could put together a very useful toolkit. This kit is entirely made of local materials and using basic primitive skills. With this kit you can produce fire, butcher game, hunt, carve, produce stone drills, and produce a number of other tools.


The stone found here comes in varying degrees, which is very useful to primitive people or the survivalist. All of the stones I found are razor sharp, but are obviously more suited for certain tasks. The caramel coloured stone is probably the sharpest, but would not stand up to working wood. The grey stone is far more robust and could easily carve wood. Much of the islands here are volcanic, though obsidian is rare, if not non-existent.


Fiber is readily available from the palm trees. Both the trunk of the palm and the husk have very strong fibers. It can be somewhat wirey which makes me uncertain of whether it would work for fishing line. It would be suitable for all other tasks and I am certain it was a staple for primitive peoples in the islands.

As for fire I have had good success, even with wood simply collected from the beach. The set picture has been used several times and produces coals quickly and consistently.

Carriacou Island

We arrived in Carriacou yesterday. It's a relatively small island compared to Grenada, but was apparently heavily settled by the Arawak and later Carib natives. In one guide book I read that there are places on this island where ancient pottery literally covers the ground, and "tumbles over the cliffs into the sea". The museum in Hillsborough has a decent collection of artifacts from these groups, which gave me a pretty good idea of what resources they were using, and how they made their tools.
Local stone appears to be Quartz, Jasper, and a dense stone called Ironstone. They make celts here out of Ironstone as well as Conch Shells. The Conch shell (called Lambi here) celts look identical to their stone counterparts
Cordage has been very difficult to find in these islands, and after asking at the museum it seems that the Arawak used a native cotton and some other plant which the museum interpreter didn't have a name for. It almost sounded like she was describing yucca or agave, which they have both of here. I'm just not sure if its native or an introduced species.
Turtles are protected here, but they were once a staple of the island cultures. In the museum they had a number of pottery artifacts with turtle effigies on them, as well as turtle bone pendants.
I am yet to see any stone projectile points, and the only artifacts that show any working are actually shell that have been knapped into serated blades.
I made my first bowdrill fire in the islands 2 days ago on Isle De Rhonde. It's a very scrubby island with a few palm trees, the rest of the vegetation being cactus, a variety of toxic tree related to poison ivy, and some kind of very spikey acacia.
Elliot and I picked up Machettes, which they call Cutlasses, in St. George so we can cut up coconuts, and explore some of the denser parts of the islands here. As we enter the Pacific, uninhabited islands will become more plentiful and the chance to make overnight survival camps on them will be more frequent.

Beginners Guide to Wilderness Survival and Primitive Skills Part 1

The realm of the skills used by our ancestors, and survival in general can, to some, seem like a daunting and overwhelming place, fraught with hardship and discouraging moments which all too often lead to a "this just isn't my thing" mentality. On a regular basis when I mention the skills i practice and teach, I am greeted with the all too familiar retort: "I would die if i got lost in the woods."
This mental barrier of doubt gets in the way of learning new skills, the though that because it implies leaving your TV behind and cooking on a fire, it is somehow a difficult and painful way to get by, or live. The purpose of this, and others that will follow it are to give some guidelines and direction to those who are interested, but have no idea where to start when it comes to learning these skills.

First of all, locate a teacher or mentor if possible. When I began, I managed to get by for a short while by teaching myself to sew leather, knap small arrowheads, and generally spend lots of time in the woods making various odds and ends, but when it came to the desire to learn the hard skills like fire making, shelter building, finding water, or more advanced knapping skills, I realized I would need a teacher (or teachers) if I wanted to progress to a proficient level. My answer was MAPS Group at the time, where I attended many gatherings and learned many of the skills I know today. Other teachers seemed to find me, my friend Bill Ewing happened to have extensive bow drill knowledge, and had a very natural way of teaching me which woods to use and how to adjust the set to make it work.
Look up nearby tracking groups, anthropology departments at some universities teach knapping, or atleast have someone on staff who knows something of knapping. If you are on the east coast in the Mid Atlantic Area, there are several schools you can take classes from such as Ancestral Knowledge and Earth Connection. MAPS Group also has a list of people who can offer advice on certain skills.

Which skills should I learn first?
Good question. Perhaps a good way to decide is to put it into perspective. Eventualy you will hear of the Order of Survival. No, its not some mysterious cult dating back to a group of 15th century survival monks, the Order of Survival is the 4 things you need to live on a day to day basis, and in the long term, which are:

Shelter
Water
Fire
Food

This order is not set in stone however, since your situation will dictate which is more important, but this is more or less the order of importance of these 4 things.
That being said, I personally consider fire making one of the first things you should learn and become proficient with. It can be learned any where you are, there are a number of ways to go about it, and it covers a lot of your physical and mental needs. Being able to make fire can dramaticly increase your chances, so it is always a good thing to have a number of ways to do it on hand (and have some level of mastery of those ways).
I'm a big proponent of controlled chaos, putting yourself into less than desirable situation in order to take your skills (and your edge) to new levels. Its important to always push your limits, do not simply make a fire with a bow drill then put it away and decide you have mastered it, because you haven't (can you ever truly master anything?). Start adding in new factors, new obstacles, new challenges. Try it in the rain, in the snow, in a hail storm, break your arm and fine a way to make it work then. Well.. don't actually break your arm obviously, you can just tie it behind your back or something, but you get my point!
I'd like to share a story I often share with my students when teaching fire making.
Last Febuary on a particularly cold day, I was in the hilly woodlands of central Maryland. I was showing my girlfriend (at the time) around a patch of woods I had been going to for a number of years. THis particular patch of woods was a steep sided valley with a fairly deep, and at times wide creek running through it. It was cold enough that ice covered large patches. So, being the manly survival so-called "expert" that I was thinking I was, I decided it was a very good idea to show her how to cross ice without falling through. We found a patch of ice in a rather deep section of the creek and I laid down on my stomach and army crawled across the ice. No problem. Not so much as a crack. Once reaching the other side I coaxed ehr into doing the same, so she got on her stomach and started to crawl across the ice. About halfway across, she pushed down onto the ice to inch her way forward (instead of inch-worming your way across with arms out-stretched) and cracks immediately shot in every direction. Luckily she stopped moving and I was able to grab her hand and pull her across without the ice stressing any more.
We proceed down stream until we reached a series of rapids with deep pools, and we came upon a bridge crossing the creek from one side to the other, with open holes on either side. Once again my "man vs wild" mentality took over and I proceeded onto the ice bridge to show her how it could hold my weight, which it did, up until I started hitting the side of it with my boot. I remember looking back to her to say "wow it isn't breaking" or something to that effect, and that's when I heard a definite crack. I remember looking down in time to see the ice disappear beneath me and water come up to meet me. First thing I noticed was how fast the current was, it literally grabbed hold of my legs and tried to force me under a nearby sheet of ice. Another thing is that everything they say about trying to get out once you've fallen through ice is true. It's wet, cold, slippery, and tiring. I did manage to pull myself out however, at which point my clothes were completely soaked.
I don't remember feeling especialy cold, but I do remember rapidly decideing whether I was going to walk out of the woods, or stay put and make a fire. I settled on fire making, it was about 30 atleast in a snow filled valley.
The only fire making device I had on me was a bow drill, and a ball of tinder which had both gone into the creek with me when I fell through, so I immediatly handed it all to my girlfriend (who had done bow drill once or twice prior). After about a minute trying it became clear that she had not practiced since the last time she made a fire, and was not going to get a coal in time, so I had to take over and managed to get the fastest coal I think I've ever made (amazing what a little motivation can do). Within about 5 minutes of going into the water I had a fire going and my clothes drying by it. At first I felt slightly embarrassed, I had put myself in a position to get seriously hurt or killed, but I saw a different side of it. Using the skills I had practiced so much up until then, I had used them to better my situation, and perhaps save my life.
From that experience, I have come to appreciate the value of scenarios. Putting yourself in situations that are uncomfortable or perhaps risky to push your edge and test yourself. Making a fire in your backyard on a nice day is vastly different from making it in heavy rain t 40 degrees in a t-shirt and a pair of Carhartts. So I encourage you, challenge yourself, be uncomfortable, learn to adapt.

Friction Fire Class- August 2nd, 2008

If you are in the area of Oregon Ridge Nature Center, you may be interested in a Fire Making Class I am teaching there . It will be from 9-5 on Saturday August 2nd, 2008. Registration is handled through Oregon Ridge Nature Center. Cost for the class is $80.00 per person and the minimum age requirement is 18 years of age. If you're interested in more classes such as this, or this class in particular, you can find more information at www.earth-connection.com or Oregon Ridge Nature Center

Ancestral Knowledge and Living Earth School

Lately I have begun my work with Ancestral Knowledge Inc., based out of Mt Rainier, Maryland. We work mostly with providing summer camps and workshops for home schooled kids, at risk youth, as well as schools and boy scout troops to teach ancient life ways, wilderness awareness, and sustainable living skills. Above all, we like to get the kids out in the woods and streams, learning by doing, and experiencing nature the way their ancestors have for eons. We operate mostly in the Mid-Atlantic area.

I also work for Living Earth School based out of Charlottesville, Virginia. Living Earth runs weeklong overnight and day camps.

Ancestral Knowledge Inc.:
http://www.ancestralknowledge.org

Living Earth School:
http://www.circleofseeds.com/LES.html

Here are some pictures from past events and Camps:

Demonstrating the bow drill with an over-sized set.

Making cordage

Oneof my favorite parts of spending time in the woods is discovering new and interesting places. This is an old Limestone Quarry, potentially over 100 deep.

Eastern Box Turtle

This is a print I am trying to identify. I could only find one. 5 toes, no claws visible. Don't tell me what it is if you know, simply give me a hint in the comment section or email it to me.

Day in the woods

I filled up my gourd canteen and took it with me into the woods today. I've found it doesn't change the taste of the water and works quite well, though it still needs a stopper.
I've decided this summer is the time to make a good hunting bow. I've learned alot about what to do with an animal once you've taken it, and I hope to begin hunting my own animals. Up until now I have been relying on others to provide me with meat, hides, bones, sinew, etc.
There is a hickory tree I have been aware of for a number of years and it appears to be the perfect size for a bow. I want to get to know it before I cut it, so I'll visit it for a while until I feel its the right time to cut. For something like a bow, where so much goes into the making of the tools and hunting of the animals, I feel like this should be done right, and not rushed.

A Box Elder (Ash leaf Maple) fell near my old debris hut, which I am very grateful for since it it one of my favorite friction fire woods around here. I try not to ever cut live branches, and to come across an entire tree like this is an appreciated gift. Some of the upper branches are very straight so I've made a hand drill set. I tested it out but produced only white wood dust. I'll make a video so I can explain it easier. This is the first time I've made a handrill set with a wood other than yucca, cotton wood root or mullein.

Sit-spot and getting to know your enviroment

Something that I'm beginning to learn is that it is a good thing to know these skills, but they can seem arbitrary and disconnected when not applied. Especially so because the materials use to make many of the things I talk about on my blog rely heavily on what your particular environment provides, and so an understanding and knowledge of your environment is desirable if you want these skills to be more than just a passing hobby or interest. When it comes to making bow drill sets, for example, you will want to know what trees in your area work best. You'll also want to know where they grow, how they grow, what animals rely on them, etc. The point I'm trying to make is all these skills and technologies stem from a deep understanding of the natural world that surrounds you.

The best way I have found to increase your awareness and knowledge of an area is Sit-Spot. This technique is done by simply finding somewhere within 5 minutes (preferably) of where you live. The reason for 5 minutes is that you should be able to go there easily so you can visit it daily.
Now if you want to implement this technique and benefit from it, it should be a daily, or at the very least a routine task, and you will want to do this at varying times of day and weather.

Now onto what sit-spot is. You find a place that is close by, and you sit. Thats right, sounds simple, but you'd be surprised how difficult it can be to just sit and take in your surroundings sometimes. You should strive for atleast a 20 minutes minimum at your sit spot, because it generally takes about 20 minutes from bird alarm calls to stop. You will also want to use wide angle vision at this time, if you are familiar with wide angle vision.
To supplement your sit-spot experience it might also be advantageous to keep a journal and write down things you see or notice. When I do sit spot one of the first things I do is take note of the surrounding trees and plants, and try to get to know them and what they are over time. Sit-spot isn't something you rush, and it is an ongoing thing. The longer you do it, the more you begin to know and understand your area.

Aboriginal Teachings

I was at a church meeting with Ashley's family last night, and there was a 3 month old there crying. I had learnt a technique from Prof. Gary Kerr at University of Montana that is used by aboriginal men in Australia. It's essentially whistling and humming simultaneously. It's also only done by men, and is very difficult for women to do. The idea is that the sound sooths children, and stops them from crying, and in some cases puts them to sleep. I tried it and was met with success. It seems to me that it works best when the cause of the crying is from general distress or discomfort, as opposed to crying for food.

Oetzi's Knife sheath

Last night I stripped some basswood (American Linden) fibers from some basswood branches I scavenged, and made a replica of Oetzi's lime bast knife sheath. Its holding up well, and looks nice. I simply made a ring of basswood, then looped vertical strips on the ring, then twined it together and tied off the end. Fairly simple and easy to make.

Processing fiber

My friends and I processed dogbane tonight, as well as elk and deer sinew.
I now have 3 bundles of sinew and 2 baskets of dogbane, so I should be set for fiber for awhile.

I quite like processing fibers with friends, its a nice community activity.

Antelope and Elk hides

We (Jared and I) worked on finishing the antelope hide and wrung out one of our elk hides. Jared blogged on it so you can find some great pictures and details here.

Elk Ear Pouch

I sewed up the tear in the elk ear. I had to do it carefully and precisely, so I used a very small splinter of chert and a little stick to poke through the ear and push the buckskin through with the stick. Its very thin, so you have to be careful not to tear it. Its works and holds together though. I left the buckskin long so it can be wrapped and tied to hold the pouch closed.


I tried skinning a Mule Deer ear tonight, however the inside part of the ear stuck firmly to the cartilage and it tore easily. I also noticed the hair to be very different from the elk, far longer and thicker. The inside of the deer ear was almost bare.

Elk in Montana

I was invited to Jared's fathers house to help butcher an elk that was shot on the plateau near his house. The area is an amazing play, and I'm told the plateau is a viciously cold place, which makes it all the more interesting. We made a nice handdrill fire (yucca on cottonwood root) and slept by it. It turned out to be very nice night, considering it had been 18 degrees the morning before.
Anyway, the elk was a beautiful cow. It was an all day job, but very interesting. I'd never done any butchering, or skinned something that large. I used a chert blade of course to do all the cutting. We got the hide, many bones, tendons, leg skins, and even made a pouch from the ear (inspired from Torgus' blog post here). We also got some meat of course.

We had a couple of dogs who did their best to take advantage of my generosity with the scraps. Elk meat is very good, so I can't blame them.

Some of the things we wanted were cannon bones, scapulas, ribs (good for bow drill bows and scrapeing tools) as well as an ulna bone. I'll post pictures of that particular bone when we start to work on it. Also the leg skins were saved (much to the dismay of the dogs who happen to like to eat that part). The ear pouch idea was very interesting, so I'll focus on that.

I started by cutting the ear from the head. I didnt cut all the way to the base, though I wish I did. I didnt use any tools, except my fingernails to seperate the skin from the cartilage. The trick, I found, was to use your fingernail to pick at the skin until it seperates. Its very thin on the inside of the ear, so I took my time and tried not to rush, but I accidently tore it slightly (nothing major, I'll sew it up later). I found the edges of the ear to be a bit tricky, but not impossible. One thing I found was that skinning an ear isnt difficult, just requires patience.

Once I got to the end, its a bit tricky to remove the cartilage, but you just pull it away from the skin. I was worried I'd tear open the bottom of the pouch, but it turned out alright.

Finally, you have your ear pouch. You can see the tear, which luckily doesn't go too far down. I left it inside out to dry, and worked it with my hands until it was no long stiff. I suppose you could brain it, but I'm not sure it would actualy penetrate the hide, because there seemed to be some membrane that would be hard to remove without tearing the ear. I agree with Torgus that this is a resource that has been overlooked, and I plan to make many of these pouches (a few friends have already asked for one). I like that I can get more than just a brain from the deer heads we pick up from the butchers.

Hunting the Antelope

This post it long overdue, but thats ok. A few weeks ago I was invited by my friend Jared to go hunting with his father and friends. We set out on Friday, left a little later then we would have liked but it was a good drive anyway. Montana looks amazing this time of year with the few deciduous trees standing out against the pines on the mountains.

We arrived after dark at the camp. We exchanged greetings with Jared's father and friends and then turned in (I think it about about 10:00 by that point, or slightly later). I made a willow deer effigy before going to bed, hoping it might help with the hunt the following morning.
We woke around 5, before dawn. When we had arrived the evening before it was hard to see the surrounding area, but now with the sun coming up, we could see that we were surrounded by dense willow and open plains with mountains in the distance. It's quite an amazing place. I haven't spent much time out on the plains before, or in this section of the Rockies. It's quite a place.

The ranch we would first hunt on was several miles down the road, so we drove to the ranch just as the sun was beginning to warm the earth. Its easy for your eyes to deceive you in this terrain, to call it expansive would be an understatement. Antelope are a light tan with white, and blend in very well with the surrounding grass. They also have excellent eyesight and stand in the open, which means they see you long before you see them. In almost every instance of seeing one, it was either a mile or more off running in the opposite direction, or looking directly at us. They are truly amazing animals.
I didn't get any pictures while hunting, because I left my camera at camp, and I don't photograph animals that have been recently killed (personal thing). I really wish I had brought the camera to try to capture the terrain.
Back to your eyes deceiving you in this land, while on a hill we tried to estimate how far the next hill over was. I guessed 200 yards. Other guesses were 375 yards. When we used the range-finder, we found it to be 600 yards from us at the base of the hill. Its so difficult to accurately judge terrain and distance, your eyes and brain arn't used to seeing that kind of distance.
We were able to get one young female and a buck. Jared and I helped skin and process them and in exchange got some meat, hides, and head of one.

Jared and I cook wild meat over coals often, so we put some antelope meat and ribs on. The ribs were a bit scarce in terms of meat, but the meat chunks we put on were good. We also put some onions and potato's on too.
We were able to brain the female antelope hide that night after fleshing and graining. Antelope hair pulls right out after it dies, so no soaking or bucking was needed. The hide softened nicely, but we're going to re-brain it to make it as soft as we can.
Here is our fleshing/graining set up.

The following morning we tried using atlatl darts without fletching. We had seen aboriginal people in Australia, as well as numerous anthropology textbooks demonstrating the atlatl being used without fletching. Our conclusion is that if you don't use fletching, there must be some kind of traditional techniques used to make it work, because our darts didn't fly straight.

The dart is lashed with sinew, dogbane cordage, and buckskin. It's tipped with an obsidian point, the shaft and atlatl is of willow.

There is a lot of game in the area. I heard beaver slapping their tails on the water in the nearby stream, an owl flew over me while collecting wood, you can hunt and trap various waterfowl, rabbits, beaver, elk, whitetail deer, mule deer, antelope, and many other species. Its quite an amazing place.

Before we left Jared took some pictures of me. I brought all my primitive tools, and used stone for cutting and helping with the butchering. I also worn my buckskin shirt, wore my Hudson Bay capote, and slept with my Hudson Bay blanket and elk hide. I enjoyed having these things with me and using them for what they are meant to be used for.


The blue coloured pouch hanging from my satchel is a beadworked pouch. It's a design of my own creation, done in lazy-stitch.

I have many more pictures of brain tanning, so I'll put them up in another post. I have an elk hide which I'll be working to completion which will hopefully be soon.

Old pictures

Still haven't bee able to upload my pictures yet, but I did come across an old album of mine that has some pictures from way back before I knew much at all (i.e. debris hut, tracking, etc.) Theres also some old MAPS Meet 2005 pictures in there among others.

This is me circa senior year of high school. I can remember walking down the road dressed like this to get to some woods that are pretty far from my house. Alot of strange looks. Anyway I have a whitetail deer hide cape with rabbit pelts lashed to my arms and hide wrapped around my legs to keep the snow out with buckskin moccasins. I have an Osage Orange sapling bow with arrow wood arrows (stone tipped), as well as my satchel and quiver behind me under the hide. Even though I have a shirt on I was quite warm and comfortable.

This is a debris hut I made also during my senior year. It's mostly pine boughs from discarded Christmas trees and branches from the surrounding area. Key things that are wrong with this shelter (yes, I froze in this shelter), too many open areas to let heat escape, too big, no leaves. If I had made it smaller and used more leaves, I would have been warmer I'm sure. I did have a small fire in there, but it was placed off to the side and provided little to no heat.

Fast forward to this past winter break. This is me approaching a debris hut made by my brother and I the previous summer. I had been told they had severe flooding in the area while I was away, but surprisingly it was relatively intact and required only minimal repair to be usable. It showed no sign of other human habitation, everything was as we had left it 5 months or so earlier. This means to me that the area is relatively safe from most flooding in the area, and not many people go here. The cool thing about this shelter is that one side of it is a large boulder. I plan to rebuild it, possibly take advantage of the boulder to use it as a heat reflector (possible lean-to style shelter?)

Close view of the shelter showing the framework, severe lack of leaves and me removing various gear. Theres also an Ironwood sapling in the foreground, theres quite a few of them around.

This is from the very first summer camp I taught. It was one I ran where I taught my mums friends children. Pretty basic stuff, some primitive bows, tracking, moving through the woods, making things out of tulip poplar, etc. Just a cool picture from the past.

Skills in Montana

I'm in Missoula now, so I've been doing skills out here.
I don't have any pictures right now (two reasons, 1. I don't have my connection cable and 2 haven't really taken any.)

I'll summarize a few things I've done so far:

-Taught a few friends how to skin and elk leg and remove the sinew, as well as tan the hide from the leg.
-Knapped a few arrow points and spear points
-Taught some friends how to make willow baskets
-Taught several people I didn't know how to make willow deer effigy's
-Explored the Blackfoot river, found some interesting knappable stone
-Stalked a doe and two fawns on campus for a couple of nights

Update:
This picture shows the bone and sinew from the elk leg, raisins made from grapes found locally, a squirrel pelt from a dead squirrel on campus, obsidian projectile points, and a deer hide tanned early in the season.

Stone tools

Today the at the river I hafted the stone blade I made earlier. It looks quite nice, feels secure and sturdy, and can be stored in the handle when not in use. I happened upon this design on accident. I had read in the Society of Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills, an article on making a primitive switch blade knife by George Stewart. This design seems to work rather well, since it means I can turn the blade around and insert it into the handle and put it in my pocket, or in my satchel and not worry about the blade getting blunt or breaking. Its possible that you could even drop it and it would be supported enough from snapping. I haven’t tested this so don’t go around making nice stone knives and dropping them on rocks to find out.

This is what the knife looks like when storied in the handle. The blade is about 3 inchs long, the handle is 3 in. x 1 in., and about 5 inches total. It also has a nice feel to it so its easy to use. I've used a number of stone tools for cutting notches, processing antlers, etc. So I'll go over the various types I regularly use.

The first type is the most basic of blades, the flake (Far left). Its easy to make and its disposable. They’re usually the by-product of knapping larger bifaces. I've used them for cutting notches in hearth boards and butchering game, as well as carving and cutting buckskin. It’s a very versatile tools and rather economic, because if you do any knapping, you’re bound to have tons of these little guys laying around. I carry a few around in a little deer legskin pouch.
The second type are blades removed carefully from a core. The blades I’ve produced tend to be long, very sharp, and could double as very lethal dart points. I generally keep them for butchering game though, since they are razor sharp.

There is a video on YouTube that shows these types of blades being removed from a core (http://youtube.com/watch?v=RBNAUfR-uaw). I've tried this, but havnt gotten the hang of it yet.

The next blade type are unhafted, knapped, leaf shaped blades. I use mine like a saw to very quickly cut notches in my heath boards. I haven’t used it for much else. Its bulky and rather heavy-duty, so its ideal for sawing through wood and tougher materials.
The final type is the Basketmaker II Sand Dune Cave Knife, as learnt from David Holladay's article "A Basketmaker II Knife System". I've seen people in Montana use similar ones, probably learnt from the same article of David Holladay himself. I used Texas Chert, yucca stem for the handle, dogbane string, and pine pitch to haft it. It worked very nicely, it can be looped over my wrist so its always at hand, and the blade can easily be replaced if it breaks or wears down, since it is made from a relatively small flake. However, I would prefer my new "switch blade" knife because it has a long edge and can cut notches better (notice a trend in cutting notches yet?).