It's true, all other theories fail when the cat is around 😆

Nice 👍

I've seen one used for paper folding in book binding too.

Yep - I own one & use it in sewing & paper crafting.

Same goes for Shell carving. There was a local craftsperson who made shell jewelry who ended up with severe lung issues.

I have done this very thing when working with leather cord. It can help avoid an unwanted knot.

The thread will almost certainly fall out of the needle on the way through, but that’s OK. For more than one extra stitch (or if the material requires going pointy end first) I like to put the point of the needle through the material before rethreading if possible. If you have access to a shorter (but otherwise less ideal) needle, switching to that can also help get those last few stitches.

True, it can helps sometimes

@@ragnkjaI’m a firm believer in the poke-the-needle-in and THEN thread it with the meager end of thread technique.

@@lisascenic I’ve no idea how many times it’s saved me from having to start a new thread for just a few stitches, but it must be quite a few.

Thanks to their uses in leatherwork, there’s probably a direct line between these Neolithic bone tools and our modern “bone” folders that are usually made of plastic.

@@I_am_not_alive02 what's a Reddit and why is it cringing?

Pay no mind to the troll..

mikewood. Of course Sally doesn't "possess" Tesla!

@@kimberlypatton205 oddly enough, I am a troll, yet not trolling. I like and own orange cats, my family has owned only orange cats for 4 generations. Don't you look stupid.

@@helenhunter4540 Word phrasing is your best response. Maybe a dictionary would help you.

What a beautiful observation ❣️ I am enjoying these explorations as well and I appreciated your comment. It really brought home how not only fun & entertaining and educational but these are also relevant still today. We only need to open up our eyes and our imaginations. 💙🤗

There was no need to destroy the nest. Why would you? The nest structure will be abandoned by the autumn. Live and let live

It seems to make it stronger and more shock absorbing in my experience, but there are more scientific studies out there that look at the differences between specific mixtures

Resin is very brittle and cracks easily upon impact, under stress, or when shocked. Adding the finely crushed charcoal gives the resin impact-resistance. The beeswax does some of this as well, by giving the resin "glue" more ductility / bendability, but the charcoal adds its own properties. However, the charcoal isn't quite the same. In a way, it is much more like the rocks and gravel added to concrete. The main binder material in cement is slaked lime (high-temperature baked limestone is turned into quicklime, which has water added to it (watch out, it's highly exothermic!) turning it into slaked lime, and the slaked lime is then mixed with sand to make mortar and cement. But it's not very strong on its own. It's when you add the "rubble" of rocks and gravel and bits of broken-up pottery (for the aluminum silicate in fired pottery, which is akin to the volcanic ash used by the ancient Romans to cure their concrete much more quickly) to the cement of slaked lime and sand that concrete starts becoming very strong. (Most people don't realize that, in a high-compression concrete, the actual binding material is less than 10% of the entire mix...and in many cases only composes about 5% of the total bulk.) Charcoal also absorbs the resin/wax mixture more readily than other materials such as sand, due to its porous nature. That porosity gives it more surface area for the glue to cling to, which further increases its strength. There may also be chemical interactions going on between the materials, but I am not certain. ...On a side note, I've heard that charcoal made from hardwoods is more dense and suited better for forge fires, while charcoal made from softwoods is more porous and thus better suited for filtration (aka 'activated" charcoal)...so I'd be curious to see if there was any difference in qualities between a primitive glue made from resin, wax, and softwood charcoal, versus one made from resin, wax, and hardwood charcoal. Alas, my living situation does not permit me to make my own charcoal. never mind pitch-based glues, for experimentation...

@@ladyofthemasque great info. Like you, I can't actually do this stuff for the same reason, but I love knowing about it and your research is a very helpful asset to the information provided here.

I was wondering about the charcoal, too - thanks for all the good info!

If you’re interested in crafts that involve paper, leather or textiles, you probably have a use for such a tool.

Bit of both, I've been taking reference images at the same time as doing videos, so the scale card is in a lot of shots.

These were leftovers from a roast dinner, I agree uncooked would be better though. Glue heated over the gas burner.

Thank you Sally. Were you at Wintercount last year?

I carve bone, Tikis and pendants mostly. I find that when the bone is boiled thoroughly, it makes it stronger, and harder. You can carve it much easier when it is raw, but it doesn't allow as much detail, the raw bone tends to split and crumble away when the carving dries. I boil any bone i am going to use one time, then scrap away any of the marrow-scaffold, then I simmer it again for a couple of hours in a mixture of bleach and laundry soap. It ends up solid, hard and white, and has lost a lot of the oil.

The originals use split bones so both rough and smooth sections show

They are nice and long, I think they might become hairpins

@@SallyPointer great idea!

I think it's too widely spaced unless you were just roughly hackling a fairly large bundle of fibre. The thorn brushes from the last video worked really well on nettles though, I've used them on that a few times since making it.

@@SallyPointer oh that's very helpful, thank you!

Woolly sheep don't really develop until into the bronze age, these tools predate that. Most that have been analysed are cattle, deer or sometimes pig

​@@SallyPointer Ok, thanks. I didn't realize wool was that late to develop. If you don't mind a seperate question: What are the possibilities of it also being used as a tapestry beater for a loom?

Good question! (I take it you're referring to salicylic acid in the bark?)

@@Cellottia yes, for willow bark tea. I know you're supposed to harvest the bark when the sap is up, not in winter as you'd do for coppicing, so if you could stack utility (medicine and fiber and wattle withes) in a summer harvest, it would be a nice way to use every part.

Do nettles grow out there?

If you have a limited number of "magical" substances, you would probably test them on everything. It took thousands of years for us to to figure it out. Fascinating subject!

Raw is usually best, but this worked ok with cooked

It is spelled "tow" and "tow-headed, and yes, that is where the expression comes from. Always a pleasure to have people interested in language.😊

Not the sap exactly, its made by dry distillation of the bark

I know what Ray Mears would call birch tar; essentially what comes out of the wood when it's charcoaled. You heat the wood in a vessel with a hole in the bottom, and the tar drips through into a chamber beneath. You can do it with pines, too (pine tar is traditionally used for weatherproofing stuff).

@@SallyPointer Inner bark (the cork-like layer that can’t be removed without hurting the tree) or outer bark (what we call _never_ in Scandinavia)?

@@jake-rg3fd critically, the vessel needs to prevent air from reaching the wood/bark. Without oxygen it can't combust, and instead pyrolizes.

Why would uncooked bone be better?