Primitive Tool Box Road Map

I’ve been saving all the flakes with my knapping kit and they totally came in handy today! I was trying to make a Cedar bark basket (the kind where you fold it and sew it) and I realized I needed a drill for making the holes. So this morning I got into my knapping kit pulled out a small flake, pressure flaked it a bit to make it a better shape and then hafted it to a straight shoot from a Pacific Nine bark I gathered last year. I used some Elk sinew I’ve had lying around and wrapped it on.

This has got me thinking about several things. How many projects, like making this basket, call for having/making other tools first? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the order of tool making, and in what order does one build their primitive tool kit? Because in order to do one thing often you need another tool first. It would be cool to make a sort of timeline or “road map” of tools to start with that help you make other tools later. As well as raw materials you need to make said tools. Anyone have any insight into this?

It goes like this. You need to boil your water in order to drink it right? So first you need a container to boil the water.

Step 1. Find clay, make a pot

In order to make the clay pot into a solid container, you need to fire it. You need fire.

Before you can make fire, you need stone tools to make the fire kit. So you need at least a rudimentary stone tool kit. and (lets pretend it’s a bow-drill set) you need cordage. So you make some of that.

Step 2. Make stone tool kit

Step 3. Make cordage

Step 4. Make friction fire set

Step 5. Fire clay pot, boil water. (or perhaps make a burn bowl to boil water in?)

Etc. etc. etc.

Anyone else want to chime in?