Time machine, tool making question

[MrDibble]

@Horatius

That’s if they’re living in tribes, and have parents to teach them how to hunt and gather. We can’t count on that.

I’ve already been taught how to gather in my locality - my city is lousy with foraging experiences. Coastal foraging courses, fynbos foraging courses, mushrooming courses - I’ve done them all. Going back in time to where the coast and land hasn’t been as denuded will only help that.

Of course, there were already people here, so they’d have to be befriended. Possibly trading pottery with them would be a good route to that.

And there’s the dangers of wild animals that would need to be accounted for, obviously. Not going to get very far with my saw if I’m bitten by a puffadder or eaten by a lion.

My list was about the steps just to produce the expected product, of course all the subsistence and survival stuff has to happen at the same time - food, shelter, clothing, safety. That should take up like 90% of anyone’s time. That’s why my timeline is 5 years - it assumes just a couple hours a day on average dedicated to work on the toolmaking project.

[CalMeacham]

@MrDibble

You joke, but two forked sticks stuck in the ground with another stick tied across the top of each fork, and a bowstring wrapped around the thing you want to turn, can be a “rudimentary lathe”.

I’ve seen a video of a guy quickly putting together a primitive working lathe in the woods, and using a bent sapling as the “spring” to make the shaft return. Amazing what bsome of those pioneed types turned out.

[MrDibble]

Pole lathes were the common form of lathe even for professionals, for a very long time. For greenwood workers (bodgers), that would mean up until the middle decades of the 20th century. For other uses, they remained in use up until the High Middle Ages (bow lathes remained the tool of choice for precision and small stuff like beads and chess pieces)

[ThisOneGuy]

@MrDibble

There’s a reason I put cordage before any toolmaking on my steps. I think people often underestimate just how important cordage was in pre-industrial societies, especially pre-metal ones. Ditto for pottery when that became available.

Absolutely. My timeline was based on the same somebody else providing me with cordage and leather. Probably the same somebodies who are doing the food and shelter.