Stone rods and gouges

[awassamog]

Question, do you find both gouges and stone rods, in same place? Howabout stone rods, no gouges?
I find stubs, and have always wondered thier use. What do you think?
could they be sharpening stones for gouges?

[Garguy]

I dont know what you are talking about. Got any pics?

[awassamog]

Yes I'll post a few soon...thanks

[awassamog]

I have more but these 2 stubs come from a place where gouges have been found. To the folks who have seen neither rods or gouges, an additional question...how did the the first Americans in your area make canoes?

[smbore]

if your finding them in abundance at NA sites they we're obviously used for something. i have items that i find in camps same look but have no ideas on use.

[awassamog]

I've never found a large gouge and I do find these rod pieces but not often. They're rough sedimentary rocks and could have been sanders

[Ron Kelley]

I have seen many beautiful New England gouges posted.
You might want to make a search on this site for "gouge".
Here is one Matt gave me:

[awassamog]

No doubt Ron, in Maine even more so, and thier stone rods up to a foot

[Atlantic City]

"To the folks who have seen neither rods or gouges, an additional question...how did the the first Americans in your area make canoes?"


I'd bet there were many ways of making canoes. Using fire and tools such as adzes on a fallen log could do it.

An interesting idea is that some canoes were "farmed" in a sense. By repeatedly scraping away the bark on one section of a growing tree trunk the tree would develop a deep "basal scar" as it grew. When the tree reached the desired hight (and the basal scar the desired length) the tree could be felled and the scar widened (again with fire, adze tools, etc) to form the dug-out part of the boat.

This method has advantages in that it, as the three tries to heal the would, the wood grain curves and the wood itself becomes denser making the resulting canoe both stronger and more aesthetically pleasing.

This process would obviously take a lot of forethought and the person who developed the scar may never live to paddle the boat. Many trees could be worked this way at once, thus creating a literal growing fleet.

[gregszybala]

I’m confused, is it me? These look nothing like rods or gouges particularly from the East coast.

[Garguy]

Its not just you.

[awassamog]

Two stubs are showing, the items in back are just other items same place. No gouges shown

[awassamog]

This thread is about sharpening gouges...was it done with sandstone rods?..that's it! No worries if you don't know a rod from a cigar, might be a north east canoe country thing

[gregszybala]

Yeah, okay