SPOKESHAVES
What is a Spokeshave?
The term is used generically to describe stone tools found from all time periods which have a distinctive semi-circular concave retouched notch in one edge (also known as an “encoche”). Some people call the tool form a "crescentic scraper". They are usually uniface and made from robust material that knaps to a sharp edge such as flints/cherts. Sometimes they are broad enough that they could have been held in two hands with the notch in the middle. In some cases, these tools may have multiple notches of different sizes. It’s also not unusual to find such notches on “multi-tools” which may have a blade or scraper edge and/or a perforator point as well as a notch.
What were they used for?
The term is used to describe the characteristic appearance and features of the artefact but without necessarily any certainty about the uses for it was employed. In some cases, use-wear analysis has provided insight into the likely functions which are generally accepted to be of a wood-working nature, with the tool being used in the manner of a drawknife or small transverse plane. Typical uses were probably bark-stripping, thinning and smoothing of sticks for use as shafts, poles or spindles. Generally they are referred to as arrow-shaft (or spear-shaft) smoothers but poles, spindles and other forms of smoothed wood were needed for all kinds of other purposes too. Spokeshaves would have been useful tools for the construction of bows, handles for hafted tools, drilling and spinning spindles, cradleboard frames and a host of other everyday utilitarian items.
What is a Spokeshave?
The term is used generically to describe stone tools found from all time periods which have a distinctive semi-circular concave retouched notch in one edge (also known as an “encoche”). Some people call the tool form a "crescentic scraper". They are usually uniface and made from robust material that knaps to a sharp edge such as flints/cherts. Sometimes they are broad enough that they could have been held in two hands with the notch in the middle. In some cases, these tools may have multiple notches of different sizes. It’s also not unusual to find such notches on “multi-tools” which may have a blade or scraper edge and/or a perforator point as well as a notch.
What were they used for?
The term is used to describe the characteristic appearance and features of the artefact but without necessarily any certainty about the uses for it was employed. In some cases, use-wear analysis has provided insight into the likely functions which are generally accepted to be of a wood-working nature, with the tool being used in the manner of a drawknife or small transverse plane. Typical uses were probably bark-stripping, thinning and smoothing of sticks for use as shafts, poles or spindles. Generally they are referred to as arrow-shaft (or spear-shaft) smoothers but poles, spindles and other forms of smoothed wood were needed for all kinds of other purposes too. Spokeshaves would have been useful tools for the construction of bows, handles for hafted tools, drilling and spinning spindles, cradleboard frames and a host of other everyday utilitarian items.
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