Nephrite Celt

[Ron Kelley]

This Nephrite Jade is from Washington State. The celt measures 5 X 2 3/8 X 3/8 inch. One of my favorite ancient artifacts is made from this material (biconically drilled beads also from Washington.) Nephrite is a soft stone and this is why I believe this item was for show rather than actual use. To give you an idea of hardness compared to other soft stones here is where they land on the Mohs scale: Soapstone 2.5 to 5, Bowenite 5 to 5.5, and Nephrite 6 to 6.5.

[willjo]

Nice.

[redrocks]

You make that Ron?

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Red, I have about 30 pounds of these rocks. This takes a lot longer than knapping a point.

[redrocks]

Wow. You know your skills are leaning toward jewelry making....the pendants you could make with that stuff....

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Red, I think i will make a pendant. Do some sketch on it and use a stone drill.

[clovisoid]

Great looking piece. Old or new?

Hardness and toughness are different terms.

As we know hardness on the Mohs scale is more about what can scratch a material, and what that material can scratch.

Toughness is what matters on ground stone tools. There are hard materials that are brittle. You can’t scratch them but they shatter if you bump them.

You could likely whack that with a hammer and not break it. The structure of nephrite makes it a very tough stone.

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Joshua, I made this today.

[clovisoid]

Ron, really good workmanship. I like the bevel, you look to have a nice curve there vs the steep, hard angle that a lot of modern jade adzes have.

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Joshua, This took about two hours and i didn't polish it as much as I should. Can you imagine the time that went into sawing one of these in ancient times? The theory is they used cordage and sand.

[OnewiththewilD]

That’s beautiful man! Great job! I agree it being soft like that the originals weren’t used to do heavy duty work probably, so yes maybe ceremonial or possibly only used to chop softer substances and not wood or bone? And even then being such a fancy material only being used for specific functions?

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Jay, They had to saw the material and they didn't have a slab saw. They could pick up a good hardstone that was already close to celt shape and grind it into a much more useful celt. I have to believe it was ceremonial.

[Jethro355]

Absolutely beautiful!!