Chapter 18 Polishing the Stone Axe
He would definitely hand over the production of the stone axe to the craftsmanship team led by Butterfly, after all, the scope of "craftsmanship" is very large.
But before that, he had to study it himself. If he didn't even understand it himself, how could he teach Butterfly and the others? Considering the current era, the importance of stone tools is beyond doubt.
It is no exaggeration to say that before they discovered copper and iron ore and acquired the technical conditions to smelt and forge them, stone tools were their most important tools.
Under this premise, the simplest and initial approach is to find a suitable stone and use it directly.
If you want to improve it, you have to add the "polishing" technique.
Polishing does not mean just grinding with a stone. The word "打" in polishing actually means hitting.
Others don’t know, but Zhou Xu did something similar in the village when he was a child.
At that time, in addition to breaking off some branches to use as swords to play with, they sometimes also liked to find some stones, smash them with a click, and then find some stones with cutting edges from the broken stones to use as weapons to play with.
The "beat" in "polishing" roughly means this.
Of course, in actual operation you cannot be as casual as you were when you were a child, you have to be more meticulous.
Take the stone axe for example. You have to find a suitable stone first, hammer out the rough outline, and then start sharpening.
At this moment, Zhou Xu, who was holding a stone and starting to hit it, felt like he was back in his childhood and was inexplicably happy.
Now that I think about it, this child's intelligence is about the same as that of primitive people.
The only difference is that children do this for fun, while primitive people do this to make tools for survival.
As Zhou Xu hammered, the sound of rocks colliding continued to echo in the camp.
The tribe members who stayed here, including Butterfly and his friends who were making bark bags at the time, couldn't help but cast curious glances in his direction.
Zhou Xu ignored them and continued to work on the things at hand.
This is undoubtedly a strenuous job, especially when there is only one meal a day.
Not to mention that the accuracy of the hammering cannot be guaranteed at all, and many times the hammering effect cannot even meet your initial expectations.
In response to this situation, Zhou Xu could only relax.
In this era, they cannot demand precision.
It was natural that he polished ten stone axes and each one looked different.
With this mentality, work went much more smoothly.
As Zhou Xu hammered and pounded the first stone axe, it inevitably took him a while.
"Well, that should be about right."
Shaking his hands that were already sore from swinging stones, Zhou Xu looked at the stone in his hand that already had some outline, and after taking a closer look, he finally started the grinding process.
The effort and time required in the grinding stage are actually more than the hammering stage.
In fact, this stone axe can be used now, but Zhou Xu still plans to sharpen it and spend enough time and energy to get a better weapon. He believes that this investment is definitely worth it.
Unconsciously, accompanied by the sound of grinding, a morning passed quietly. Looking at the stone axe in his hand that was becoming more and more impressive, Zhou Xu couldn't help but grin.
To say that this stone axe has been polished completely smooth by him is definitely not the case.
In his opinion, this was just a rough polish at best, but it was definitely enough for now.
Picking up a bark rope of suitable thickness, the next part is his strong point.
"Finish!"
Holding the first stone axe in his hand, Zhou Xu couldn't help but swing it twice. At this moment, he was smiling like a child.
When I was a child, I could be happy all day long if I picked up a branch called "Dragon Sword", but after I grew up, I never had that experience again.
From a modern perspective, this stone axe may look like a rough rag, but it was polished carefully and carefully, with his time, energy and sweat, under limited conditions! The strong sense of accomplishment generated in this process is something that no exquisite modern object can bring him.
The stone axe in his hand at this moment made him find the most primitive and pure excitement and satisfaction!
"Here, take this! Cooperate with me to test the new weapon."
He couldn't wait to call over a tribe member who was on patrol duty and threw him a wooden stick suitable for making a bone spear.
"Hold it horizontally. Yes, that's it! Get ready. Here I come."
After saying that, Zhou Xu rushed forward, swung the stone axe in his hand and chopped at the wooden stick in the opponent's hand that was maintained in a horizontal position.
Instantly, there was a crisp sound of "crack", accompanied by flying wood chips, and the wooden stick broke, leaving the tribe member holding the stick stunned on the spot.
Zhou Xu ignored him and immediately checked the blade of the stone axe, then smiled with satisfaction.
Basically, if you can do this, there will be no problem at all.
Walking to the fire, Zhou Xu drank half a bowl of water under the respectful gazes of the tribe members. Just as he was about to make another stone axe and asked two tribe members to watch and learn and began to teach them how to do it, Dashan came back with the members of the gathering team.
Unlike the hunting team, the gathering team will have accumulated enough supplies after half a day of gathering.
So they usually choose to go back to the camp first to drop off supplies, drink water and rest, and then set off again.
"Dashan, you're back just in time."
As soon as he saw Dashan coming back, Zhou Xu quickly signaled him to come over and then picked up the stone axe in his hand.
At this moment, I really felt reluctant to let it go, but in the end I still handed it over to Dashan.
"This is for you."
The moment he got the stone axe, Dashan subconsciously weighed it and his eyes suddenly lit up.
It should be his talent as a weapon master that is taking effect. Although Zhou Xu has not explained it yet, he already knows roughly what it is for.
"Thank you, Chief!"
The acquisition of new weapons undoubtedly made Dashan very excited.
At the same time, it also further enhanced their confidence in exploration.
"How's the exploration of the outer reaches of the Black Forest going?"
"I feel like we're almost there. If nothing goes wrong, we should be able to slowly explore the interior of the Black Forest tomorrow."
Zhou Xu, who learned about the exploration progress from Dashan, nodded and had an idea in his mind.
[As for tomorrow, let's move faster today and ask a few more people to start polishing at the same time. We should be able to catch up. ]
(End of this chapter)
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