Lets make a Hoko Knife
By Dude Mclean photos by Alan Halcon
Sure you can flake off a piece of rock to create a crude knife, a discoidal blade. You can skin a critter, cut a notch in your fireboard. You can cut up meat and plant fiber, gripping the discoidal knife. But after you have used one of these discoidal blades for a while your hand can cramp, your fingers get sore from scraping over whatever surface you may be cutting. It works but with a little help the knife can be so that it is easier to handle.
2700 years ago, on the Hoko River, in the state of Washington, a thriving village, full of industrious native people, was suddenly wiped out by a massive landslide. The focus of our interest, amid all the artefacts, was a knife of stunning beauty in its simplicity. Hafted in a split cedar handle was a delicate small stone flake. It was very sharp. A spruce root tied it together.
If you don't have a cedar or spruce handy you can substitute many kinds of wood. Willow is found almost everywhere and is easy to work. Any wood, where you can control the split, will work well.
The Hoko Knife can be crafted in many sizes. But as a tool for fine work it shines. Plus it has an advantage over the discoidal blade, of good old fashion leverage. After all that's what all handles do… it's their job.
The Hoko Knives, that have been found, had super tiny blade/flakes with a length of the wood handles at about of 5 inches. The blades were the size of a quarter or your thumbnail. They appear to be just the right size for skinning small critters or gutting fish, cutting small pieces of meat. My experience with the Hoko style is you work it with a slicing and a sawing motion. What these simple knives were really used for we may never know. But logic and common sense have not changed over these past thousands of years. By replicating these ancient tools we rediscover, hopefully, their original use even though we may not realize it.
How to make the Hoko Knife
For our Hoko knife we are going to stay close to the original size five or six inches. Cut your twig to the length you wish. The twig should be about the size of your thumb. You can start your split with your discoidal blade. As you split the wood apart bend it in the opposite direction slowly and work your fingers down the length of the stick, pulling firmly apart .
Cordage
Now we need some type of cordage to tie this tool together. Also we need a flake of some kind. For cordage you could use willow bark, cattail leaves, yucca leaves, rawhide, dogbane, or what ever you have in your area that makes good cordage… I'm using yucca cordage for this project.
A tiny flake, chip, discoidal blade
Since this is a working knife I'm not concerned with how the flake looks, just as long as the cutting edge is sharp and runs the length of the flake. You do want the flake as flat as you can make it. As an experiment you can sub in a piece of broken glass if you wish.
We have our materials… let's finish up. Tie a not on the end of your cordage then place the flake between the split wood. Slip the cordage just behind the flake and press down, with your forefinger and thumb, pulling the cordage through until the knot binds against the split handle/twig. Now wrap the cordage around and through the split twigs, tying it with half hitches.
You have options here. You can tie both ends, you can place the blade in the middle of the handle or near the end or anywhere over the length of the handle. You can tie the handle only on one end. By holding the handle with your fingers the flake will remain tight within the handle like a vise.
I prefer to wrap my cordage from the flake to end of the handle. This gives the knife a pleasing look and feels good to me while I work with this tool
You now have a real ancient and primitive knife you can use. Add it to your primitive tool kit. Don't forget to thank those villagers, from long ago, on the Hoko River…