White Wolf Fian: Drill Bits Research

For you following at home you know already that I had trouble with the small spoon bit made for me by a smith. Well, it turns out the larger spoon bit will not work on the bone either. I've tried resharpening it, assuming that I did it incorrectly the first time. I have sharpened knives and gouges in the past but never from the "raw" state fresh off the forge. Sharpening had no effect, other than make it work better in wood. For some reason it will not work on the bone.

I went back to my reference material, specifically "Bone, Antler, Ivory & Horn: The Technology of Skeletal Materials Since the Roman Period", and found a small passage that I had forgotten from the first time reading the book. " Although a considerable number of early frill-bits are known (Peterson 1951; Wilson 1968, 1976) most of them are shell-bits (or spoon bits)which, although effective on fibrous material like woos, would make little impression on bone, antler, or ivory." (pg. 59). The author then goes on to say that twist drill bits are not unknown for the period and speculates that the bit used to make the ring and dot decoration, very similar to modern day centre point (Brad point) drill bits, could also have been used to make holes.


Since it is quite clear that making a centre point drill bit that is small enough to make the holes for riveting the strap ends to the belt is not feasible, at least not for myself or the smith I have access to, I am leaning towards the twist drill bit. Some digging on the Internet, my 24hr accessible library I found an image of a twist drill bit from the Roman Era, and a book all about Roam Era Woodworking which has been ordered.

The image to the left is taken from the website http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rogerulrich/tools_woodworking.html is a drawing of a spiral or twist drill bits found Aquileia, Italy, 12 and 15 cm long. The drawing is from the site owner's book  Roman Woodworking Tools, R.B. Ulrich, who's field of study and research is Classical Art and Archaeology, especially the Roman period, Roman architecture, ancient Roman woodworking and technology. His is the book that I now have on order from Amazon and will be in a couple of days.

If you compare the Roman period twist bit to the modern day twist bit you can see there are some similarities. Modern day drill bits have the twists going all the way up the shaft as opposed to the one or two turns seen in the period versions.

The same goes for the centre point drill bit. On page 61 of "Bone, Antler, Ivory & Horn: The Technology of Skeletal Materials Since the Roman Period"  there is a line drawing of "centre-bits or scribing tools from Slavic settlements at Stare Mestro (after Hruby) and Levy Hradrec (from the Tempel, after Pic)(scale 3:4)"; Figure 38, pg 61. The tips are the only part of the tool that looks similar to modern day centre point drill bits. It is in fact, this tool that I commissioned for the purpose of making the ring and dot decorations.

I have found images of tools used by a member of Darc, a Dark Ages Re-creation Company that look amazing like those Master Stephen showed in his bone working class. http://www.darkcompany.ca/projects/stools/index.php?submenu=L. That means the tools can be made they just may not be able to be made by myself or by the smith I have access to.



 If all attempts to make working period tools fails I will revert to using modern drill bits to create the holes for the rivets. However, it is my goal and my intention to have period style drill bit to drill the holes in my bone strap-ends.