Whelk shell blanks

[swamp monkey]

I took two whelk shells (knobbed whelk perhaps) to make blanks for some shell objects.  These are not lightning whelk shells.  The spiral goes the wrong way.  Native used lightning whelks mostly for tools, gorgets and pendants.  Other whelks were used a little.  My goal is to make some gorget blanks and some adze blanks for some comparisons.  I want to see if there was a functional reason not to use some of these whelks species. 

I used a diamond cutoff wheel on a dremel.   Next will be some grinding.  I will post pix as I make progress.

Final image has blanks for adze blades, pendants, chisels, gorgets. 

[chamookman]

Nice - really cool ! Bob

[swamp monkey]

coming along.  These shells take time to grind.  at this point the adze is rough like you would expect for an ex sharpened with a file.  Rough and in need of smoother grit work.  Really the same goes for all the rest of these shell objects too.  I have a lot of grinding to do.   

Not exactly a surprise.

I will post more pix as I make progress.

[swamp monkey]

I had a few hours to burn on a warm October afternoon so I worked some more on my shell items. 

[swamp monkey]

Now that the overall shape is done and some of the adze blades have a rough shape I am going to do the fine shaping and sanding to get it right.  Like igneous tools there is a LOT of sanding that goes into this. 

Once sanded well I will be looking for an adze handle as I walk the hurting woods.  I will also select a nice gorget design and start laying this out.  A nice warm winter afternoon will find me out on the porch once again, generating dust.

Fun, fun, fun.  thanks for looking. 

[Zuma]

OK one, no two smiley faces and three gold stars.***
You have really taken the bull by the horn.
You have  made some sweet lookin preforms. I can't wait to see
 the finished products
Zuma.