Photo: Moti Fishbain
Now THIS is what 3D printing is made for! For their Man Made series, Israeli designers Dov Ganchrow and the late Ami Drach (previously on Neatorama) recreated stone age tools with a decidedly modern twist.
According to designboom, prehistoric flint tools were three-dimensionally scanned at the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology. Then, specialized extensions and handles were printed by 3-D printing firm Stratasys out of polymer.
Stone hand-axe no. 10 (2014)
"Any multi-tool becomes specialized when frozen at a single moment in time during its use," says Ganchrow. "The first stage of the project was one of hastened evolution and bleeding: flint rocks of desirable size, shape and material quality were sourced from the Negev desert in southern Israel, while time was spent improving and understanding the skill of knapping. Basically this involved the striking of flint with a softer stone (historically a striking bone or antler was also used) to create controlled breakage, and chipping away flint flakes as the impact’s shock wave runs through the stone. Needless to say this is where the bleeding came in..."
Stone hand-axe no. 2 (2014)
Stone hand-axe no. 8 (2014)
Stone hand-axe no. 3 (2014)
Stone hand-axe no. 5 (2014)
Stone hand-axe no. 9
(2014)
View the originals over at designboom. Photo: Moti Fishbain