Dammit I should know this.

[reynardo]

There's a mineral, light-brown-yellow-and-white, that can be made into fairly sharp stone knife blades. They're using one of these knives in Pirates of the Caribbean to get the blood, and I'm sure I've seen them in other human sacrifice type movies. Not to mention rituals, earthing, circle-drawings, etc.

Any ideas? panacea? ambitious_wench?

Comments

[sacred-chao.livejournal.com]

I'd be guessing flint (it can be that colour) or maybe some kind of obsidian?

[ambitious-wench.livejournal.com]

That would undoubtedly be flint. Here are some pics from: http://www.texasrockshop.com/blades01.html



In "The Mammoth Hunters", by Jean Auel, she tells of how if you heat flint, it changes color, and becomes easier to work with. Normally I don't cite novels as sources of information, but Ms. Auel did spend a great deal of time actually learning the different techniques she describes in her "Children of the Earth" series.

Obsidian is usually black in color, if I recall. It's a volcanic glass. It can be clear and smokey, or it can be opaque. In some cases, it has lovely white patterns like snowflakes.



However, it can be a wonderful chocolate-y brown, with reddish hints to it.

Obsidian blades were more common in South America, I seem to reacll. Aztecs used them. It's much sharper than flint, but more brittle as well.

I found a fascinating web page while researching obsidian blades:
http://www.explorers.org/newsfiles/archivefiles/belize.htm

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

Flint is all fine and good, but rocks can't hug you like I can.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

Edie beat me to it. What she said. The color range you describe sounds like flint to me - although obsidian *can* occur in lighter colors, it's usually black or dark reddish brown. (I've seen grey and translucent samples, but I look for this kind of thing...)

ObRocks: Flint's a sedimentary rock, and usually occurs in places with limited volcanic activity (or where volcanism died down a long time ago.) Obsidian's igneous, meaning it's the direct result of (geologically) recent volcanic activity. So you tend to find one or the other in a region, but generally not both.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

What I really want to know is, why do the Pagans get asked about mysterious stone knives used in sacrificial rituals?


*CACKLE*

um...

[notasquirrel.livejournal.com]

{worriedchitter} ime note goinge toe yor howse, ame i?

Re: um...

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

I don't have any stone knives.

Yet.

[jesusandrew.livejournal.com]

The Aztecs traditionally used obsidian blades.

[bookwoman72.livejournal.com]

maybe other religions use boring sacrificial knives with stupid inscriptions