Hafting

Many people still practice the hafting techniques by using old-fashioned methods to figure out the best way to attach a handle onto tools, while improving the overall structure and function.

A good piece of wood has a diameter large enough to provide adequate strength yet small enough to hold comfortably for long periods of time.

Materials such as the Australian Sea Grass Cordage and split deer intestine can be used due to its high strength and durability once installed.

More than 125,000 years ago, early Archaic humans such as Homo heidelbergensis developed the extensive use of hafted stone tools.

By offsetting the diameters of a tool with a cylindrical base, and a hole in the shaft, a much more secure fit can be made, assuring the ax head stays in place.

These hafted stone points increased the force and effectiveness of these tools, therefore, allowing people to hunt and kill animals more efficiently.

The increased efficiency of hunting and killing animals is believed to have allowed for people of this time to have regular access to meat and other high-quality foods.

Multiple lines of evidence indicate that ~500,000-year-old stone points from the archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 (KP1), South Africa, functioned as spear tips.

[3] This has led teams of researchers to come to the conclusion that common ancestors of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals started hafting almost 500,000 years ago.

Aboriginal re-hafting workshops have potentially been identified at Lake George, New South Wales, dating back to the Late Holocene.