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What stones with adze marks?

An adze is a wood working(timber) tool.
A "Sen" I believe, is a stone chisel used in Jnat processing by hand. Typically a narrow one at that, to help the stone lay flatter.
I have only ever seen them on Jnats.

OK - so is there an English word for a sen? Or are you saying that was never used outside of Japan? I took a geology course back in undergrad days and the prof had and used what he called an adze which left those same scalloped cuts in the stone.

My question on this topic of quarried stones finished with sen or adze-like tools was not seeking out any new stones or just to look at cuts. I was just curious if any quarried hones (old ones really) other than jnats had these scalloped cuts. I’ve personally never noticed them on anything other than jnats before now. That stone I posted pictures of is a PDSO and seems to me to have the same type cuts. Agree? Disagree?

I find it pretty interesting because that is a strong identifying mark if absolutely only on jnats and maybe PDSO. Or if it is completely unclear where the PDSO came from, is it possibly of Japanese origin? Or mining techniques and this Sen borrowed from Japan?
 
I believe in the Western part of the world its just a chisel. A stone chisel (cold chisel is what I call it for stone)

Chisels have been used to work stone for millenia. Sen just being the Japanese word, I may be wrong.
I think Jnats are much softer than other stones so the marks are very discernable most of the time.
Arks could be worked by chisel but the marks left would not look the same because it fractures off.

These to me are undisputed tool marks,

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Is this tool marks?

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Another angle,

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I guess anything that is not sawn and has an irregular edge could be a tool mark be it from another stone or hammer or what have you.

To answer you question then, sure, other quarried stones of old could be worked by chisel or whatever but how could you discern what a tool mark is if its not completely evident by either a straight line or edges from the tool itself? Just because it is irregular does not mean a chisel was used, more probable it was just a brick hammer of sorts.
 
Last picture looks like chisel marks to me I can see striations where the edge of the chisel would have been riding. Middle picture, agreed, hard to tell.
 
Can't say as I would agree.
The line that is straight and would have been the contact point of chisel before hitting has umber skin.
There would be no skin if it was chiseled down at that point.
Perhaps from the other face but lines are not straight enough.

Because the original post was about adze/chisel marks that is what I have been looking for in others photos but I just don't see it. Hammer/other implement maybe, but not chisel.
 
The scalloped 'marks' on the backs of arks are typical conchoidal fractures - a 'tell' that is common amongst microcrystalline quartz stones. Sometimes you can ID the stone type by the lustre along the fracture's surface, sometimes more testing has to be done to figure it out. Many 'riven' arks may have had their 'bark' chiseled off, that can leave a tool mark or it may chip the stone out to produce a conchoidal fracture. Sometimes you get both - a chisel runway terminating in a shell-like fracture

A pattern of chisel marks on the backs of jnats is something else entirely different.
 
The scalloped 'marks' on the backs of arks are typical conchoidal fractures - a 'tell' that is common amongst microcrystalline quartz stones. Sometimes you can ID the stone type by the lustre along the fracture's surface, sometimes more testing has to be done to figure it out. Many 'riven' arks may have had their 'bark' chiseled off, that can leave a tool mark or it may chip the stone out to produce a conchoidal fracture. Sometimes you get both - a chisel runway terminating in a shell-like fracture

A pattern of chisel marks on the backs of jnats is something else entirely different.


This is the nature of microcrystalline Quartz.
Glass will do the same thing. I worked in the glass industry for a few years and the term used was "shelling" when a glass table or similar was bumped and produced the shell shaped fracture.
Unfortunately it is not indicative of a chisel. A stone hammer would make the exact same shape as would the air chipper that harvested the stone in the first place.
I would say it is impossible to determine what caused the fracture in this type of stone without clear definition of the tool sides.
I mentioned above that the tool marks would not look the same.
 
I like to try/use both sides of my stones, so not a lot of marks remaining aside from my Jnats that were sealed. But here's two of my more prominently marked stones.

First, a mystery stone I suspect is a Jnat, partly due to the chisel marks... one of the hardest stones I own... basically harder than anything not novaculite.

Second, a wicked hard coticule with tool marks that appear to maybe be spikes/nails used to split the seams?
 

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I have used cold chisels and seen marks I know are from a chisel. But the adze marks are also somewhat concave left to right of the cut direction leaving a sort of scolloped out cut. Chisels leave flat cuts left to right even though start and finish can taper.

Novaculites flints etc all have chipping fractures like you guys have noted and how so many flint napped tools were made eons ago. There is a process of working stone down using this to your advantage. But that wasn’t so much what had my curiosity piqued. It was these cuts in the PDSO stone, a softer stone more like coticule or jnats. They appear to dish left to right which is pretty unusual in my rock pile. Like many of you I have crude stones, saw-cut stone, lapped stones, chiseled, draw-knife etc. But I don’t see many with scolloped adze/sen type cuts. And I have been messing around with two PDSO stone and with so little info out there about them.....I have just been curious of the origin. Shape and lack of any skin and side slickness are nothing like Jnat. But honing surface appearance and feel are not too dissimilar to me. And I am unclear if anyone has ever identified PDSO mine sites. And there seems to be a lot of visual variation which is common amongst the many types of jnats. Just had me wondering if they really were older, imported Japanese stones.
 
By the way, that spike cut in the coticule is wild! I can imagine the guy cutting into that vein with steel and hammer. I wonder if it was a spike or used the side of a chisel? Cool looking
 
I like to try/use both sides of my stones, so not a lot of marks remaining aside from my Jnats that were sealed. But here's two of my more prominently marked stones.

First, a mystery stone I suspect is a Jnat, partly due to the chisel marks... one of the hardest stones I own... basically harder than anything not novaculite.

Second, a wicked hard coticule with tool marks that appear to maybe be spikes/nails used to split the seams?

Nice!
The second stone could have been a bump from the end or chiseled to remove an inclusion that went longer than anticipated.
Cool though.
 
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