Watch: Making an ‘Ötzi the Iceman’ Flint Dagger

In this video, mouse trap lover Shawn Woods demonstrates as he builds a wood-handled flint dagger similar to one found with the frozen mummy called Ötzi the Iceman. He begins by cutting and shaping a piece of green ash wood using primitive tools before allowing it to dry and season.

Then the video shows the blade-making process, which I find fascinating. I still can’t fully wrap my mind around the process of flint knapping.

Once the blade is mostly shaped, we learn how he knows about the details — and we see that he has also built a replica knapping tool by copying one that was found with the mummy. He uses that tool to make the dagger blade. Cool!

This is followed by some discussion of the tool itself, in which he acknowledges that not everyone believes the tool is even a knife. I personally agree with his notion that it was indeed a knife, and that it was originally much longer than its current size. When a knife gets dull, it needs to be sharpened, and you sharpen a flint knife by removing flakes to reveal new edges. This necessarily reduces the size of the blade over time.

All in all, it’s really interesting to anyone who likes knives and old stuff. Enjoy!

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.