Chapter 101: The Bamboo Craftsman and the Hand-Operated Drill
The experience of digging deep holes to plant wooden posts allowed Eldest Senior Brother and others to personally experience the usefulness of bone shovels.
Everyone was quite enthusiastic when the Divine Child mentioned starting the production of bone shovels. Despite their high spirits, the efficiency of bone shovel production did not improve much. The main issue wasn't the selection and grinding of bones; instead, it was the drilling of holes for threading and securing ropes in the bone shovel.
The current method for drilling holes involved selecting hard rocks, striking them to extract suitable thin pieces, and then processing these into rudimentary stone drills. These stone drills were used by hand to drill holes in the robust bone pieces.
Due to the extreme hardness of the bone pieces and the lack of sharpness in the stone drills, the process of drilling holes was slow and laborious. After extended periods of drilling, the fingers holding the stone drill would become sore, and wrists would tire, even for strong individuals like Eldest Senior Brother, Second Brother, and Shang, the leader of the Original Pig Tribe. They all had to take breaks intermittently.
Facing this situation, Han Cheng was also at a loss, unable to come up with a solution to the current predicament.
It was only when he suddenly remembered a small incident from his childhood. Bamboo craftsmen visited the village to create bamboo beds, tables, chairs, and other items. This memory unlocked the solution to their current problem.
Bamboo craftsmen were artisans who specialized in crafting various tools from bamboo, similar to carpenters, stonemasons, blacksmiths, and potters.
At that time, Han Cheng, like the other children in the village, was very curious about the process and often stood by, observing how they transformed bamboo into various exquisite and practical tools.
Among all these activities, Han Cheng was particularly intrigued by the tools the bamboo craftsmen used for drilling holes in bamboo.
Despite being a simple piece of equipment, the bamboo craftsmen used a half-cut bamboo piece, a long iron rod with one end sharpened and the other in a loop. Combining these elements created a hand-operated drill that could be rapidly rotated by pressing down on the bamboo.
Han Cheng vividly remembered the scene of the bamboo craftsmen using this simple hand-operated drill to bore holes in bamboo.
Upon recalling this incident, Han Cheng, elated, immediately started working on creating a primitive hand-operated drill. Since no iron rod was available, he used a sturdy wooden stick as a substitute.
Han Cheng found a robust stick, about the thickness of an adult's little finger and approximately 40 centimeters long. He cleared any small branches from one end and then used a simple stone knife from the tribe to split it open about 2-3 centimeters along its diameter.
This distance wasn't fixed but had to be determined based on the thickness and length of the upper part of the stone drill. The thicker and longer the upper part of the stone drill, the longer the split needed to be, and vice versa.
After splitting one end of the stick, the next step was to insert the upper part of the previously held stone drill into the opened section. After adjusting its position, the upper part was securely tied using rope grass. Then, a groove about 2-3 millimeters deep was carved into the top end of the stick using the stone knife.
It's important to note that this step differs from the previous one. Instead of splitting the stick from the middle, a groove was carved to prevent it from splitting. This completed the construction of the stone drill, where the drill shaft was made of wood, and the drill head was the original stone drill.
After completing these steps, another stick, approximately 30 centimeters long and 4 centimeters in diameter, was chosen and split in the middle. This wasn't difficultjust place the stick vertically on the ground, press the stone knife's edge against the top end's middle, and use another stick to strike the back of the stone knife.
The split wooden stick generally won't veer off course as long as the stone knife doesn't tilt.
Using a wooden stick to strike the stone knife during the process is to avoid damaging the stone knife, as a collision between hard stones can cause damage. Using multiple soft wooden sticks for striking prevents such incidents.
After splitting the wood and thinning the ends with the stone knife, making it easier to grip, small grooves were carved at both ends for securing ropes later.
Once these steps were completed, a roughly one-meter-long rope was selected and twisted from three strands of rope grass. The middle of the rope was inserted into the groove at the head of the previously made drill, and then the rope was wound around the drill two turns in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions, securing the rope on the upper part of the drill.
Then, the prepared wooden piece was placed on the ground, pressed firmly with the foot, and the drill head was positioned in the center of the wood. One end of the rope was pulled outward while holding the other end, causing the drill to rotate rapidly due to inertia.
After pulling the rope and stopping the drill's rotation, inertia caused the rope to wind in the opposite direction, ready for the next rotation. By repeatedly pulling the rope, the drill continued to rotate, creating a magical sight of drilling holes in the wooden board without manual twisting.
This scene amazed the people of the Green Sparrow Tribe, and they stopped their activities to gather and marvel at the miraculous demonstration. While the elderly members of the tribe were more composed due to their familiarity with the Divine Child's abilities, those who had joined from the Original Pig Tribe less than a month ago widened their eyes in astonishment, expressing admiration for the his cleverness.
Using hands to pull the rope can indeed drill into objects, but drawbacks exist. The drill is prone to instability during drilling due to applied force, leading to holes that may deviate. Additionally, pulling the rope for an extended period can cause finger pain.
To address these issues, Han Cheng introduced the wooden piece. He removed the rope from the drill, passed the drill through the hole in the wooden board, placed the board about one-third down the drill, and then secured the two ends with a rope. The middle of the rope remained in the groove at the upper part of the drill.
After fixing it in place, a fully functional hand-operated drill was created. Similar to the previous manual pulling method, the drill was turned twice, and then the drill head was pressed against the desired drilling location. Gripping both ends of the wooden piece, the rope wound around the drill would loosen, causing the drill to rotate.
In this way, a genuine hand-operated drill emerged. Although the drill head and drill were quite rudimentary, there was no denying that it was a traditional hand-operated drill.
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