Argellite

Long before there was steel axes or knives in new Zealand, long before the white settlers or whalers came, even long before the Maori discovered the superior quality of nephrite jade (greenstone) for weapons and tools, way back in the early times when moa (extinct N.Z flightless bird ,the largest being almost three meters tall) still roamed the forest floors and Pokai (extinct N.Z. native eagle) still flew the skies ,there existed small groups of specialized artisans who had the knowledge to make simple tools of stone.

The stone they mainly chose was argellite for many good reasons, the hardness and its edge keeping abilities enabled it to be fashioned into sharp and very precise tools which could be used in everyday existence. These artists congregated in small communities close to their quarries, where they could access the best stone .The main methods used to create the stone tools was knapping, which is a process of chippingsmall flakes off the original stone, with a hammer stone until the right shape was achieved ,then the piece would be ground to flat or an edge would be sharpened on a piece of natural sandstone with some water to help in the abrasive process.