It’s a simple need. If you construct anything, you will need holes: holes that mate with other holes to accommodate fastenings, or clean holes of a given diameter that bear evenly and don’t attack the lines or threads or bolts that occupy them.
We might forget the importance of making holes because it’s below our notice. Need a hole? It’s simple, just drill it! But we’re going to take Getting Started In Boats literally and step back from smug confidence to answer the basic question: Without electric tools, how do you make holes?
Our Neolithic ancestors were just as intelligent as we are—perhaps even smarter because their work required more focused ingenuity. The Inuit craftsman in the illustration at right is using an ancient invention, the bow drill, a stick bent by the tension of a cord wrapped around a dowel. Put a hand piece (in this case, a mouthpiece) at the top of the dowel and lubricate it with a bit of wax or grease. Press down and pull the “bow” back and forth to twirl the dowel controllably. Our craftsman is making a walrus-tusk cribbage board, which requires precise drill placement and a consistent diameter to hold the game pegs, and this requires a drill bit, the business end of a drill—the cutting edge. Far from a hardware store in place and time, this craftsman may have used a knapped flint flake, or a small shark tooth bound to the spin-dowel.