Processing of Basic Materials
There is documentary evidence on the manufacture of only a few of the articles fashioned by the Indians out of the products of their environment. In most cases this evidence is fragmentary. What is available is discussed below:
Stonecarving: Both pipes and bowls were carved out of soapstone. As far as is known, most of this work was done by the Narragansetts in Rhode Island; their products were traded into the Plymouth area. Bowls of soapstone were produced wholly or in part at the quarry where the raw material was obtained. Working with picks and chisels of harder stone (later, presumably, with metal tools) the craftsman would rough out the general shape of the bowl, bottom side up, while it was still attached to the parent block. Then he would begin chipping away underneath the bowl and by inserting a wedge remove it from the quarry. The inside of the bowl was then hollowed out with smaller stone adzes and chisels.256
Soapstone pipes required considerable skill to manufacture, owing to their small size. Some of these were elaborately ornamented with carved figures, but authorities are still not sure whether the more elaborate pipes were locally made or traded into the Narragansett territory from elsewhere.257 Shaping and drilling were originally done with stone tools, but steel drills were later used in pipe manufacture.258
Metallurgy: The Indians learned to cast metal from the English. Pewter, brass, and presumably lead (for shot) were cast into ornaments, buttons, ammunition, and gun parts.259
Buttons and other small ornaments were cast out of pewter using one-piece moulds carved from soft stone. Finishing was done by trimming and grinding away the rough edges. The eyes of buttons were made by trimming the metal with a knife.260
Woodworking: The Wampanoags were noted for their skill in woodworking. They made dugout canoes which might be as much as fifty feet long.261 To make a canoe a suitable tree was first selected then laboriously felled with a stone axe. (During historic times metal tools came to perform this function and others in the process of manufacture.)262 Initial hollowing out of the log was done by burning.263 Either the wood was set afire or hot stones were placed on it.264 The fire was carefully controlled; the idea was to remove the inside and leave the outside intact on three sides.265 The process was a slow one, taking some ten to twelve days.266 When the interior had been burned out as much as possible, the job of hollowing and smoothing was finished with shell scrapers.267 The outside was hewn into shape with stone hatchets and the whole craft was finished by sanding it with an abrasive stone.268 A similar procedure on a smaller scale was used to fashion wooden bowls and spoons and other such utensils. A bowl was first hollowed out by burning and then smoothed to a high polish with abrasive stones.269
Birch bark canoes were made by the Massachusetts, and Pring reports them in use by the Wampanoag.270 The vessels or the material for them might have been obtained in trade, or, as one writer suggests, suitable-sized pieces of bark may have been achieved by piecing together the bark of birches that were stunted stragglers outside their normal range.271 Birch bark canoes have the advantage of being light and easily transported over portages.272 These canoes were joined by sewing, probably with bast fiber or something similar.273 The seams were caulked with rosin from the pitch pine.274 The vessels were strengthened by placing broad, thin ribs across the inside rather close together.275
Other Manufactures: The Indians also made glue of a combination of deer antler and “fishes sounds”.276 Its use is mentioned for fletching arrows.