He Hei Whao-A chisel Already Ancient Aotearoa

Toki are perhaps the oldest manufactured tool known to man alongside the knife and rod.

The toki was used to hue out boats, cut down trees and to dig gardens. The whao (chisel) was a letter development used to give detail.

Examples of Toki (also carved in Nephrite) have been found from Aotearoa to Egypt, South America to Britain.

Stone adzes and chisels were valued for their practical use and it is suspected that an Adze was a symbol of wealth as well as prestige much the same as a tradesperson’s tools were in the medieval times. The hours of work needed to produce this tool were long and arduous. It has been said that in Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori stone carvers would cut the toki then shape it leaving the old people to polish it using sand and their body oils. Some early toki from show a heightened ridge where the blade reaches the tool’s body. As this ridge serves no practical function it has been suggested that this feature was an artistic development possibly as a fo...