The Coming of the Maori
Weaving Implements
Weaving Implements
In preparing the material, a marine shell, usually mussel, is used for Scraping and scutching the flax fibre. The fibre is washed to remove any green colouring material, then dried and twisted into hanks.
Stone pounders (patu muka) were made to beat the hanks of fibre on a flat, waterworn boulder. These beaters were round in section with a rounded distal end and ground down to a convenient hand grip also rounded in section (Fig. 28). They are fairly heavy and must not be confused with fern-root beaters (paoi) which are usually made of wood.
Fig. 29. Weaving sticks. a, b, d, Auckland Museum; c, e, Oldman coll. (157, 158).