The ethnographic account of an Inuit man manufacturing a knife from his own frozen feces to butcher and disarticulate a dog has permeated both the academic literature and popular culture. To evaluate the validity of this claim, we tested the basis of that account via experimental archaeology. Our experiments assessed the functionality of knives made from human feces in controlled conditions that provided optimal conditions for success. However, they were not functional. While much research has shown foragers to be technologically resourceful, innovative, and savvy, we suggest that this ethnographic account should no longer be used to support that narrative.
Pictures, sfw: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371#ec0005
Paper breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=InxxUbdIeGw
This was the 2020 material science Ig Nobel winner. Personally I think their control for the annealing process is flawed but somewhat understandable given the difficulty in securing the amount of material necessary for a more refined experiment. For reference, here are all the papers citing this work: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&hl=en&cites=17315240754674471683