You're totally right that it's ironic, and irony is a joy in and of itself. But I would like to point out that this is not just an exercise in irony. As a primitive artisan myself, I love doing things the old way, the hard way, what some consider the "pure" way: use fire in the place of a chisel to hollow out a bowl, use a bone awl and deer sinew in the place of needle and thread to sew buckskin. But the fact of the matter is, very few of us are professional cavemen. We have lives and other things to do, and if we're ever going to achieve any breadth in our learning we have to take shortcuts sometimes.



Modern tools are therefore a very legitimate way to learn about primitive technologies. For example, thanks to doing things the quick way, bartolo has been able to make multiple stone axes. I'll bet you each time he made one, he learned something new about what works and what doesn't in stone axe construction. And I'll bet you that if he had done it the old way--pecked and ground the stone with other stones, burned and scraped the handle with flint flakes--he would be extremely hesitant to go banging his museum-quality piece against trees. This way, he is able to learn not only about the construction of the axe but also its use.



So you see, using power tools to make stone tools actually makes a lot of sense. (But it's always going to be ironic!)