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I'm referring this question in this way and tell me if I'm wrong:

The first humans were just surrounded by: rocks, trees, plants, water, sand, animals, fruits. So how just with hands, mouth, feet could they do for example a knife? They would need to take wood but the trees are too heavy for taking from there...

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    They could grind stones down to a sharp edge to make a blade. That said, this is not really a history question per se. Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 16:54
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    Obviously it's a history question, it happened in the past. Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 17:16
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    It happened in the pre-historical past. Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 17:25
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    It's still history. History is the study of the past. Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 18:14
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    @PichiWuana history is generally understood to be the analysis of the recorded past. Pre-history is distinct and involves different techniques. Archaeology uses a totally different body of technology, skills, knowledge and practice to study pre-history. The answer to your question may be found by researching Knapping Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 23:57

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Our closest genetic relative, the chimpanzees, have been observed to fashion themselves tools. That link even has a video showing one doing it, if you are interested in the process.

So most likely this is a behavior that was shared by our common ape ancestor over 7 million years ago. The only real tool innovation early man initially brought to the table (or at least the only surviving one in the fossil record) is that he seemed to be really into creating rock tools with chipping. Currently the oldest known examples are from about 3.3 million years ago.

Chimps and bonobos will use stone tools, but they haven't been observed systematically setting out to make themselves better stone tools by chipping off bit of stone. They will improve sticks to make tools, but not rocks (that we've seen).

Considering our species' lofty self-image, it doesn't seem like such a huge step to me.

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  • Really interesting your answer, but I'm asking about how did they take wood from big trees and sharp them. Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 17:16
  • You make an edge on a suitable stone by chipping/working with another stone. Now you have an edge, a stone blade if you like, which you use as a tool to do other things, like skinning prey, cutting meat working wood, ... and making other tools. Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 18:14

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