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Simple Atlatl (Read 15814 times)
Atlatlista
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Re: Simple Atlatl
Reply #60 - May 19th, 2012 at 8:57pm
 
Morphy wrote on May 19th, 2012 at 8:21pm:
Quote:
Atlatls are fantastic, and can be very serviceable even as simple as you describe, Rat Man.

Of course, now I've gone and got myself bitten by the bow bug in a bad bad way.


Bwahahah, welcome to the dark side 'Lista!  Cheesy  


It's a longstanding obsession of mine, moreso even than the atlatl, but for the last two months I've been training with a target archery coach, hammering my form into shape, and all that good stuff.  It has helped a ton.  I'm so glad to be moving away from self-taught "instinctive" and into the world of olympic-style target shooting.  It makes me more consistent and more accurate, even with a self bow with no fancy bells and whistles.  Good form is key for any primitive art, and the olympic guys really know what they're doing with form.

As to the spine of the darts thing, I'm so glad you showed me that vid.  I was talking to the professor in charge of my lab about projectile weapons (what else) and we talked about the atlatl a bit, and I pointed out that atlatls aren't all the same, they vary widely in form and in darts especially from around the world.  I brought up the spine issue, and he was intrigued.  Apparently it hasn't been dealt with scientifically before.  So, after I get back from my dig, I'm going to do a dart spine survey of ethnographic darts from around the world to get a sense of the variety and what spine weights are best-suited to what game type, etc.  It should be really interesting, and I'm probably going to use a more accurate variation of his bathroom scale idea to spine them.

Of course that'll have to come after "project Frankenstein."  My profs are going to imbed electrodes in my arms and then have me thrust some spears to measure the musculature involved.
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timann
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Re: Simple Atlatl
Reply #61 - May 26th, 2012 at 1:10pm
 
Project Frankenstein.  Cool.  Guess you`ll try those heidenberg spears then Smiley

As for simple atlatl, I made a new one to have at home, a little prettier, still surprisingly effective.  Gave it a tiny taste of sand paper and teak oil.  
I have even thaught someone atlatling with this stuff, the new atlatl was just half whittled then.  It`s the lower atlatl in the picture.

My student is more or less 18 I think, warned me of his bad throwing arm, but with my gear and instructions he was surprisingly good after perhaps 30 minutes.  I gave him using rights to my hidden-in-the-woods gear.

Even with not-so-straight saplings with duct tape fletching this gear is impessively accurate (guess I could ,with a bit of luck, hit a mammuth from 20 meters, and roe deer from ... say 7 meters), and it hits hard.
I tested my max distance as a demo for my javelin acquaintance, and sendt hazel saplings apprx 28 meters.  When I attempt to throw his older men(ladies) javelin by hand, my lousy throwing arm send it apprx 16 sad meters.
timann
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timann
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Re: Simple Atlatl
Reply #62 - May 26th, 2012 at 1:16pm
 
...and upper left...
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Atlatlista
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Re: Simple Atlatl
Reply #63 - May 26th, 2012 at 8:25pm
 
Beauty of an atlatl.  I love the way you did the spur, it's very graceful.  I think the sanding and oil gives it a nice, rustic touch - finished but not too finished.
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timann
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Re: Simple Atlatl
Reply #64 - May 29th, 2012 at 2:34pm
 
Quote:
Beauty of an atlatl.  I love the way you did the spur, it's very graceful.  I think the sanding and oil gives it a nice, rustic touch - finished but not too finished.

Oh, it was so simple,  I simply whittled away anything that did not seem right, and this rather elagant shape appeared.

I realize now that using hazel sapling darts is not just a walk in the park.  They may be good, but darn, they might be bad too.
I have had them break when power was added, I have had them to stiff so they barely flex, and I have had them soft and whippy.
The last one of those flew seemingly okay for a few meters.  Then it went tip up, made a nice ballistic curve, and slammed tip first to the ground 20 meters away.  Each time.

The few good darts I got which is okay, isn`t even all that straight.  But if thrown right they behave like in the videos on youtube and goes where they are supposed to.
timann
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timann
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Re: Simple Atlatl
Reply #65 - Jun 1st, 2012 at 3:25pm
 
I made another atlatl video just for fun.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YruQaqNhuNU
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