I recently acquired this boomerang a little while back and I have no clue just what it is exactly. After a tiny bit of research I am leaning towards it being an Australian Aboriginal boomerang, but then again it could just be some sort of reproduction or something all together entirely different. It is 30 inches long and the wood has ridges. I do not even know what year or era it is from. If any of you have an idea of what this is, please let me know. Here are a few pictures of it:

it looks to be a reproduction of an Australian light hunting boomerang. they had several varieties for everything from birds, small game, large game, and war.

it's true. they act the same way that dimples on a golf ball do.

well, it's hard to tell from your pics, but several things point to it being a repro. one, the carving looks to done with modern woodcarving tools. stone tools leave long straight shallow grooves versus those carved 'u' shaped channels i see on yours. two, it appears to be stained and/or finished with something that makes it glossy. an original might have painted designs with a natural pigment, but wouldn't be stained all over. again, hard to tell from the pics but that's my estimate. another way to tell, although not conclusive, is to check the grain. an original will definitely have grain that follows the curve of the boomerang, but so might a good repro. if it doesn't, and the grain runs off the edges, then it is definitely modern. repro or original, still a very nice piece. 

 I suppose it would really help to find out what wood it is made from, that would give you a clue to it's country of origin.  Also I have made and used bone chisels before and I have to say that I think you could achieve grooves like those using them, so it could be authentic or have been made after established trade with peoples who had metal tools.
 The good news is that it was made following the grain of the wood.  That means that it wasn't cut out of a plank but carved out of a curved or steam bent piece of wood that may have been split or whittled.
 If you split the stick you should get two boomerangs, possibly exactly the same, which is why I think you see native peoples with one in their belt and one in their hand.
 

  Oh!  and definitely it was worth $5!!  It's cool to have one like that whether it is an original or not as it appears to be very well made.

well, Rocky, if it is an original then it might be worth something to a collector, but only if it can be authenticated. without dating or documentation things like this aren't worth a whole lot monetarily speaking. having said that, i agree with Luke and think you got a bargain no matter what. it's definitely a cool boomerang

Luke, do we know the grain follows the curve? also, yes, you can acheive similar grooves with primitive tools, but with great difficulty. all the original boomers and rabbitsticks i've seen with grooves have been scraped flat and then scored uniformly using a burin. this leaves a distinct and decidedly different pattern than the one i'm seeing here. compare the grooves on his boomer and these on my atlatl. i intentionally didn't run these in straight lines, but you can still see the similarities in cut shape. this is what leads me to believe it was made with modern tools.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Sep 28^th, 2010 at 6:10am:


I'm not sure, but I'll check later today after work. I want to say around 3-5 pounds, but that could be off. I'm awful at guessing at weights. It is certainly strong and firm enough with enough weight to knock something out or kill it when thrown though, at least I believe so.

if it's anywhere near the 3-5 lb mark than I'd say yes it's  a genuine aborigenal hunting boomerang.

The lack of serious art work (which is a given for anything made for the tourist market) is also an indication it was a working piece