Slyngorm
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I started out by finding a stick with a "hook" thinking that its natural shape would be fit for making an atlatl with nothing else. Then I sharpened the hook so that it would hold spears. The next two days I painted my atlatl with rape seed and olive oil. It received about 15-20 something layers. Paracord was wrapped around the one end both to keep it from splitting and to make a handle. Now it was ready.
Aaaaand it didn't work very well. The sticks I attempted to launch slid right out of the hook. In hindsight it might have been more of a question of my throwing technique but I end up first beating a nail into the stick and sawing the rest of the hook off. To add I very tightly wrapped more paracord around the other end to keep it from splitting and for the nail not to slide back out.
Now this worked really well. After throwing small sticks I found a long, slender "spear" and that really showed the atlatl's power. With my extremely limited experience with the atlatl vs my extremely limited experience with throwing javelins the atlatl enabled me to easily throw the spear longer and with more power than by hand. I also managed to get a couple of pretty stable throws though most tumbled through the air.
All in all using an atlatl is a really awesome feeling and I can definitely see that it can compete with the bow in some aspects. Using negligible effort, resources and time (in total: a few tips from here, a stick, paracord, a nail and 3 hours time over 3 days) I made a weapon that with a little more effort could hunt down a mammoth and I will definitely work more with this.
Now the nail got bent a bit so I may tie some more rope around it to not bent it further (that will work, right?).
Now, any tips for how one would go about making a better atlatl? My atlatl was a little under 45 cm long but should an atlatl be longer?
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