Atlatl

Very nice. Much prettier than the duct tape fletching I put on my darts.

Mark
 
Very cool and I'm impressed with your skills. I don't know what the practicality of an atlatl is when bow & arrows are more effective. But I guess it adds another tool to the war chest.
 
Very impressive, saw Robb Wolf take an Elk with one of those last year on Discovery Channel.
It was probably staged,and be definitely didn't make it!
 
Very cool and I'm impressed with your skills. I don't know what the practicality of an atlatl is when bow & arrows are more effective. But I guess it adds another tool to the war chest.

Look into them a bit more. A skillful user can cast further with more killing power and accuracy than a bow offers. In fact, most archaic "arrowheads" found today are actually dart points, not arrowheads at all.
[video=youtube;BGFuOgVG3js]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGFuOgVG3js[/video]
[video=youtube;BkK2vEZ5bTk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkK2vEZ5bTk[/video]
 
Yes. The actual stone arrowheads that I have found are tiny (nickel sized or smaller),compared to Atlatl or spear points.
 
"Look into them a bit more. A skillful user can cast further with more killing power and accuracy than a bow offers. In fact, most archaic "arrowheads" found today are actually dart points, not arrowheads at all."

Perhaps at the heyday of atlatl and the dawn of the bow. The momentum of the dart will be greater but bows can be built that shoot further and I was not that impressed with the 20 yard accuracy of the atlatl shown in the video. Otherwise we would have the great Welsh atlatlists or the famous Penobscot atlatl. Not detracting from the fact that in the right hands it can be a very effective tool.
 
The Aussie Aborigines made out quite well with their version, somewhat still in use to this day, the woomera. Of course a competent rifleman with a good long range rifle and cartridge beats them all. Still, experimental archeology is fun and interesting. :)
 
When you project an atlatl or arrow you push it from behind and video shows the rod flexing quite a bit.
In the engineering world they stabilize a slope by driving steel rods deeply into the bank. Launching from the back doesn't work as the rods don't penetrate well. There is a system now [used near me recently BTW] that drives the rods from the front. Penetration is far better !!
So when is someone going to develop a system that drives an atlatl from the front ??
 
You do forget the dynamics involved. The force from behind bends the shaft which then boosts itself from the thrower or bowstring increasing the force and velocity. Throwing from the front would decrease the force and velocity.
 
*Bump*

Because I'd like to see more atlatl content, and I'm planning on building one this winter. :D
 
*Bump*

Because I'd like to see more atlatl content, and I'm planning on building one this winter. :D
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heres a couple I did a few years ago.
yes, I did knap the points, all natural materials too. sinew, pine pitch, dogbane, turkey fletches, and north American cane pole.

not as hard or as easy to make as you would think. That sounds weird but, basically you can make it as easy or as hard as you want.

there are a few people out there,(archaeologists) that seem to think the bow was primarily a weapon of war than a hunting implement but ended up being used as a hunting implement when the large animals the atlatl was used for sarted to disappear.

I didn't buy it either when I heard it, but, from what I came to understand was the average life expectancy went down a lot after the introduction of the bow in north america.
It's easier to put a lot more arrows in the air than atlatl darts with a lot less movement, and the arrows are harder to see and therefore harder to dodge even at distance than an atlatl dart.

not sure if true but it sounded reasonable at the time.
 
there are a few people out there,(archaeologists) that seem to think the bow was primarily a weapon of war than a hunting implement but ended up being used as a hunting implement when the large animals the atlatl was used for sarted to disappear.

That's a pretty interesting theory. I'd never really thought about it that way before, but it makes some sense that the atlatl would have been more suited to really big game than primitive bows, just from a killing power standpoint.

And nice job on those shafts/heads. :thumbup:
 
I had an opportunity to use a "modern" atlatl in an anthropology class in college. It had aluminum shafts. Those suckers flew! The spring off the thrower really makes them move fast enough that they are not visible. (in slow motion, you see the spring action on the dart. It bows and then launches super fast).

First time I threw one it went about 100 yards.
 
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