Ethan's March Challenge

Moosez45

Moosez45

Custom Antlers, Factory Knives...
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Alright, Feburary is done, and we are on to March. This Challenge is Ethan's Atladl

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The challenge is simple. Make an functioning Atladl. Make it pretty. Use as many Becker knives as you want.





You must be at least 18yrs old and be able to own a knife. You are your responsible for your own safety, neither Bladeforum, The Beckerheads, or Ethan is responsible for you

The specifics of the contest:

NO CHATTING IN THIS THREAD!! First one to do it, gets DQ'd. Getting to be an issue in other forums, we are pushing for it here as well, it about paying attention and following rules.

You must use any number of Becker knives throughout the entire process. You can hack with the 9, trim it with the Necker, and carve with the Remora. Many Becker Knives

You must post no less than 5 pics, and no more than 12. You may post a video, but no longer than 6 minutes.

You must show the various stages of creation, in a lucid, easy to understand manner. From tree, to fancy spear thrower. We want to see all of it.

For decoration, you must use all natural material. No synthetics.

Your Becker knives must be in ALL OF YOUR PICS OR VID.

This contest is an GOLD ONLY contest. Our first Gold Only contest, you must be gold by the contest close to qualify for judging. To enter, you must post, "I accept the Challenge" in this thread. Your acceptance post WILL BECOME YOUR ENTRY POST, SO EDIT YOUR ACCEPTANCE POST, TO BE YOUR ENTRY POST LATER ON.

1st Place BK9 Combat Bowie
2nd Place BK2 Campanion
3rd Place BK11 Necker

Contest will end on April 5, 2011.

Good luck

Moose
 
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There is a mulberry tree in my front yard that I hate with every living fiber of my body. I figured it would do the job nicely.
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I wanted to go unconventional with my tools, so the BK11CSM and BK3 were my weapons of choice. I've never made an Atlatl before, but I had some ideas of what I wanted it to look like. Instead of the forward facing notch, I wanted to see how it would work to have a back slopped pocket, almost like a Jai alai xistera (look it up).
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The wood was green as green can be. The bark stripped off easily, but what a mess. The white oozy sap was not fun.
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Stripping the dart. Same type of wood from one of the straighter mulberry branches. There is some river cane a few miles from me, but seeing as how much I hate this tree, I wanted to use as much as I could.
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The shape of the BK3 made a nice unexpected planer. The need for this should be clear in a few pics.
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Getting to the "cup"
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My patient 4yo was kind enough to take this pic for me.
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The idea was that I would be able to fit the end of the dar tin here, and have the length of the atlatl hold it flat and steady. The curved down handle keeps the fist out of the way, but lets you steady the dart with your fingers.
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No flint, no obsidian. A sharpened tip would have to do for my purposes. A few throws in the dark proved that it would stick. It won't take down any deer, but if you're not careful, it will put your eye out. The feathers are from a recent pheasant hunt my father-in-law had.
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A final shot of the device. I think in the end, a more traditional shape would have been better. I would also have liked to get a hold of some obsidian and try my hand at a head. I certainly got the shape that I wanted. The physics behind it seem fairly sound, but then again, I never took physics in school.
IMG_3830.jpg


Thanks for the contest. I hope you enjoyed my pics. It was a fun project, even if I didn't get the most gorgeous saber-tooth hunter results I set out for.
 
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I accept this challenge.

The tools, a BK 10 and my ESKY. The area to begin the work is a park in the liberal enclave called eugene.


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Two potential arrows/darts and arrow heads. The wood Philbert, The arrowheads, stone. I will attempt to knap them.


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Breakin' rocks for arrow heads. I eventually resorted to throwing rocks against other rocks and hoping for a piece I could work with, and eventually I did get one.


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That launcher is from my cherry tree.


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This is how I worked the stone for the arrowhead. Just rubbed it on the concrete till I got the size and shape I wanted.


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Here's the feathers glued on with fir pitch and tied on with jute, i'll trim them later.


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closeup of the stone arrowhead and the bee's wax impregnated jute twine. That arrowhead is glued in with pitch.


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The unit all put together.


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Overall I'd say I learned a lot about making these. Mostly what I'd do differently next time. Probably make the dart longer and thinner , maybe not spend as much time as I did working the rock on the end. The feathers were a bitch to get on and line up properly. Cutting feathers evenly with a knife is difficult. Overall I learned a lot, especially from md25v. I like these challenges cause even if what I make looks like my 3 year old made it, I still feel like i've streched myself to learn something I would'nt have otherwise. keep em' coming.
 
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I accept the challenge.

It is with great regret that I must with draw from this contest. It has been a crazy month and I was not able to make an entry.

I thank ya'll for the opportunity to participate and hopefully will be able to compete more in the future.
 
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atlatl006.jpg



I started with three branches chopped down with the BK9. Two were from my neighbor's Beech tree and one was Red Oak. I selected the beech because it was green so it would be the fastest to work.


I stripped the bark and then shaved both sides down by chopping deep marks and then planing them away.

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Then I switched to the Eskabar to give it some more shape and smooth it all out by scraping with the edge turned 90deg.

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Shaping the inside and outside of the shoulder curve was really easy with the thin polished edge of the Esky.

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MORE TO COME LATER!!!

ROUND 2

Drill shallow hole with tip

Use spine to break bone, then scrape on concrete to shape

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Now, use squirrel gut cordage to bind crack in atlatl head from pushing the spur in to far

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Use cordgrass to braid a handle wrap and a finger loop, attach with more squirrel gut cord

atlatl003.jpg



Time for the dart!!! I used a 5ft long shaft of Phragmites that was growing at the end of my street. I wrapped the head with yucca cordage and made a field point of fire hardened oak

atlatl011.jpg


Last is the fletching. I used two large feathers glued with hide glue (made from squirrel) and tied with yucca corsage

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here it is, the finished product. I can't throw it today because it is raining and I used sinew/gut cord/hide glue on this project and none of them can get wet.

atlatl006.jpg
 
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"I accept the Challenge"

Here's some wood harvested from the woods just past the fence.
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Getting started with some batoning.
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I had to do some choppin'(this bk9's debut photograph)
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my brother-in-law took this one of me thinking/working
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here it is roughly shaped. The black line is a hole that went all the way through in the center of the limb.
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here i'm beginning to work on the hook
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here is a side view of the hook, the cleanness of the hook was achieved by batoning the pummel
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Here I've thinned the shaft to reduce weight...also worked on the "ergonomic handle".
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I'm scraping the bark from this green piece that came from a swampy area of the woods.
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all of the bark is gone, and posing with the atlatl and ESKabar
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Here is the fletching, I attached it with hemp rope and whipped each end.
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Here's a video of a succesful throw...All the videos i took will be posted in the discussion thread.
[youtube]tzQw6R5uSy0[/youtube]
 
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Provided I can get my ass out in the woods next weekend

I accept the challenge!

-Nadz
 
Ok, lads and lasses, this contest will wrap up tomorrow night, if you got'em, show'em, if not, well, we're onto our next adventure.

Moose
 
I might just get something done, but I'm not gold. So I figured it'll make no difference apart from adding something to the thread.

--

maethor

edit: all natural materials? I'd like to retract my earlier statement. Well, next contest will be better. Looking forward to it!
 
Ok, we got this one closed up. Ethan will judge when he gets back from PWYP. Good job everyone, mighty fine looking work there.

Moose
 
Hey Everybody....

Sorry this took so long........

AND the Winners are.....

# 1
MD25v.....Once again making me feel distinctly uncrafty with his excellent design and execution, careful attention to detail, etc., etc........Really fine work.....


#2

Sqoon......I love your turning hate into a usefull tool.....I remember a mulberry tree, a bird, an open rental car window and a horrific cleanup.......

Both Fal'er and Slapper share for third and both get a Necker.....

Everybody did good on this and produced usable force projection.....Try using 4 foot darts when you get around some thin long willow or river cane.....You will find your a big increase in range.....

E mail your addresses at SCOPE2000@aol.com.....I have everything in stock, the right boxes, etc so should get it all shipped on monday......

Thanks again....

All Best....

ethan
 
Congratulations to everyone! Wow, Ethan, you're such a generous guy. Thanks for the opportunity!

take care

maethor
 
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