I've been inspired to make a replica of the spearthrowers used by the ancestors. We know what shape the hooks were but the rest is conjecture and I am borrowing heavily of the work done by Pascal Chavaux and others.
The materials are red deer (antler and sinew) and birch two materials we know were present in Ice age europe.
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The shape I have chosen for the thrower is baically the most comfortable I find to throw. We know that the shafts were circular in section due to the shape of the survivng hooks. the length is conjecture but was probably personal. Aborigine woomeras are a wide variety of lengths. The hook was carved over the week during the evenings it was really hard even with steel tools. I only used the knife and abrasives but with flint tools carving one of these things must have been performed over a longer time.
I used epoxy resin for the adhesive. I toyed with the idea of hide glue which is often listed as an ice age adhesive. However in the absence fo evidence (to my knowledge) of any form of earthern ware pots I can't see how they would have manufactured glue form hides and hooves. I suspect pine pitch was used but being a busy primitive I took one short cut there. I will also coat the sinew wraps with modern glue as we unfortunatly don;'t live in the nice dry environment of the Magdalenian.
I may add a leather handle wrap. With this shape of handle a wrap is quite important as the thrower has a tendency to fly out of the hand. I have some brain tanned hide which is a candidate but will probably opt for some thongs I have . I don't think that the ice agers would have used leather wraps. Inuit don;t actually tan leather they just remove the flesh and fat tanning leather in that environment is nearly impossible. Any "raw" handle would probably turn quite smelly in our climate.
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I will test fire it as soon as the weather improves.
The materials are red deer (antler and sinew) and birch two materials we know were present in Ice age europe.
The shape I have chosen for the thrower is baically the most comfortable I find to throw. We know that the shafts were circular in section due to the shape of the survivng hooks. the length is conjecture but was probably personal. Aborigine woomeras are a wide variety of lengths. The hook was carved over the week during the evenings it was really hard even with steel tools. I only used the knife and abrasives but with flint tools carving one of these things must have been performed over a longer time.
I used epoxy resin for the adhesive. I toyed with the idea of hide glue which is often listed as an ice age adhesive. However in the absence fo evidence (to my knowledge) of any form of earthern ware pots I can't see how they would have manufactured glue form hides and hooves. I suspect pine pitch was used but being a busy primitive I took one short cut there. I will also coat the sinew wraps with modern glue as we unfortunatly don;'t live in the nice dry environment of the Magdalenian.
I may add a leather handle wrap. With this shape of handle a wrap is quite important as the thrower has a tendency to fly out of the hand. I have some brain tanned hide which is a candidate but will probably opt for some thongs I have . I don't think that the ice agers would have used leather wraps. Inuit don;t actually tan leather they just remove the flesh and fat tanning leather in that environment is nearly impossible. Any "raw" handle would probably turn quite smelly in our climate.
I will test fire it as soon as the weather improves.
