Bullroarers

[Kepis]

These are most definitely the thing of the moment, I'm as addicted to carving these as i am spoons, well perhaps not quite as bad as that, but there is something quite satisfying about carving these things and then whizzing them round your head and making all manner of banshee type wailing and other weird noises, dead easy to carve and great fun to use.

Pictured above are two of my latest creations, both are made from Boxwood, which whilst hard to carve, does look great once it's done and the finish you can achieve is incredible, despite being dead smooth, both of the roarers make an incredible noise, which OK, i could increase by adding some aerodynamic instabilities like the dimples found on a golf ball, but in the case of these two, i just simply don't want to spoil the look and feel of them, although the bottom one in the picture does need to have it's width reduced somewhat.

[video=youtube;5JrC8bXJwCk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JrC8bXJwCk[/video]

 

[mrcairney]

Great, what's the origins of these, aside from Paul Hogan... (I know I could google it, but it's nice to chat)

Also, are they flat or slightly concave?

 

[woodgrain]

Great are these - tutorial?

Graeme

 

[Mesquite]

Nice bit of carving mark... Whenever I've tried making one it never seemed to 'roar' properly.

And whenever I read about them this clip always springs to mind...

 

[mwnci]

Excellent video Mesquite!

Those bull roarers look the business, might have to give that a go!

 

[Kepis]

Great, what's the origins of these, aside from Paul Hogan... (I know I could google it, but it's nice to chat)

Also, are they flat or slightly concave?

There are many different origins as far as i can ascertasin, there is even mention of them in ancient Britain, it sems that most cultures around the world figured these things out, some peoples used them for religion, others to summon weather, others as a means to locate each other in the landscape, i even found some material on these that went as far as describing them by mathematical formulae.

As far as shape, that are convexed on both sides and are made with a rough ratio of three or four to one, ie three inche3s long to one inch in width, i know one thing from tinkering with these, the string hole has be on the exact centre line and the edges have to be really thin, almost to a knife edge, the two box woods one inthe top picture are no more than an eighth of an inch thick.

 

[Kepis]

Great are these - tutorial?

Graeme

possibly

 

[Kepis]

Nice bit of carving mark... Whenever I've tried making one it never seemed to 'roar' properly.

And whenever I read about them this clip always springs to mind...

Lol,. i have that video saved on my PC, makes me chuckle everytime i watch it.

We found that messing around with these that some we made that didnt work initially, worked superbly once we changed the string, all of mine have a doubled up length of artifical sinew on them, the thinness of the string means less air resistance, which means less work for a start but all the energy is placed into the roarer rather than trying to get it all moving in the first place, the long narrow one in the group pic didnt work at all, then we put a thin string on it and now it screams

 

[Neumo]

I made one some time ago & tried it with paracord, but that was too thick & would not make the noise. Some thinner string made all the difference. I must have another go, as they are great when you have a good one. Thanks for sharing.

 

[LuckyDucky]

Is any type of wood ok? Does the size change the sound?

 

[Kepis]

i use heavy wood like Oak for the majority of mine, but any wood will do, a heavy wood has good inertia and means less effort to spin, the size and shape affect the sound, a long narrow, thin one will spin faster and give a higher pitch, whereas a long wide one of equal thickness will spin slower and therefore be of a lower pitch, half the fun with these is experimenting

 

[LuckyDucky]

Go some layllandi out back ill try with that first.

 

[rancid badger]

They're brilliant! and great to see you've got the kids interested too

I made a couple of these a while back and it took me ages to figure out how to get them to work

Once you crack it though, you're away.

cheers

Steve

 

[Kepis]

the boys love them Steve, youngest even demonstrated one at a show we did in the summer

 

[LuckyDucky]

Can i make them using any bushcraft knife not just a spaceific one.

 

[Kepis]

certainly can, even though mine are all finished off smooth, in reality the rougher the surfaces the more noise it makes.

 

[LuckyDucky]

Cool! Thanks

 

[lannyman8]

made one of these as a kid after seeing the film....

great fun, drove mum and dad bonkers though....

 

[Brewers Whoop]

They look great. A Bushmoot workshop maybe?