Since we've been talking about some stone age hunting tools in the slings thread, I thought I might post some pictures of an atlatl I have made for my teenage son for Christmas.
Here is the thrower -- the grip is deerskin, so is the braided wrist loop, the bannerstone is carved marble, the hook is antler, all bound with artificial sinew. Oh, the wood is California Juniper -- a great, light and strong wood. It makes a decent bow, too...)
The darts I make of oak dowels with a scarfed joint in them -- learned the trick a while back on paleoplanet ( http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/ ) and it's great. Since they're six feet long, I'm only showing the rear....
and the point...
A few words about the point... I often use steel trade points for the arrow head and yes, I knap quite a few too, but metal goes on all my field atlatl darts. However, I don't use trade points much now because the copper pipe fitting and sharpened cold rolled steel approach (also snagged from Paleoplanet) is fantastic. I've got to say it makes the darts last forever and hit REALLY hard.
I always keep three of these copper/steel and four trade points in my possibles bag at all times so that, if faced with a survival situation I've got good quality points at my disposal. Only adds a couple of ounces to the weight.
When you throw an atlatl dart into a stump with the copper/steel tips you can readily see why ancients could bring down even wooly mammoths with these.
The really cool thing is making simple atlatls in the wild is a snap and is lots of fun at night around the fire.
Here is the thrower -- the grip is deerskin, so is the braided wrist loop, the bannerstone is carved marble, the hook is antler, all bound with artificial sinew. Oh, the wood is California Juniper -- a great, light and strong wood. It makes a decent bow, too...)
The darts I make of oak dowels with a scarfed joint in them -- learned the trick a while back on paleoplanet ( http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/ ) and it's great. Since they're six feet long, I'm only showing the rear....
and the point...
A few words about the point... I often use steel trade points for the arrow head and yes, I knap quite a few too, but metal goes on all my field atlatl darts. However, I don't use trade points much now because the copper pipe fitting and sharpened cold rolled steel approach (also snagged from Paleoplanet) is fantastic. I've got to say it makes the darts last forever and hit REALLY hard.
I always keep three of these copper/steel and four trade points in my possibles bag at all times so that, if faced with a survival situation I've got good quality points at my disposal. Only adds a couple of ounces to the weight.
When you throw an atlatl dart into a stump with the copper/steel tips you can readily see why ancients could bring down even wooly mammoths with these.
The really cool thing is making simple atlatls in the wild is a snap and is lots of fun at night around the fire.