Okay so for those of you (biker) who wanted to see what kind of things I do with catapult frames here is one from today:
It started off with a mammoth tree fork that measured 3.5 inches in diameter at the base and each fork measured 2 inches in diameter.
I first started off removing the bark and then doing 6 courses of microwave treatment to start artificially drying out the wood. Then I set about carving. All the work seen has been done by hand using hand tools only consisting of a stanley knife, kershaw half ton knife, wood saw and sand paper.
I have spent a total of 8 hours carving, whittling and sanding to get it to the stage shown below. It is now having it's final heat treatment in the oven and then will be finished with a coat of yacht varnish which is waterproof and very hard wearing.
In case you are wondering why it's called the priest it's because I have designed it with big owe hunting in mind. Because it is very large and heavy it is both a catapult AND acts as a priest for finishing off any quarry.
Feel free to ask any questions.
Starting point - Stanley knife gives a sense of scale
Rough shaping has begun using my Kershaw
Even more shaping, note all the wood shavings on the floor.
Marked for rough cutting to length
Rough cut to length I now started shaping it into an ergonomic shape. I did this by marking around my thumb, forefinger and pinky finger and then started carving the contoured recesses. I only did these three fingers as they are principally the only ones used when holding a catapult against the pull of the elastic.
Photo showing it in my open hand
Photo showing it in my closed hand. Note how my fingers recess nicely into the hammer grip.
And this is the final article after sanding. It still looks a little rough but |I really like the rustic look.
Next is a final oven heat treatment and then a coat of clear yacht varnish.
My intention is to equip this with triple layer theraband gold tapered from 25-15mm either side. This will give me massive power but be able to maintain accuracy.
Cheers
Dan
It started off with a mammoth tree fork that measured 3.5 inches in diameter at the base and each fork measured 2 inches in diameter.
I first started off removing the bark and then doing 6 courses of microwave treatment to start artificially drying out the wood. Then I set about carving. All the work seen has been done by hand using hand tools only consisting of a stanley knife, kershaw half ton knife, wood saw and sand paper.
I have spent a total of 8 hours carving, whittling and sanding to get it to the stage shown below. It is now having it's final heat treatment in the oven and then will be finished with a coat of yacht varnish which is waterproof and very hard wearing.
In case you are wondering why it's called the priest it's because I have designed it with big owe hunting in mind. Because it is very large and heavy it is both a catapult AND acts as a priest for finishing off any quarry.
Feel free to ask any questions.
Starting point - Stanley knife gives a sense of scale
Rough shaping has begun using my Kershaw
Even more shaping, note all the wood shavings on the floor.
Marked for rough cutting to length
Rough cut to length I now started shaping it into an ergonomic shape. I did this by marking around my thumb, forefinger and pinky finger and then started carving the contoured recesses. I only did these three fingers as they are principally the only ones used when holding a catapult against the pull of the elastic.
Photo showing it in my open hand
Photo showing it in my closed hand. Note how my fingers recess nicely into the hammer grip.
And this is the final article after sanding. It still looks a little rough but |I really like the rustic look.
Next is a final oven heat treatment and then a coat of clear yacht varnish.
My intention is to equip this with triple layer theraband gold tapered from 25-15mm either side. This will give me massive power but be able to maintain accuracy.
Cheers
Dan
