Atlatl!

[corivax]

I was playing with gfish's atlatl (a gift from the wondrous keen vixyish), and it is neat. I will now proceed to gush about it. :)

Comments

[corivax]

Yes, construction has to be fairly exact. The dart:atlatl length ratio is, ideally, pi, which just fills me with glee. :)

The springiness of the atlatl itself, important for reflecting the wave once, is tuned with by the weight of the stone tied onto it.



Another thing that matters is the weight of the head of the dart, for bouncing the wave. The Smithsonian was doing a dig at an atlatl construction site in North Dakota and found three dart points, two made from chert and one from flint. The team was surprised to notice the flint head was a very different shape than the other two, and more thana centimeter shorter, until they weighed all three points and found less than an ounce's difference in weight between them.

Honestly, I do not think I myself, with all the aid of digital calipers and a well-stocked machine shop, could make one. :)

[corivax]

Erk. That should be "less than a tenth an ounce's weight".

[corivax]

Really? you couldn't make one with calipers and a well-stocked machine shop? Civilizations have been making the atlatl for thousands of years with rudimentary tools (flint and stone). Only early North Americans have used the weighting stone to "tune" an atlatl. The only real reason to precisely tune this weapon, is for competition purposes. If ones intention is to "fool around" with a fun and primitive hunting tool, or learn to hunt with it, such precision is not necessary.