Main Discussion Area > Cave Men only "Oooga Booga"
Mussel shell bannerstones
swamp monkey:
Ogga Booga Style.
Cutting a three sided section out with a piece of flint takes over an hour. I will do this several times to get an average. I might get better at it. ;) Sanding the shell segment into shape takes another 1.5 hours per segment. I did the segment below on a slab of course sandstone.
I have no idea how to best drill the holes ABO style. This stuff is HARD. I dare say it is harder than igneous rock. I also do NOT have flint drills to make this happen. My knapping skills are beginner at best. I will figure something out. . 8)
swamp monkey:
I got a trip to Philmont under my belt and had some time to work on mothballed projects. Good memories with my son.
Here is progress on one of those projects. I was able to get holes cut. Not abo. I am not a flint knapper as of yet and couldn't make drill bits. Perhaps for my next set of these. ;)
Each hole is precisely 13 mm. I put them on a sanded poplar stick that is exactly the right diameter. This tested my holes and revealed my next steps. I need to work the inside of the shells to ensure they are the same curvature as the outside. This will allow the shells to snug up closer together and have less gap between them. Second I need to make them all the same shape in terms of outline. I will work on these in that order.
Lesson learned. If you want 11 of these start making 15. (I did) You break some along the way. (I did that too) Stuff happens.
swamp monkey:
Some progress. the shells fit tighter together and are beginning to share the same shape. This is a lot more work than I expected.
Dakota Kid:
I had a thought regarding the glued together banner stones inhibiting bend. Perhaps the way they were fashioned together allowed for bending, much like vertebrae in a spinal column. Just a thought. Could it also ad power if done with sinew?
swamp monkey:
--- Quote from: Dakota Kid on November 02, 2015, 02:54:05 am ---I had a thought regarding the glued together banner stones inhibiting bend. Perhaps the way they were fashioned together allowed for bending, much like vertebrae in a spinal column. Just a thought. Could it also ad power if done with sinew?
--- End quote ---
DK thanks for the post. I like that out of the box thinking. The shaft inside is roughly 1/2 inch in diameter (13mm) and there is not a lot of bend in it. Perhaps a little. However, I would not expect much bend either. The western N. American atlatls were bendable and there are several examples to make replicas from. Eastern N. American atlatls are far less common due to decay potential, but the ones we have access to are not really the bending type. With that said I will be interested in observing how this one functions. Will a slight bit of flex impact sound? adhesion for the glue? I know I am not moving very fast on this project but I am quite interested in using this atlatl. Life gets busy. Most of you know exactly what I am talking about.
thanks for the interest.
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