In farewell, and yet not in farewell, the Master handed me his best bow. "When you shoot with this bow you will feel the spirit of the Master near you. Give it not into the hands of the curious! And when you have passed beyond it, do not lay it up in remembrance! Destroy it, so that nothing remains but a heap of ashes."
Excellent reproduction Xenos! I like your website too (I read the build using Google Translate, so got most of the details). Are there a lot of atlatlists in Bulgaria?
Devin
In farewell, and yet not in farewell, the Master handed me his best bow. "When you shoot with this bow you will feel the spirit of the Master near you. Give it not into the hands of the curious! And when you have passed beyond it, do not lay it up in remembrance! Destroy it, so that nothing remains but a heap of ashes."
No, Devin, there is not much atlatlists in Bulgaria. The only real atlatlist that I know is Atlatlstan you probably know here. And I know more people who do atlatls and throw occasionally, but nothing serious. Atlatl not very popular here in Bulgaria, a fact that I personally try to change by posting materials on the subject in my blog.
For me personally, atlatl is just one of my many interests in the field of primitive technology and bushcraft. I can not call myself atlatlist, because now I have more time just to make gear, and not so much to use it. ( Soon, I hope to change that!
And not to be totally off topic here atlatls made by my Bulgarian friends:
Greetings!
Stoyan
*P.S. Excuse me for my bad English! This is GoogleTranslate...
Well brand new to the atlatl, still have to make a few darts and practice a lot. But the other day i divated from making a spoon out of the botched hop hornbeam staves i have( quite twisted) and took a piece and fashioned a atlatl out of a 23" piece. Heres some pics.
Not sure how well it will preform. But we will see. Any comments, critics, or advise is welcome.
Xenos. You're friends atlatl is pretty nice too. What kind of wood and what is the spur? Looks horn in one pic.
Jim. Good use of the EHH I like the "self atlatl" I have one EHH down too and cut a few pieces for atlatls, they are drying. Cut a few branches for foreshafts too, darn hard wood, heavy when wet. There's a mess more in the woods I couldn't get to yet but will, and will cut some up. Maybe 24 feet, 10-12 dia but very twisted and gnarly, bark on, ends will be checked but I think there will be some good wood.
fish, oustanding work and a great example of the European style throwers!
xenos, excellent repro! really pretty.
jim, great job on your first atlatl. Like we always tell beginners, it isn't the atlatl that's important, it's the dart. Take the time to learn proper dart construction and you'll get much better results.
I know that there are some differences, between atlatl darts and arrows. I have built a few arrows out of bamboo cane mostly for roving in the woods. But other then size are atlatl darts that much different fundamentally then arrows in construction? Planning on attempting my first dart build after next weekend.
By the way i really enjoyed your youtube videos on the atl.
not much difference. check out Tom Mills' (Paleoaleo's) youtube tutorial on dart construction and tuning. it's still the best video out there on how to construct a proper dart.
We also have How-tos on dart construction on our website (basketmakeratlatl.com), including the written version of Tom's cane dart tutorial.
In farewell, and yet not in farewell, the Master handed me his best bow. "When you shoot with this bow you will feel the spirit of the Master near you. Give it not into the hands of the curious! And when you have passed beyond it, do not lay it up in remembrance! Destroy it, so that nothing remains but a heap of ashes."