Spear thrower, atlatl or woomera?

They are all the same, a stick that elogates your arm and adds much more power and distance to a throw of a spear or dart. Plus they are great fun.
I'll post a pic or two when servimg stops playing silly buggers.

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This dart is a replica made for disply out of hazel, antler, a bone point and the fletching is lashed with sinue. The spear thrower is again made of hazel with a bone hook set in the end with sinue, the little Y shaped cradle is made of a piece of yew. I didn't want to chuck this dart around so I made one out of bamboo with a metal tip and fletched it with artificial sinue. I haven't a photo of that one but the tip was made similar to this one: http://www.primitiveways.com/field_points_for_atlatl.html

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It was great fun hurling the dart as far as you could, best shot was around 50m! We didn't bother with a target.

That looks fun, i just wouldnt want to be on the recieving end.

Oof! That smarts a bit

we will have to rear some piglets in a wood

Now you just have to go into production of these things and start selling them to Olympic javelin contestants.

Rearing piglets? isn't that illegal?!
Yes, the javelin is rubbish. Just needs a stick with a hook and records would be broken...
Tried throwing the dart without assistance and it went about half the distance.

mr.hertzian cone wrote:Rearing piglets? isn't that illegal?!
Yes, the javelin is rubbish. Just needs a stick with a hook and records would be broken...
Tried throwing the dart without assistance and it went about half the distance.

 
    - your sharper than the spear - best chuckle i have had for a while

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A slightly out of focus pic of how the bone hook fits into a little divot in the back of spear.

" />Well eventually the bone tip got broken. So this was the flint replacement with a foreshaft of ash. The other one is another bamboo dart with a standard archery field point fitted.

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A close-up, the binding over the flint is of fine hemp string soaked in regular white wood glue.

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This is another one with a brass archery tip on a willow shoot. I wouldn't recommend willow as this one had a weak point just in front of the fletching which liked to bend every time it was thrown. The spear thrower in this picture was made of yew with jute binding for the handle and sinew wrap for the bone hook.

Very nice, you may now qualify as the British champion at the atl atl.

This has some interesting spear throwers and dart designs though its all a bit German: http://www.speerschleuder.de/Bauanleitung/Main7.html
You may have to translate...

in later use a small lead weight was added towards the tip end.

An interesting shapes spear I found while researching Aussie stone tools. Could be the most artistic spear I've seen.

Cool, I still wouldn't like to be on the receiving end though. It's quite short for an Aboriginal spear, maybe that is just the fore-shaft?