Making A Spear Thrower and Spear (Atlatl) 

Team up with alec steele and have him make you a spear head!

You've nailed it with the VO! Awesome video!

I really appreciated the voice over. I like knowing more about the process you go through during each project, but reading the captions actually takes my attention away from watching the work you do. This time, I was able to understand what you were doing without missing out on your work process. Thank you!

I really love the voice overs! It's great to hear your inner monologue about how your getting everything done. Great work as usual Andy!

Can you make a wooden Rubik's Cube?

Thumbs up on voice over, the creators thoughts are usually valuable when watching them create! I've made around 10 or 15 "chuckers" or atlatls in my youth. I learned that the length of the chucker should be about 1/3 to half the length of the dart, arrow or spear. The best combo I did was an old weeping willow branch with a v stub of another branch about 18". The holding part was about 1.5 inch near the v and tapered to .75 inch out front. On the branch I used there was a swell about half way along the length my hand fit into to hold and swivel when launching. I used my dads old hunting arrows of 30" with very flimsy spines of 500 range (that he hated after he bought them for his compound...too flimsy) and they worked great for me, and the old glass was durable for practice and learning. I got to throwing really accurate but not as fast as a bow... at first. After a lot of practice I took rabbits and pheasants and a few squirrels. Then my dad gave me some old bamboo fly rods and I made a 60 inch spear .50 inch tapered to .375 inch with metal tips made from some sewing thimbles on the anvil. I even did a 2 piece Throwing rod with a 6 inch Dart on the end. The dart hits the target and the rod or shaft falls away to be reused. Your video brought back memories of younger and fonder times, Thank You Andy!

these are soooo much fun to make! you should make a bow! thanks for the tips on what wewd to use.

2:10 the star of the show.

Known as a Woomera by Australian Aboriginals.

A tip I could add for you is to use a flexible wood not a hard wood for the dart it sounds dumb but it truly makes a world of difference on both endurance and distance /accuracy

What you just made its called a atlatl it's used in African cultures to hunt and far distances and the tip will last a lot longer if you scorch it a little

Ive made a couple of atlatls and the best one to use was a piece of plywood with a dowel at an angle. Super easy to make!

Great video Andy. I’ve made these before from green wood and if you make the spear 7feet plus you don’t need any fletching as the spear will fly straight. 👍🏻

Make the spear a lot thinner so it can flex during flight. Makes for much more stable flight, no tipping over.

It was probably difficult to learn to use because you made a large rigid spear rather than the smaller, much thinner and more flexible dart that is intended to be used with the atlatl. The force behind the atlatl is generated when air resistance builds behind the point and causes the dart to bend like a spring and then launch itself off the extended device. Using a more flexible wood and making the dart a bit shorter and significantly thinner will generate a lot more force and make the weapon much easier to use.

Stay with the voice over, I enjoy hearing you explain what you are doing as you do it.

Very cool. I will offer some suggestions though. On your next one, use river cane for the shaft…it’ll be way lighter, as well as more historical. Definitely use feathers for fletching. Don’t sharpen the shaft, but use a sharpened deer antler tip. For the nock, probably use bone or wood. A decade ago, I was at a bow shoot in Oklahoma, and some friends of mine had a contest using the atlatl. What I’m describing is basically what we used, and it wasn’t so rough on the shoulders. The dart glided beautifully.

Ummm... WOW. You made a javelin! Try reducing the circumference of that monster by at least a third, if not a half. The atlatl darts need to flex, like an arrow, and that thing doesn't look like it would ever do that. That should help your accuracy quite a bit.

Señor, quién lo enseño arma blanca?,bien. Leés, maestro, la invención de un lanzador de lanza (eran lanzadores de huesos paleolitico) fue de gran importancia asociada con el aumento de la zona de destrucción por estas armas. El lanzador de lanza hizo posible golpear a la presa a una distancia de hasta 30 metros (sin equipo adicional, solo con la ayuda de una mano, el cazador podía matar a la bestia a no más de 10-15 metros de ella), buenas noches, carpintero texano

I’m going to make one 100%. I’ll probably go the sleeve point route. I’ll absolutely try and fletch the spear with some bird flight feathers too. Shepherds slings are a lot of fun too.

The spear needs to be flexible like a fishing rod ,if it's to stiff it will not go very far are straight. Most of the spears are made of saplings an straighten over a fire. I believe the world record is over 300 yards . Great project lots of fun my grandfather showed us how to make these as kids back in the 70's I killed plenty of game with them .

Is real primityve tech ;) but whit out arrowhead is no have good balace. As a kids we use diferet size nails as a arrowhead. For bow arrows smal 1 1/2 inch, for spears big 8 inch raftors nails.

Hello

You could've just made a dowel maker to make that spear body. I would take only seconds to make from a square stock

You have to aim low. They always hunted low game with it. That makes a hit much easier, because gravity works for you

Very cool to see all these traditional Native American tools to make an atlatl. They were more advanced than I thought. Haha

Got Vietnam flashbacks from 0:57 I got my finger that close to the bandsaw blade and cut my finger to the bone probably should use a leed stick

Glad you put up both videos. I watch the one without comment first so 8 can really see what you do. And then the narrated one to get the information I missed out on. Love you’re work!

We made one a couple yrs ago and used bamboo with a rag tied at the end to control flight. Worked great

Spear is too heavy. But it is a nice Atlatl. This Navajo approves.

Have you tried long-distance shots? Like how far you can possibly throw it?

Nice channel man👍🏼👌🏼😅

when throwing an atlatl try and drop your elbow straight towards the ground it will make it go straighter

Andy, you’re one of my favorite RU-vidrs. I don’t care what you are making, It’s the best.

Great video! Keep the voiceovers. Would love to see spear improvements and some distance throws vs handheld throws.

great video, do you have layout or stencil?

ima make one well at least try and is there a backstory to you dogs tail?

That spear is too much heavy and it is unfeathered also

I like the voice over

good explanation good for beginners 👍🏻

Atladle. You are making an Atladle.

An atlatl

The thing that grows the dark is called an atlatl

In french, we call this a "sagaie" :)

Make the dart a bit skinnier and it will be not as heavy

Puppy! Workshop dogs are the best

Andy, you're having issues throwing it because your spear is way too stiff. It needs to be made either considerable longer at that diameter, or quite a bit thinner. Something in the 7 ft range with the shaft being 1/2 inches - 5/8 inches is a good place to start. If you find it is still too stiff, adding point weight will also make it act more limber when thrown. Hope that helps!

Have you ever flèche your darts

di the Africa one with the string

Not bad. One thing you should think about is having detachable tips on the dart. Basically they would just slot into the end of the shaft that way if the tip is damaged you can just exchange the tips and keep going. One more thing is yes you should put flights on it. It will make learning how to use it so much easier and it will fly much straighter and more accurate.

0:56 NEVER LET YOUR FINGER GET THAT CLOSE TO THE BLADE... in the next 1 or 2 seconds you could of lost a finger ...always keep your hands and other parts of the body at least 3 to 4 inches away...... just a safety concern

Thanks..I'm making one!

Thanks..I'm making one!

in my opinion too round spears is negative idea, cuz it rolls easily and it might be slippery. in close fight would be this 8 edge as you zoomed in 2:13 paused. would be really good and comfortable. like if you have kinda flat spear blade then it is going to be easy to control that and you can... like roll that blade inside enemy´s body, to make extra damage and bleeding. That´s my opinion. just wanted you guys to know. :D

Cool project. Would work better with with a metal tip or stone. The spear was thick I thought. It also needed the feathers on it but it is nice.

i farted and it stinks alot

Make drumsticks please

Awesome Andy. Really enjoyed the info of the VO. The Australian Aborigines call the thrower a ‘woomera’. As others have said there are many names for it. Depends on where you are in the world. 👍 Thanks for the great video mate. 👌👌👌

The spear thrower is called atlatl. They are a lot of fun and can be made from a forked branch in a couple minutes. The dart takes more care. I have a video on my channel that has a lot of info on them.

1:28 WHY DO YOUR THUMBS BEND LIKE THAT!?

Did you consider hardening the tip - you could toss it into a fire, it may be a bit more brittle, but it'll end up significantly harder.

Brotherband be like

Atlatls are a great ranged weapon for Giants in Mabinogi. They are also the only ranged weapons Giants can use. They cannot equip bows or crossbows.

اسم این سلاح چی هست؟

Australian Aboriginals call the spear throwers Wommara's also the spear tip you should char in a fire to harden it.

its hard to find videos where the person can actually explain thing well, love your videos there asome keep up the good work!

used to make these out of bamboo stakes with a lead fishing weight on the nose and fins from an ice cream tub to stabilise flight. instead of the atlatl you can use a piece of string with a knot in the end that loops over itself and releases as you throw it. as a 13 year old i could throw one of these about 80m

dear brother, your work are fantastic, I am love it you are making ancient A spear thrower and spear what is not use actually Olympic game. But this thing is very dangerous in public place. make note to: do not try in public place where public walk on.

At 5:08 u say shit lol

You made a Adele Adele

Nice fun change of pace. Wouldn't recommend it for your next hunting trip though! Thanks Andy!

Its not good to hold wood for a super long time...after about 4 hours u need to see a doctor

Make the holding point upwards more. When you release it, its throwing the butt end down and not releaseing it properly

I am a young 13 year old wood worker I'm taking classes in school for wood working and I love the videos

Very nicely done, I do enjoy the voice over feature. I've always wanted to make an atlatl but never have, just to see how far I could throw the spear.

I threw a traditional one years ago at a fair. After a bunch of raid attempts I finally got a couple to go straight. Pretty cool for sure. Have fun with it

Excellent job

Thank you for a very informational Video. The voice over worked great :)

Gotta brake the rules sometimes 👌🏽😉 (draw knife reverse)

Nice project

The point that contacted the end of the dart socket was usually bone or antler lashed onto the atlatl.

Super cool build! The name for this type of spear thrower is an atlatl (at-le-at-le)

Really neat, Andy. I've never heard of this before. Great build and it looks like fun.

Like your vids dude good thing I'm already subscribed

No bannerstone? I know they're controversial but they look cool.

Always voice over please , love ur vids but despise your captions

Ask Demo lol

attach a heavy duty piece of rubber to the end that also goes behind the dart for more power

Cool project and man your kids are going fast, take care my friend god bless

great job

Nice mate

No entiendo lo que hablas, pero me gustan tus videos, ahre saludos desde Argentina

The 61 dislikes are guys who sit down and Pee's

Dude, you need to build yourself a shaving horse!

Woomera is for spears, Atlatl throughs a 14 inch dart

Oh my goodness, you will poke an eye out! A little play time? Nice.

Love your videos and the voice over the spear thrower is called an Atlatle

why not just throw the spear

Why are you making something you can't use

Reall cool video! How long was the atlatl and the spear?