About 50 years ago, a group of elderly Aboriginal men came to my school and spent the day showing us everything from hand drill fires, their traditional music and dances to throwing sticks, spears and the woomera. As an 8 year old it had a huge impact on me, thanks for triggering that memory for me.
Thank you for showing your prized instruments. About 65 years ago as a child I purchased a plastic Boomerang off of a comic book ad for 25 cents, . It tppk forever to come in the mail but finally did I went outside and threw it expecting it to come back but it landed on a neighbors roof on the first throw, lol. On the first heavy rain my friend found it on the lawn and also threw it breaking it on the side of a house. It is very fortunate that the people of Down Under had better material than 50's hard plastic.
The Woomera is used as a gaf hook when fishing it's strong enough to haul very big fish into a canoe I wouldn't worry about it breaking. The boomerang is also a multi tool it's used as a rake to clear ground for a campsite it's used as a musical instrument it's used has a shovel for digging it's used to transmit message's usually they would be decorated it's a club when needed for war and hunting a good one will be made from half tree root and half stump to get that bend it goes under water for a few days before it's cooked on the coals to strengthen it then soaking in red or white clay for adding weight and colour .
They are fun to make but complex to tune to high performance. We would definitely love to make you one from high impact polycarbonate if you are interested. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
Great video! After making my boomerang style throwing sticks, I’m thinking of trying to make a couple of Karli. There are some trees in the woods I go to do my videos, that have half of the trees broken and fallen from storms. I will be checking them out to see if I can find some good bends in them that would be good to use.
Thanks for watching and definitely have fun working on this ancient skill. It takes a lot of work to tune these correctly. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
It's not primitive at all. The aerodynamics of the boomerang are the same as an aeroplane wing. It just took white people many more aeons to work it out.
Love it. Only can imagine the sort of gashes and bone breaking damage those things would cause to an opponent. Really want to see a historically accurate skirmish involving these weapons in a film. You’d have to be quick on your feet with clubs and boomerangs outside of ritualistic warfare. Best wishes from Jukun and Kokatha mob
Thank-you for your comments. I concur on the film. Maybe someday, mate! All my best to you and your mob for the New Year! Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
When I was younger I remember an old man throwing his boomerang and spears with the womara it's harder to throw the bomarang/Karli but much more effective faster more accurate
Thanks for sharing your memory on this. It's very fascinating and rare to have these experiences first hand passed from the older generation. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
Hans, Thank-you for this information. I was unaware of this. Since making this video I have also been told that the glossy finish on some throwsticks is from goanna lizard oil. The fluted throwstick in this video is remarkably finished and the polish seems beyond what sand could do. It is not oily. Can you confirm that this finish was used historically? I am learning all the time. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
Thanks for the information. There's always more to learn about these amazing things. Like porcupine grass vs. spinifex grass. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
This is incorrect, Porcupine Grass (Triodia scariosa), (one of 65 similar species) does not produce resin. Triodia pungens is one of many Triodia that was used to produce resin. The genus has the common name Spinifex though they are not the true Spinifex which is coastal.
ABJ, I did not make any of the instruments shown in this video other than the stick thrown in the opening scene. Obviously I make kylies professionally but these are all artifacts. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
Great question. So these are made of very hard and heavy wood. In the case of these sticks it is desert mulga, - acacia aneura, which is incredible weighty. So think something about equal to oak in hardness to where it feels like a rock, but more dense and heavier in weight. The important thing for the Aborigines was that the grain of the tree branch or tree trunk which they used to carve their karli, be the same curve as the finished product. This way the grain of the wood goes with the bend and if the stick takes a big impact, it will not break. There are numerous examples of old sticks in museums and in collections like mine, which have some minor chips on the edges but which still were in one solid functional piece. The two examples of karli I have here have no edge chipping and are in beautiful condition. Now I have done some work in hard wood but since it's not easily obtainable in the bent elbow form, most of the sticks I make myself are polycarbonate. That is the material used to manufacture bullet proof glass. It's virtually unbreakable. I throw my sticks at full force in very harsh environments containing huge boulders, as you can see in my other videos. When I hit a boulder it sometimes chips or dents the edges a bit, but that's about it. I throw at hard objects for target practice, on purpose. So the sticks I'm making are extremely tuff and tend to really break up whatever I throw them at. They break through the walls of my shed and bounce off the steel soccer goal posts at the park without a dent. They're pretty amazing. I will probably put out an extreme condition durability test video sometime in the future showing just how much they can take. Obviously I wouldn't do this with the hard wood because it's so beautiful.
My pleasure. So the polycarbonate is a really remarkable material. They use it to make impact resistant glasses, etc.... It is stiff but flexible if it needs to be. It bounces back really well. Under extreme abuse it can chip to a degree on very high speed impacts against the edge on sharp solid objects such as a sharp boulder. It can get shallowly cut if thrown against a thin steel edge like the edge of a shovel or sword blade. I've tested all of this myself. If thrown against a hard blunt edged object it tends to just cold form by taking a small dent in the edge. It takes a lot of force to do any of this. These could also be hammered back to the way they were before as well on an anvil, but that is extremely rare for a throwing stick. Even my oldest and most abused sticks are still nice and functional. I've thrown them against boulders and steel posts and had barbed wire scrape across them, etc.... They are amazingly tuff.
Good show and tell but was hoping to see them used and maybe an explanation on the purpose of the fluting (other than "make them more (aerodynamic") and shape,
Thanks for your comment. I can provide some explanation in writing here to make up for the lack of it in the video. The fluting works like the turbulators on a golf ball. With thick objects like this, flying at decent velocity, there is a strong tendency for the airflow to detach from the top of the wing's curve without following it in a streamline to the trailing edge of the wing. This detached airflow creates an actual vacuum behind the wing, and as you can imagine, it really slows the wing down in flight. This is called form drag" By applying a textured surface a lot of little swirls of air are generated around the wing which are called a boundary layer. This induced turbulance actually excites the air and helps to pull the primary airflow down onto the wing, eliminating form drag from the system. In exchange, some extra friction drag is generated by the surface, but this is generally much less costly to the system then the form drag itself. As far as the shape of the sticks, there's a lot that can be said. The styles shown in this video are mainly designed for their ergonomics and ability to be thrown hard in an efficient package. With one wing longer and heavier than the other, the heavier wing operates with less leverage across the center of balance and less airspeed over its tip than the other, thus at least reducing the drag. It also lives in the wash of the longer, leading wing, further enhancing its efficiency. This is like the increase in gas mileage when you follow close behind a big truck on the highway. Much more could be said but is beyond the scope here. In terms of a demo, unfortunately these old sticks are no-longer functional due to subtle warping with age. The ones that do work must be treated well because a break means the loss of an irreplaceable artifact. I've had the honor of throwing several artifacts. Some are great still. Fortunately you can see what premium sticks of this type can do with this video right here, where I throw about 120 meters distances, flat and level. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dNBSFocmXlU.html Thanks, Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
@@Throwsticks Wow. Thanks Benjamin. That has to be the best and most helpful response I have ever received on RU-vid. Most appreciated. Going to look at the link now. Thanks again!
Watch my video "All In A Day's Work" and you'll see me making a karli from a bent tree branch. I will make an instructional video on how to throw but only after I get some products available. If you want to see some long range flights, check out the "Karli Goals Video" 95 meters flights! Enjoy :)
My pleasure. And if you like what you see, check back because we're going to be doing some demos with the big sticks and showing the destructive power a karli can have on a target. The karli I'm using in the other videos is small compared to what is coming up ahead.
You're right. It's Acacia aneura. The Aborigines used many desert hardwoods but this one is prominent. The specific gravity is well above 1.0. Some were as high as 1.3 I have heard. Amazing natural resources.
Friend, Congratulations! I get so weary of folks referring to a Spear Thrower as an "Atlatl" that I could SCREAM! When I was young, People would say "Spear Thrower AKA the Atlatl," but somehow "Atlatl" become the preferred term. I HATE it when terminology changes. There isn't a vote or a referendum or anything. Arrogant speakers just change it. …..RVM45
Thank-you. I couldn't agree more. People are really drive by thinkers. The real problem I run into is with "boomerang", "kylie", "karli", etc.... Boomerang is now an internationally recognized word now for a stick that returns when thrown, but it never meant that originally. Yet in Australia even hunting sticks tend to be called boomerangs these days, which leads to confusion between the two types. Then you get the term "non returning boomerang." Which is basically sounding like a boomerang that doesn't work right.... But then in central Australia they are called karli by those more influenced by Aboriginal culture. Personally I want to avoid confusion that boomerangs are weapons, since they aren't. The more international Aboriginal term for straight flying hunting sticks has come to be "kylie." But the styles I focus on making are not historical to the Western Australian language group that term came from. There were over 200 dialects In pre-colonial Australia and basically everyone now seems confused. The term "throwstick" doesn't quite do justice to something which can fly straight 120+ meters but then that's at least a distinction from rabbit stick which doesn't fly at all. I think with spear throwers and atlatl it should be simple, but a lot of people get it wrong. A spear thrower is a spear thrower and an atlatl is an atlatl. They are different items from different cultures. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
Throwsticks Channel yep. Australia in its heyday had closer 500 language/dialects. Insane that these mobs/ tribes and Nations had their own word for that tool. The word boomerang probably entered the English vocabulary in the early 1800s when proper boomerangs appeared in the Sydney region. You did a great job on tge video
Because information/knowledge/expertise, and genetic heritage are two completely different things. Why are you commenting on the internet if you didn't invent it? I'm a big fan of Aboriginal technology in Australia and around the world and have been engaged in this exploration for the vast majority of my life. I believe an appreciation of past technology from largely forgotten cultures helps human beings to respect the past and thus think more carefully about how they move into the future. I'm also the craftsman behind and founder of Throwsticks.com, the world's first and only business dedicated exclusively to hunting boomerangs. I make and tune these things on a much larger scale than anyone else on the planet ever has and possibly ever will, and I'm extremely gifted at it. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
@@jaimcdonald4609 Are you Australian Aboriginal? If so, congratulations on your awesome and ingenious heritage. Throwsticks and boomerangs were used around the world back to ancient times, so it is unclear what people first invented them, or if they arose in many places separately. But certainly nowhere did they reach the high levels of aeronautical engineering achievements as in Australia, going back for thousands of years, so I am happy to say that in their highest form the Aboriginals invented this instrument. I hope that my work can help honor that heritage. If you check out our history and science page at www.throwsticks.com/history-science you will see where I have written on this topic extensively. You have a lot to be proud of in my opinion and the wisdom of your heritage has a lot the world needs to re-learn. Benjamin Scott Throwsticks.com
