Windchills are minus 8 to 15 in the Northeast as we start off this week but we are looking ahead to spring and a variety of upcoming events!
We have a good stock of atlatls and darts ready for you to get out and start practicing with your atlatl Bob Berg and crew have been busy during the winter stocking up our inventory.
We are starting to schedule events for the 2007 season. So far, we have plans to travel to Maine, Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York. We just returned from Kentucky and Texas. We will be updating out event list in the next week to let you know where we will be and what is going on with the World Atlatl Association, the International Atlatl Society, various state organizations such as the New Atlatl Association, Pennsylvania Atlatl Association, Ohio Atlatl Association, Michigan Atlatl Association and others.
There are great atlatl discussion sites at Paleo Planet – thanks to the efforts of Tom Mills. The link is: http://p081.ezboard.com/fpaleoplanet69529frm68
There are also great discussions on Dennis Lantz’ Atlatls ‘n’ more site. We will be working on updating our link pages so you can find these pages easier. Keep Warm! Spring is just around the corner!
Aztec Atlatl Battle – the beginning!
Aztec Atlatl Battle Picture in Pencil
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Aztec Atlatl Battle in Oil on Linen Canvas
These are my recent interpretations of a picture carved into the stone of a pyramid in Honduras. The cape and quilted arm armor are as described in a book by Bernal Diaz – The Conquest of New Spain, used to fend off darts and arrows. The feather headdress follows closely the original carving. I don’t know if the colors are correct in the oil painting. My art work is a little primitive but it shows what I wanted it to show.
The People of Middle America of around 700 to 1000 years ago had developed a high degree of sophistication with the atlatl. In other places where the bow and arrow were introduced or invented the atlatl went out of favor but not in Middle America. The Aztecs favored the weapon over the bow perhaps because of ceremonial reasons. It may have been the Aztec weapon of choice because of the Aztec’s origins. The atlatl and dart are very good for catching fish from a boat. Perhaps because the Aztec village of origin was on an island in the middle of a lake the Aztecs never stopped using them. In any case when Cortez tried to conquer the Aztec empire they found the atlatl and dart to be effective against their metal armor, which the bow and arrow could not penetrate. © 2007 Bob Berg
Upcoming Events!
Thunderbird Atlatl will be at the Jim Strader Expo Sports Show in Louisville, Kentucky, February 23, 24 and 25! We are looking forward to introducing the atlatl to this large audience of sports enthusiasts! If you are in the Louisville area, take some time and stop by the show.
Every May we are involved in an atlatl fishing contest in the Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky. We will be promoting that event and the joys of fishing with an atlatl harpoon at the show.
Following the show, some members of the Thunderbird Atlatl staff are heading off for a few days of atlatl hunting in Texas. We are looking forward to a great time!
Posted by thunder
Looking Forward to Spring!
Winter finally hit the northeast this week! Still spring is just around the corner and the atlatl season will be in full swing. For those in warmer climates, the atlatl season is still active and we have a great inventory for those interested in getting a new or second or even third atlatl. Check out our web page or give us a call at 1-800-836-4520 to see what we have in stock.
We are starting to set up our 2007 season of events. If you have an event you would like to see us at let us know! Right now we are tentatively looking at shows in Kentucky, Florida and Georgia in the next couple of months. We will be traveling to Virginia in June and possibly Maine in July. We will be in Pennsylvania in August and, of course, at the annual Stonetool Show at Letchworth State Park in August which is closely followed by the annual program at Flintridge State Park in Brownsville, Ohio over Labor Day Weekend. September programs include Chimney Point Historic Site in Vermont and the Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers, Mass.
Some Thoughts on Hafting Stone and Bone Points
The most effective method of hafting stone and bone points is with cellulose based fiber and glue. The glue can be modern or traditional. I use hide glue, pine or copal resin, or modern glues like Elmer’s, Carpenters Glue or epoxy. Animal fibers tend to fail faster when they get in contact with water. Cellulose fibers like yucca, basswood, hickory, flax, hemp, dog bane, and cotton have proven to be better than sinew each and every time I have used them in real hunting situations. I prefer flax, hemp and dog bane fibers. Rain, dew, blood and wet earth get in contact with sinew and it turns to slime and releases the haft. It also turns a hafted point into a dog bone. Something will eat it sooner or later. Hide glue is also affected by water.
Tree resins are very water resistant and work well if they are not too brittle. Pine resin can be tempered with charcoal, dung, bees wax and fats which make the resin less likely to be brittle. Many different recipies have been used for this purpose.
The combination of hide glue and cellulose fibers shrinks and tightens up the hafting. If you saturate linen cloth with hide glue and stretch it on a frame it is drum tight after it dries. I learned this from making canvases for oil painting. I also read, but have not confirmed this with my own experiment, that linen cloth saturated with hide glue applied to glass will actually break the glass when it dries.
I also have been experimenting with pine and copal resin as a sealant for hafting. After the glue dries I apply several coats of thinned pine resin or copal resin to the hafted area. This makes a very hard, smooth, and water resistant haft. The reason I like this method is that the surface of the fiber, after it is coated this way, offers little resistance to penetration. Copal resin is fossilized pine resin that gets very hard after it is dry. Pine resin remains sticky for a long time. I don’t know whether this method is “traditional”.
I use turpentine or alcohol to thin the resin. You can melt both resins over heat to apply them also but this is more difficult. It is also possible to use runnier fresh pine sap, then heat the finished piece to encourage drying. I also use the copal resin thinned into a “shellac” on the thread whipping that holds the front and back of my fletching down. A thin coating of the thinned resin on the dart shaft itself makes it virtually water proof and will adhere the fletching to the shaft.
To make the thinned resin put a few pieces of pine resin or copal on a square of cloth, tie it closed with string, place it in a glass jar of turpentine or denatured alcohol with the lid tightened. Every now and then shake the jar. After a while the resin will be dissolved. The bark and dirt will remain in the cloth. Copal resin works a lot better than pine because it dries in a half an hour or less.
-Some thoughts about the atlatl Bob Berg-
Posted by Robert Berg