How to weaponize trash

COLORS magazine challenged me to make weapons out of trash.

Well, here is my take:

Semi fossilized oak hammerhead

Had a bit of "young" moor oak lying around (1700 years only). The wood looked nice and brown, not pitch black as the really old stuff.

I made a hammerhead design from it, this time with a "compromise" fork - higher than my experts versions, and lower than the beginners version. Teh fork has a clearance of 11cm (width) and 25mm (height). Total fork height over the hand is 35mm (vs. 25mm "expert" and 45mm "beginners").

The oak isn't brittle at all, but smelled like chicken soup during the filework... and it looks so much darker after the polishing. No stain, just clear oil.

This frame is even deeper than the original Moorhead, especially towards the "pinkie" end. I think this is an enhancement.

Me - A Syfy "Homebrewed Superhero"

The SyFy channel has a new show called "Insane or Inspired".

Well, they featured The Slingshot Channel in the first episode, which aired Friday nite. I cam in at number 6, from 25!

Of course they brought the machete slingshot...

You can watch it here:

http://www.syfy.com/videos/Insane%20or%20Inspired/Full%20Episodes

For those who don't live in the US (like me), the content is blocked. I solved that problem by using a free VPN proxy server called "Hotspot Shield".

I like the show... crazy characters and funny comments.

A Moorhammer for beginners

I do get a lot of video and photo guys visiting me these days. At some point, they always want to try shooting by themselves...

However, my preferred slingshots aren't very good for newbies. They are afraid of hitting their hand, and also they cant the frame, hitting the fork.

Tomorrow, I will have some press people again, and they definetely want to shoot. So I made a "starters" Moorhammer, simply with higher and wider fork. Multiplex, noble wood is not for beginners... one fork hit and a vintage slingshot is ruined. Multiplex can always be repaired.

Finish is oiled and polished, no problem with sweaty palms. The frame can be trimmed back to a full blown Moorhammer as soon as the owner feels comfortable with that.

This may be the best "intro" frame I came up with so far!

Steak-Chain-Saw

Someone suggested I try to find ways to weaponize household items. So I looked around, and found the knifes in the kitchen drawers.

While it is too obvious to attach a steak knife to a broom handle, I thought that maybe I can use a few of them to make a fearsome cross between a lawn trimmer and a chainsaw...

Bought a cheapo (30 bucks) battery powered drill on amazon, plus the steak knifes (one Euro a pop). Attached them to a round wood disk, then found the best transmission (1:2).

I will now experiment with the angles of the knifes, slant them back a bit so they slice rather than poke. And maybe I can find a faster drill. But this looks (and feels) amazing!

The Purple Hammer

I gave my Moorhammer to Peter Hogan, and my Palmhammer to Tobias... so I just had to make another one from cool looking wood.

I selected Purple Heart (Amaranth). I love that wood, hard, dense and strikingly colored.

Here it is!

120 lb "war" slingbow

Made another slingbow. This time, I decided to keep it kind of similar to conventional recurves.

The bow is short, just 80 cm (31") and entirely made from plywood (minus the scales). The bow "limbs" are rigid, as the string is made from pretensed rubber (what else). The weapon is solid enough to handle spear gun rubber, which clocks at 120 lb draw force - well in the English warbow class.

I even made my own arrows, from 10mm (.40") dowels. My longest arrows are 35", very heavy with medieval style broadheads.

I am not an experienced archer, but it performs well.

"Lignum Vitae" Natural Fork

Thierry from New Caledonia traded three beautiful "Tree Of Life" forks and a block of sandalwood against a Panther. He calls the wood "Gaiac", which makes perfect sense.

I think I got the far better deal here. This wood is very hard (three times harder than oak), dense and heavy, with buttery yellow sapwood and a very dark core. I selected the one I wanted to start working on.

Cut the rough outline on the band saw.

Rasp work done.

File work done.You can see the yellow sap wood emerging.

Sanded, wetted, resanded, lightly oiled with clear oil, and buffed up with car chrome polish

Here you can see it in comparison with European dogwood

A small slingshot (just the way I like it) that fits my hand very well.

Panther with Palmwood

Had a bit of the black palmwood left and decided to make a hammergrip Panther from it. I made a few in the past, with different wood for the handles, and given them away, one by one, to friends.

Now I have one again! The wood piece wasn't big, but I left it fairly edgy so it still fills my fist. A great little shooter!

The HammerKung

I love the Hammerhead design. It is simply the best. And I have made Hammerheads from multiplex, noble wood, with a metal core, and got it made by Hogancastings in Aluminum and Bronze. 

But there is one version that was left: A bent wire Hammerhead! So I started with an 8mm steel rod. Bent it into shape, welded the middle for stability, and welded onb some hex nuts as heads. Then, the absolutely necessary wrapping job, with thick 10mm paracord for the handle and regular cord for the fork. 

Secured the cord ends with a bit of epoxy. 

This has an excellent feeling to it now!

 

The birthing of new lead balls

Needed a refill on my lead ball ammo. 

Rainy day today, so I decided to give it a go.

Made five batches using three different moulds

14mm (Hogancastings mould)
16mm (Bells of Hythe mould)
22mm (cheapo lead sinker mould from ebay uk)

 Both professional moulds performed really well, with the Hogancastings teflon plated version creating zero (none at all) cripples, and the Bells of Hythe one creating just three bad balls.

The cheap one needs more attention, it gets very hot soon and you have to use clamps. The stems are thick and I flattened the stumps with the hammer. But I got 30 very nice 22mm lead balls in the end.