I like the arctic art. I wood burned these on a red cedar Greenland paddle. and have a few other ideas I may do on the other side. One with a kayaker after a group of Walrus, and the other with a Polar Bear and seal.
@castoff said:
I like the arctic art. I wood burned these on a red cedar Greenland paddle. and have a few other ideas I may do on the other side. One with a kayaker after a group of Walrus, and the other with a Polar Bear and seal.
Nice paddle.
Beautiful work!! Very nice representations of the animals.
it was fun learning to use the harpoon and throwing stick and I’d like to eventually make one for myself (the target ones don’t have a lethal tip).
I could get into doing that.
We made a floating target of concentric circles of PEX tubing joined with wooden dowel plugs and connected with rope spacers for Greenland Training Camp. But I missed the competition due to being engrossed in learning to re-skin a kayak.
This old copy of the QajaqUSA newsletter has an article about Inuit target harpoons. I couldn’t find anyone who still makes them for sale, but they don’t seem as if they would be hard for a woodworker to replicate. The one the instructor had as GTC was really nice. http://www.qajaqusa.org/newsletter/Masik_Fall2004_10043.pdf
I can see the toss ,followed quickly by a roll - over.
They have dart (often called spear) throwing with an atlatl at some of the traditional archery tournaments I have been in. I haven’t tried my hand at it. Many of the larger stone “arrowheads” aren’t. They are dart points. True arrowheads are smaller. I have found both types here in SC and FL. In general dart points are older than the true arrowheads. Some believe our continent was settled by coastal sea travel, and not by overland migration.
Thanks for the link. I haven’t kept up with the qajaq news letter for a number of years now.
String, it’s really not too unstable when making the throw … although I expect that’s why people learn to roll with a norsak. It’s a full body throw. You initiate by leaning back on the back deck and then launch with the abs, then the arm, and then the wrist. In previous years the targets were old soccer balls - looked like skulls floating. One throw, by shear accident, I actually hit one.
Yes, as rival51 explains, the motion is purely aligned stern to bow, using a launch that comes up through your abs, pects, shoulder, forearm and wrist with a smooth and fluid full body engagement which, if executed properly, puts a slight spin on the lance. The force that the throwing stick generates is impressive - I’ve launched with an atlatl before and it’s the same effect. My instructor was good and once he outlined the body movement it felt absolutely natural and was exhilarating. He had us practice on shore first, sitting on the ground with feet braced on a rock. Out in the boat (and I was in a hard chined 21" sea kayak) I had no sense of twitchiness or instability during the throws. A good throw sends the harpoon high up in a steep parabolic arc so that it comes nearly straight down onto your target with a lot of force.
In the Henry Napartuk stonecut print, you can see that the hunter has just dropped his paddle and picked up his harpoon – he would not launch it in that position but is preparing to arch back to launch it up above the walrus, not directly at it.
Found a pic from training camp of Mike Bielski doing on-shore demo with his harpoon and throwing stick. He started from a position leaning straight back and you can see from the downward trajectory of the lance how steep the release angle is. The fact that the throwstick is about 120 degrees past where the lance released from the pegs that connect it shows how the arc of the throw follows through:
Nice picture of Mike.
Mike and I got talking as we were paddling around one day on the lake at QTC and I discovered he is old friends with my cousin from Toledo and his wife (who played in the same orchestra as Mike’s wife). I had just spent a week with those cousins at their cottage at Lakeshore Chatauqua on Lake Erie. Small world! Mike’s a really nice guy and a great instructor.