Making a catapult by johnjayrambo11111

Making a catapult
After realising I can write a blog , I've decided to do a blog of how I made a catapult recently  ,here is a picture of some of the items used to make it .

catapult making tools
 

The fork I used to make the catapult was from an ash tree , it had been dried for around 6 months , their is a  fast way to dry forks using a microwave ,by placing the fork in the microwave and 'cooking' for a minute at a time ,then letting cool in between each minute until the wood stops steaming .

The fork i used was slightly over sized so I needed to lower the forks and make the handle the right size , I did the handle by simply holding the fork and marking and cutting below my hand .

The forks I cut so they where around an inch high ,also the handle was very wide , and one fork thicker than the other , I shaped the handle with a small fiskars hand axe (not pictured ,also not in pic is the ruler I used ) and the thicker fork was shaped with my mora knife  , I chose not to sand the fork , simply cut with the knife will do for me . after cutting and shaping I used cooking oil to seal the catapult ,

Essentially the catapult frame was now done , so all I had to do was let it the oil dry and make the pouch and cut the bands.

To cut the bands, I first measured them to 10 inches long and 30mm wide , and placed my ruler along the band and cut with rotary cutter ,  at the same time I cut some band ties too,  these where just cut along the shorter side of the what was left over from the sheet of elastic , 

To make the pouch ,I had a small strip of leather and I basically punched a hole each end , then shaped the rest of the pouch to make it lighter and smaller ,
( DONT WORRY IF THIS ALL SOUND A BIT VAGUE OR CONFUSING ,I'LL PUT A VIDEO ON OF THE WHOLE PROCESS)
The final part is putting the bands on and the pouch , this will be quite hard to explain , but I will try my best (sorry I hadn't taken more pictures )

What you have to do for the fork ends is place your band over the fork and wrap it with a tie as you wrap it  you place a small bit of string on you wrap and wrap over that also , once done you place the end of the tie into the string and pull and it will tuck your tie under the elastic wrapping .

To do your pouch end you do the same but first place your band through the hole in your pouch and fold over onto itself then repeat the wrapping process ,                         

Notice the wrapping on the forks and the pouch . HOPE THIS HELPS YOU TO MAKE A CATAPULT YOURSELF .
Check out the video of the whole process of making the catapult .

 
 





VIDEO OF MAKING A CATAPULT OR AS QUITE A FEW PEOPLE CALL THEM SLINGSHOTS


hope you like my first proper blog entry in a very long time