Boring long holes

[mklotz]

A recent episode of Discovery Channel's "Human Planet" (highly recommended) showed Papuan native peoples using their twelve foot long blowpipes to shoot poisoned darts into monkeys sixty feet up in the trees.

Incredible as this feat of marksmanship is, my immediate thought was, "How the .... did they bore out a twelve foot pipe?" Obviously, these people have no lathes or twelve foot long gun drills, so how did they do it?

I have read about Amazonian natives making blowguns by splitting canes, scratching a groove in each half, then binding the halves together to form a crude pipe. The bore is refined by dragging hardwood slugs back and forth through the bore with thongs, using wet sand as an abrasive medium.

However, the Papuan blowpipes looked like solid wooden poles with no obvious lashings so perhaps they were constructed via a different method. There weren't many detailed shots of the weapons so take my "observations" with a grain of salt.

So, my question is, if you were abandoned in the rain forest, how would you go about making a twelve foot blowpipe?

 

[tel]

scratch.gif hmmm ..... steal some copper pipe from the mission station?

 

[mklotz]

scratch.gif hmmm ..... steal some copper pipe from the mission station?

Judging by the complete lack of clothing, I'd say these people were a loooong way from the mission station. Either that or they'd already eaten the missionaries and used the copper pipe to make a still.

 

[kcmillin]

I would train a termite to eat in a straight line :big:

Kel

 

[Maryak]

How about a series of short lengths bound together with spigots ???

 

[jpeter]

I had a chance once to watch a movie, "The Gun Smith of Williamsburg", in which this gunsmith managed to fold up a scalp of wrought iron length wise into a rifle barrel about 3 ft long. He then proceeded to ream it and broach riflings in it and turn it into a fine shooting rifle. You don't suppose they rolled something into a barrel?

 

[milotrain]

I would train a termite to eat in a straight line :big:

Kel

You are correct most likely. That's how the didgeridoo is made. The outside of the branch being harder than the soft inside, the termites hollow it out for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo

 

[Metal Butcher]

I would bore it out using a borrowed cutter from the locals. ;D

I found information indicating that blow guns of the Penan tribesmen are/were produced by hand, boring with a metal cutter.

Start on page 95.

http://books.google.com/books?id=G6...esnum=3&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

-MB

 

[kcmillin]

You are correct most likely. That's how the didgeridoo is made. The outside of the branch being harder than the soft inside, the termites hollow it out for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo

Wow, I was just joking too. I guess primitive minds think alike. :big: :big:

Kel

 

[Herbiev]

Digereedoos are often made by burning the centre

 

[Stan]

We think we have problems. We can't keep a two foot cast iron lathe bed straight in a climate controlled environment and these people have to keep a twelve foot organic pipe straight, in a rain forest!