Phase 01 — First days: water, fire, shelter / About year 1
01.16
Throwing stick and club
small game
AWhat it needs
Needs 6 other products in all, 2 of them directly.
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- 01.16 Throwing stick and clubFood Year 1 needs 6 products
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
- 01.02 HammerstoneMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.08 First fire and stone hearthMaking Year 1 needs 5 products
- 01.06 Tinder and kindling storeMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.07 Bow-drill fire setMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeshown above ↑← shown at left
- 01.05 Twisted plant-fibre cordMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
Open a box to see what it needs. A dashed box is a product already drawn in full: click it to jump there. In the org chart, drag to move around.
BWhy
Small game will not wait for a bow to be invented. A spinning stick thrown low sweeps a wide path and can break the leg of a rabbit or a ground bird at fifteen paces. The club finishes the animal quickly and deals with fish in the trap.
CYou need
- For the throwing stick: a branch of dense heavy wood with a gentle natural bend like a bent elbow, as long as the forearm and hand together, two fingers thick
- For the club: a sapling pulled up with its root ball, or a branch with a heavy knot at the end, as long as the arm
- A stone flake (01.03), a rough rock, and the coals of the hearth (01.08)
DSteps
- Throwing stick: strip the bark. Scrape the two broad faces flatter, leaving the edges rounded, so that it is wider than it is thick along its whole length.
- Thin both ends a little and round them off. The weight should sit toward the far end.
- Dry it in the shade for a few days, or slowly near the fire, turning it often.
- To throw: stand side-on, hold it by one end with the bend pointing forward, and throw side-arm at knee height with a snap of the wrist so it spins flat like a wheel lying on its side.
- Aim at the ground just in front of the animal. The stick skips and takes it in the legs.
- Practise at a stump every day until nine throws in ten hit from fifteen paces.
- Club: trim the roots of the root ball down to a smooth fist-sized knob. Scrape the handle clean and cut a ring of shallow grooves where the hand grips.
- Harden the knob over the coals the same way as a spear point.
EIt worked if
- The stick flies flat and spinning, not tumbling end over end.
- It is recovered unbroken after hitting a tree.
FWhat goes wrong
- It tumbles. It was thrown overhand, or the faces were not flattened. Throw side-arm and flatten it more.
- It cracks on the first hit. Light or brittle wood. Look for the heaviest wood on the island.
- It is lost in the brush. Scrape one face pale so it shows, and watch where it lands before moving.
GSafety
- Nobody stands in front of or beside the thrower. A flat spinning stick curves.
HIn the story
Wren wins the first throwing contest and Kofi the second. The camp eats rabbit either way. Tane carves a pattern into the handle of his club, and within a week half the camp has done the same.
IFigures
