Retro

How-To: Make traditional Hawaiian shark-tooth weapons

How-To: Make traditional Hawaiian shark-tooth weapons

OK, so it’s not actually a tutorial–it’s a chapter from Oakland martial arts instructor Sid Campbell’s 2006 Warrior Arts and Weapons of Ancient Hawaii that’s freely available in its entirety on Google Books. I found Campbell’s book after seeing one of these lei o mano, as I think they are called, in a Discovery channel program. Before hiking to the library to check it out I thought, what the heck, I’ll see how much is available on gBooks, and was surprised to find that the chapter on shark-tooth weapons, which goes into great detail about the various traditional methods of preparing the teeth and attaching them to the handle, is all there. Thanks to Mr. Campbell and his publisher. If you’re into it, please consider buying the book.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan4

Maker Birthdays: Harry Partch

Born on this date in 1901, American composer Harry Partch (Wikipedia) made music he wrote himself, in a tonal system he designed himself, on instruments he designed, and built, himself. He is largely responsible for the build-your-own-instruments craze that began in the 70s and continues to influence modern performers like The Blue Man Group and, oh, what’s his name…that cigar-box guitar guy…Mark something? Partch died in 1974, aged 73. American Public Media has a great online gallery of Partch’s instruments, including “virtual” versions you can play yourself in a Flash application.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan
Sid Barnett’s Machine Shop

Sid Barnett’s Machine Shop

Patrick Parrish was vacationing in North Carolina when he spotted this long-abandoned yet fully stocked machine shop: It looked like one day possibly in the 1960s or 70s that they just up and closed without even clearing off their desks. The window were so filty, but it looked AMAZING inside. I would kill to get […]

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How-To: Build an oversized abacus

How-To: Build an oversized abacus

Rachel sent me this link to an easy tutorial on building your own wall-sized abacus by Stephanie Lynn. I’m pretty sure I’ll never need an abacus, but I gotta admit it looks like fun to build one. It would appear Stephanie is making the beads by cutting slices out of a closet rod and then drilling a hole in the center of each–I say save a step and use a hole-saw for both operations! [via Ohdeedoh]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan2

Beautiful antique Heron’s Fountain apparatus

Heron’s Fountain, aka Hero’s Fountain (Wikipedia), is named for Hero of Alexandria, a 1st-century Greek mathematician and physicist who described it in his Pneumatica. It is a kind of hydraulic novelty, in which the action of falling water causes a stream of water to spurt up higher than its source, which is counterintuitive for many. This beautiful example dates from the late 1700s and is described in detail in the online gallery of the Museo Galileo in Florence.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan4