I bought a caber

[Alan H]

What a great idea, I have been tossing around the same idea, so that I will have a practice caber. I have already picked up some stones from the local quarry, the only thing I am having problems with is the 56# weight. Found on online but it was over a $100.00

Watch your local craigslist for guys dumping old barbell/workout sets. You can pick up 100+ pounds of dumbell weights for $20 if you're careful.

[Amoskeag]

My first attempt at caber tossing resulted in a tragic clash of hobbies
I cut a pole from the wood lot behind my house and worked it into a caber and then began practicing in the field behind the house. It took a long time but I finally got pretty good at it.
With my first 12 I got disastrous consequences. As evidenced in some other posts, I'm a ham radio operator and when the pole turned 12 and came down it cleaned out 500 feet of short wave listening antenna That was a long time ago and I've since moved. My antennas are on the barn now so I have plenty of room to fling things around. I plan on getting back into the games thanks to all the good advice on these boards. (Thanks Alan)
Bob

[emolas]

Unfortunately, a caber is one thing that I will not be able to acquire for practice so I'll have to just focus on the other events.

I actually started throwing stuff around this weekend and had a good time doing it (strange looks notwithstanding). I cut some dumbells in half and attached PVC handles to them for hammers and just put weights on a chain for the WFD. Then I started tossing them around at my local park. I haven't gone out looking for any stones yet but that's my next project.

When the Games season starts around here I should be able to find some people to train with. There's only so much you can learn about technique from videos and tutorials so hopefully I can find someone to teach me.

[Alan H]

Unfortunately, a caber is one thing that I will not be able to acquire for practice so I'll have to just focus on the other events.

I actually started throwing stuff around this weekend and had a good time doing it (strange looks notwithstanding). I cut some dumbells in half and attached PVC handles to them for hammers and just put weights on a chain for the WFD. Then I started tossing them around at my local park. I haven't gone out looking for any stones yet but that's my next project.

When the Games season starts around here I should be able to find some people to train with. There's only so much you can learn about technique from videos and tutorials so hopefully I can find someone to teach me.

if you can somehow get a 12 foot 6 x 6 and rent a power planer to seriously round off the edges and taper the bottom 4-5 feet down to about 4 x 4 size at the bottom, it will do nicely for a practice caber. You can even do it with a big, manual surform plane and a LOT of elbow grease. That's what I did. I used my circular saw to turn the thing from a square in cross-section to an octagon and then rounded the ends. You want to smooth the "skinny" end really with with sandpaper, you DON'T want to get a splinter off of this thing.

It's a problem to store, to be sure but you can probably heft the thing, grunting all the while...into the back of a pickup truck. Just make sure the small end is the end that sticks out and lash it down 'real good when you're going to your practice site so it doesn't jump out of the truck. It's easier with a buddy to help. You *might* be able to take it to the practice site and quietly, unobtrusively leave it there, next to the fence or something. That way you only have to carry it around once. I'm going to have to do that with this new 15-footer, it's just too big to carry around all the time. I'll haul it over to the field at 1:00 AM some night when there's no traffic, and leave it there on top of a trio of concrete blocks, to keep it off the dirt. I'll put up a small sign, begging people to not steal it.

Having a practice caber REALLY helps, because learning how to pick the thing up is a big step and it'll take forever to get it, just trying it a couple of times at the games. Even if your practice caber is only 12 feet long and 45 pounds, going through the motions makes a huge difference.

[Frank McGrath]

the only thing I am having problems with is the 56# weight.

Run down to your local Fork lift dealer and ask for an old fork. Take it to a machine shop and have them cut it into short blocks. Weld them together with a handle. I made up one of these to use as a weight when working on forklifts.

[Alan H]

OK, shaping the caber... I finally got started. I did everything you see in these pictures with the circular saw you see, here.

ONe 15 foot doug fir 6x6 sitting next to my driveway.


Same stick, different angle, showing the tapered end.


Cross section of "the top" where I haven't removed much material
I will be using a hand power planer to round the hard edges a bit.


Close up of the tapered end, showing how I"ve removed a lot more material from the "corners"


And finally, cross section of "the bottom". This will be rounded off with
the power planer. I "tapered" the bottom 7 feet of the caber.

[Yaish]

It's looking good, I can't wait to see the final product and see how it holds up.

[Colin]

I don't know why, but I think this is the best thread title I have seen in a long time. It's like one of those conversations with your friend's where all is quiet over pints until one guy pipes up ......"I bought a caber..."

[fjordhammer]

Last year at the Bridgeport, WV games, we tossed a variety of "manufactured" cabers. If my memory serves me right, they were constructed of 2x lumber, and heavily rounded. These cabers, however, didn't have the right feel due to the lack of taper. They were damn near impossible to flip! You should, on that note, spend a lot of time on the taper.
I wonder what caber selections they will have this year. Seeing as it's the site of the '08 world championships, I hope we get better sticks.

One thing you might consider doing in the finishing portion of your work is adding some grip to the pole. They mixed sand into the paint used on the small end.

[JerseyLawyer]

I don't know why, but I think this is the best thread title I have seen in a long time. It's like one of those conversations with your friend's where all is quiet over pints until one guy pipes up ......"I bought a caber..."

"So, I was out the other day buying a caber..."

I never cease to be amazed with the creativity and ability of people on this forum.

I really need to try a caber toss one day.