MAKING A BALLROARER 🌲🍂

Ancient ball roarers from Africa.

Our third and final project this term we made was a bull roarer. It was anciently used as a musical instrument and for communicating over long distance due to the loud, roaring sound it makes when spun at a rapid pace. 

Ball roarers date back to Ukraine, Africa, Australia, Asia, Native North America, and New Zealand; in which it was made out of bone, wood, or stone and was believed to generate rain or to heal sick people. 

The instrument is most well known for it's use in Australian Aboriginal times. 

Did you know that ball roarers translate to "groaning stick, sounding wood," or "making cold" in ancient languages? 

For our project, we had to use rulers to measure out the correct layout of the ball roarer. This is a recreation of the diagram we went by in order to make them.

As you can see, we used the sanding machine to make a curved edge at one end of the ball roarer. Then, using drills, we drilled the holes for where the rope was to be tied at the other end. We used a length of neon green string that we tied around, ensuring that both ends were knotted to prevent fraying.

Finally, to finish off the project we used a smoothing plane around the sides. This was optional, but this affected the sound the ball roarer made when spun around. The sound can be described as a low rumbling sound that sounds a bit like what a tornado would sound like. 

I'm really proud of this project but next time I would want it to be curved around all the edges. I am wondering what other factors would change the sound of the ball roarer.