Any Idea how this was made?

[Kenneth]

Hi Jerry,

You already have the answer, but arguably, the real question is not "How?" but "Why?"

All the best,

[Jerome Ranch]

Little gimmicky thing a friend got from his father. The fellow who presumably made it has passed away, and he took the method he used to make it with him, presumably.

golf ball has a very smooth hole driled through it, and it moves freely on the wood shaft. Both ends of the shaft are too thick for the ball to pass over them.

We looked under a 30X dissecting microscope at work..no joints

Hit it with various wavelengths of UV thinking if any glue was used and the join was well disguised, we might detect flourescence from the glue ..nothing.

Did the fellow drill the hole, and have the tree grow through it?

Was the ball split? We can't detect any evidence of this on the ball either.

Let me know what ya' think

Thanks

Jerry

[Larry]

Jerome Ranch wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Try looking here...

[Jerome Ranch]

Ah yes Thanks Larry

[Jerome Ranch]

Since I'm not a golfer (and don't CARE to be a golfer) ... probably a gag gift for a golfer?

A bunch of us as work today spent a significant amount of time today trying to figure this out (scientist youy know), so some fellow is having a big laugh today from the big woodshop in the sky !

Jerry

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Easily done. You drill the hole and then put he golf ball over a branch of a tree. In about 6 to 10 years (depends on species and weather) you just cut the branch and trim away the excess wood. Sand smooth, of course.

[Mike Marlow]

... and paint to match.

[The Davenport's]

Larry had a way to make it that will work for an "arrow" that is just a little bigger than the hole...for a larger arrowhead, I'd make the arrow with the shaft being not quite twice the length of the diameter of the ball, carefully cut the shaft in the center, then glue a small diameter dowel into one end of the shaft, then put the two together, being VERY careful to align the flats of the arrow.

By making the shaft less than the size of the ball, a person wouldn't be able to see the glue joint without heroic measures.

But that's just one idea for it...

Mike

[Andy Dingley]

There are several ways to make these.

The "real" way is to push the pointy end through the golf ball. The pointy end is flat, the ball is squishy. You squeeze the ball in a clamp, the hole goes oval and it slips over neatly.

Alternatively, squeeze the timber. Use something like lime (linden / basswood) and steam it first, then squish it in a vice. Supposedly this works with any of the timbers that steam bend well. I've done this with lime a fair few times (making carved Welsh love spoons - a heart with an arrow through it is a traditional pattern), but never had success with other timbers.

The quick way is to use a short glued scarf joint, or a Japanese birdsmouth. Because the ball is wide and the distance it can slide is short, you can never move the ball far enough to see where the join is.

[Rick Frazier]

The classic method (already posted) is to steam the arrow, squish the head down as narrow as possible and push it through the golf ball.

Though there is a lot of possibility of other subterfuge, such as a glued joint inside the ball, it is unlikely, as this method is really fast once you're set up for it.

These tend to be mass-produced in third world countries.

Variations have shown up at carnivals all over the US (at least). In the 60's through 90's the arrow was commonly found impaling a glass soda bottle. Yep, drilled hole in the bottle, arrow through the wall of the bottle. The "cheap ones" only had one hole, so the arrowhead was on the inside of the bottle, but the "deluxe model" had two holes and both "fat ends" (arrowhead and feather/fletching) were on the outsides.

Typical dimensions of the arrow shaft doesn't exceed 3/16" thick (roughly square) and the drilled hole was around 3/8" so there was enough room to make it with a soft and expansive (though cheap) wood. When you could examine a box of these, one giveaway was that some of the "deluxe" models had some swarf in the bottom of the bottle, and occasionally, the arrow was a bit rough where it started to expand while it was being crammed through the second hole... Also ran across several where there were two arrows in a single bottle (one for each hole). I guess the operator wasn't fast enough to get the arrow all the way through on a single shot, and once the head starts expanding, there's not much you can do with two walls of a bottle.

At least with a golf ball, once you start the push, you don't have to worry about expansion, as there's only one "wall" to go through, though a long one....

--Rick

--Rick