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Making a Bola

Making a Bola
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The bola (Spanish for ball) is a throwing weapon that generally consists of three weights on the end of three ropes (that's a good one on one correspondence example for all you people taking pre-algebra). The purpose of the bola is designed to rap around the animals legs and make them trip and fall, this weapon is most famous in Argentina. To make the bola wrap around the animals legs better, one of the weights is smaller and/or lighter.

Many of you have probable seen the move 'Kangaroo Jack' were they try to catch the kangaroo using bolas. If you're like me you would have been amazed and thought about how you could make one.

In this instructable, I will show you how to make a monkey's fist bola.
 
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Step 1Tying the knot

Tying the knot
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Due to the marriage protection act you can only tie knots with the opposite sex, but monkeys fists (except in a few very rare cases) naturally have no gender, so everything works out......

Now that your all hiped up saying " I'm gona make a bola!" I'll have to break it to you, this bola requires a bit of skill in knot tying. This is because monkey's fist bolas, well.....require monkey's fists!

To make the monkey's fists you need rope, I recommend using about 3/8" rope, and having about 25 feet for this project. One of the annoying things that can happen when you are making a monkey's fist, is when you are about to finish, when you run out of rope. When you tighten the monkey's fist, it goes to the end of the rope, so it's not a problem if the untightened monkey's fist is not on the tip of the rope. I used sisal rope because I like the natural look and feel. You will also need three weights, If you want to be primitive, you can use two golf ball sized stones, and one smaller and/or lighter weight stone. I live in Florida, the land with no rocks, so I used golf balls. I used two golf balls of the same weight, and one lighter weight, practice golf ball.

I will separate the steps in making a monkey's fist into different step sections for better clarity.


1.1 Wrap the rope around your fingers (see picture) I am right handed, so I am wrapping with my right hand.
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39 comments
Dec 12, 2011. 6:20 PMilpug says:
I am definitely going to do this, but, due to laziness, I am simply going to drill holes through the golf balls to secure the cord, and use paracord. This makes the whole thing smoother, which, in theory, makes it go farther.

I made something quite like this a while ago, and it was fun, until it went wild and dented my fence. These things can fly a bit oddly until you get the hang of it. I recommend spinning it only once prior to throwing, not multiple times. This makes it more accurate, and the extra spinning grants no extra power.
Feb 17, 2009. 1:35 AMfinfan7 says:
I made one of these with a couple segments of rope and three tennis balls. I never got enough practice to be all that good with it. I tried using it on a friend of mine and the ball just whacked him in a back. I later dismantled it and made a toy vaguely similar to an Astrojax to practice double glowsticking.
Sep 21, 2011. 5:50 PMwal11 says:
what is "double glowsticking"
Sep 21, 2011. 6:15 PMfinfan7 says:
Look up glowstringing on youtube and imagine having both sticks on one string.
Sep 23, 2011. 8:08 PMwal11 says:
hey its wal11 thanks for telling me what double glowstringing is and sorry i hadn't checked my email in a while
Jun 20, 2009. 5:01 PMShiraz says:
Nice Instructable, mate. As a side note, I'm from Argentina, and I'd never heard about boleadoras being used by our ancestors. I'm actually pretty sure that the gauchos used swords, and, when they became available, guns. By the way, this thing is quite fun, especially when thrown at bothersome dogs :)
Aug 23, 2011. 5:56 AMrimar2000 says:
I was born in Entre Ríos, Dpto Tala. I grew up in the field, and I remember when doing the tasks of preparing the field, they found usually stone balls that were slightly flattened, grooved in its equator. That is a clear sign that had been used in boleadoras (rounders). In the field of my father was the Battle of Las Guachas, 13 jun 1820, where they fought Pancho Ramirez and Jose G. Artigas.
Jan 21, 2010. 6:11 AMsmorrone says:
I am form a Argentina too, i sugest you study your history. Native argentinaeans use boleadoras to hunt and inmovilize animals, then the gauchos use them too.
Jul 17, 2011. 9:04 PMspylock says:
It would be good for practice,I made a set a couple years ago and knocked the hell outa myself a few time learning to throw.
May 26, 2011. 10:01 AMeulaliaaaa! says:
I just made one, and and six tries later, I successfully roped the flag pole in my yard! These are awesome! But, unfortunately, I only had enough rope to do three wraps, so the golf balls show a lot. But it still works fine!
May 23, 2011. 3:12 PMeulaliaaaa! says:
I LOOOOVE THAT MOVIE!
Nov 10, 2010. 5:25 PMOberoten says:
Most creative and economic way to make them, wouldnt think of monkeyfists by my self.
Way to go.
Feb 14, 2010. 3:16 PMpocholox8 says:
why is your so called  'lawn'  so small?
Feb 14, 2010. 3:06 PMpocholox8 says:
hooray for hairy mushrooms
Feb 8, 2010. 5:44 PMfinbar galdeep says:
what sort of practice balls did you use the plastic kind with holes of the foam kind

and does it work better the if the ratio of heavy weight to light weight is larger
May 25, 2009. 9:32 PMkyle-09 says:
whats the distance from the knot to the monkey's fist?
Jul 3, 2009. 7:04 AMcoast2coastcreator says:
I made a cheap set with just one monkey fist one one side, and a smaller knot on the other, and it works surprisingly well. I was trying to do two monkey fists, but I got way lazy and just wanted to see some kinda result for my effort on the first knot. flicked it at my standing lamp and was pleased to watch it wrap around the stem and hold. does it make it better if I do it the three line way?
May 17, 2009. 6:07 PMgamelord146 says:
how long does the rope have to be?
Jul 2, 2009. 6:21 PMnail face says:
it needs to be the length of your arm
Jun 25, 2009. 11:52 AMArbitror says:
Your lawn...
Feb 16, 2009. 8:58 PMcalarata_94 says:
they are called boleadoras in spanish :)
Feb 27, 2009. 2:04 PMfallenspirit123 says:
latinos rule!
May 24, 2009. 7:18 PMfallenspirit123 says:
sure, you deserve it, lol
May 17, 2009. 5:57 PMtulekah says:
i've made bolas before and i'm a knotwork fiend but i never thot to combine the two! way cool. btw i always made my bolas with the third ball at the center of the line (three balls, two cords) and held the center ball and swung the other two, it worked rather like cannon chain shot
May 1, 2009. 4:56 PMBen-Awesome says:
I made a few monkeys fists a while back using golf balls as the cores, now i have something to use them for instead of just sitting in my room, Thanx!
Apr 24, 2009. 8:56 PMIridium7 says:
is there a knot where the central knot gets tighter or something? 'Cause I imagined it is going under a lot of Centripetal force.
Apr 29, 2009. 10:30 AMthe_burrito_master says:
Try a triple monks knot. it would work easily enough.
Mar 5, 2009. 5:30 PM15zhangfra says:
, i like the ashley stopper knot better, its slight less secure, but it's still noce, though you see your weights
Mar 8, 2009. 8:18 AM15zhangfra says:
yes, but make sure you actually do't tighten the first slip-knot part, or else it just a triangle thing

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Author:mikaelthemycologist
I like mycology, primitive technology and primitive, survival, edible and medicinal plants, primitive fire starting, snares, traps, making twine flintknapping and other things that I can't remember ri...
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