You've seen the caber toss, but what does it take to make a caber?

**Alan H** · 1st May 15, 06:35 PM

Well, first of all, it takes a tree.

Though some guys make a practice stick from gluing and screwing together some 2 x 6's from Home Depot or Lowe's. You get reasonably dry lumber and then smear the sides with a polyurethane glue like PL100 or Liquid Nails. Then you get a box of deck screws and drive a zillion screws in there, from different angles, avoiding the corners. Once that's done, you go after it with a circular saw and turn the whole thing into an octagon, in cross-section, rather than a square. THEN you use power tools and hand tools to taper the bottom 5-6 feet until it's small enough to get your hands around, and round on the bottom so there are no edges to dig in. You might paint it, if you need to keep it outside...it'll last longer.

It's about 4-5 hours of work to make a 12, 16, or 20 foot long practice caber like this. These are tough to turn because they're heavy and they don't have much taper to them. The top of the stick isn't that much heavier than the bottom.

Trees are really much better.

Some guys just find something between 14-20 feet long that's vaguely straight and strip the bark off the bottom 5 feet...round off the bottom and call it good. I see a lot of womens cabers in the NorthEast that are like this. Here in California we go for something a bit more sophisticated

You want a tree trunk that's between 12-20 feet long, depending on the Class of athlete that you're making the stick for.

Womens lightweight (<130 pounds), C (C = "beginner") or Masters class... 12-14 feet, 35-40 pounds
Womens B class (B = "intermediate") or a tough lightweight/Masters class ... 13-14 feet, 40-45 pounds
Womens A class (A = "advanced)... 14-15 feet, 55 - 70 pounds

Mens Masters 40-49 ... 15-18 feet, 75-105 pounds
Mens Masters 50-59... 15 -18 feet, 65-100 pounds (we have a 15 foot, 105 pounder in Nor Cal, that's HEAVY but short.)
Mens Masters 60+ ... 15-17 feet, 50-75 pounds

Mens C ... 14-16 feet, 60-75 pounds
Mens B ... 16-17 feet, 75-90 pounds
Mens A ... 17-18 feet, 85-105 pounds

Mens Pro ... 17-20 feet, 100 to 140 pounds

NOTE: a heavier stick is usually shorter. Within those ranges I just gave, "short and light" is too easy whilst "long and heavy" is too hard. so for example, the Pro caber that I'm prepping for the SAAA in southern California is 17' 4" and 126 pounds.

Different woods weigh different amounts, yes? So for example, cedar and redwood are light, compared to douglas fir and pine. A redwood stick impresses the heck out of an audience because it's HUGE for the weight!

OK, so you have to find tree trunks that are going to be around the right size, when dried. Then you have to cut the tree. Well, where I live, you can't just go out and cut down trees. You get arrested for that kind of thing. So that means you have to either purchase a federal or state permit to harvest wood from parks and National Forest land, or you have to wheedle access out of someone who owns some private property. Sometimes you can get good trunks from arborists and tree-trimming companies. Recently I've found a guy who has a wood company located about 4 hours from me, who owns property in the lower Sierra Nevada, where our BAD California drought is killing cedars by the hundreds. It's really sad. However, it does mean that there's a supply of logs.

OK, now you've got your log(s). Now what? Well, you have to strip all the bark off of it. This can be anywhere from a half hour project to about 4-5 hours or hard physical labor with a drawknife, depending on the species of tree, how wet/dry the wood is, and how big of a log you have. While you do this, you cut down the limb-stumps and use a power saw and surform plane to get them reasonably flush with the main body of the trunk. You REALLY smooth down the bottom 5-6 feet of the caber so no athlete gets hurt on the knots. Finally, you round off the bottom of the caber so that it sits nicely in the cupped hands of the athlete without digging in . All this is another hour, maybe two of labor.

Now...clear-coat with two coats of outdoor polyurethane finish...or paint. I prefer to clear-coat and then add some colored painted stripes at the top of the caber so that the crowd can tell that the Womens C class caber is not the same stick as the Pro Caber...the stripes are different colors.

All in all, it's a major headache to find tree trunks, and it's anywhere from 4-10 hours of work to prep a caber. So the next time a nice caber breaks at the Games, don't cheer. Somewhere, the poor guy who finished that stick is drowning his sorrows in whisky and beer, SWEARING that he'll never do this again.

**Alan H** · 1st May 15, 06:54 PM

Of course caber isn't the only event that the Heavies do at the Highland Games. Here's a rundown of the other implements.

Stones

In Scotland, probably half of the Games throw stones and the other half throw shots...iron balls that are used for the shotput event. There are two Stones events...the Braemar Stone and the Open Stone. In the Braemar Stone event, the athlete can't move their feet before delivering the implement. It's a standing "put". Note that a PUT is not the same as a THROW. The stone/ball must remain in contact with the athletes neck until it is *pushed* off. If an athlete rears back and throws the stone like a softball, well, that's not allowed.

The Braemar Stone event is supposed to be with a stone that's about 22 pounds, but rocks vary from anywhere around 20 pounds to 24. In Scotland, some Games have used the same stones for 60 years or more. The shots that are used tend to be a bit more uniform, either pretty close to 20 pounds or pretty close to 22 pounds.

The Open Stone event is the one where the athlete can move their feet before delivering the stone/ball. This event is the direct ancestor to the Track and Field event...the shot put. Stones/balls are supposed to be around 16 pounds, but rock shapes vary widely and weights are anywhere from 15 - 17 pounds. River rocks are preferred but there's always some Games that has some horrible, jagged hunk of granite with edges that take off skin. You'll often see athletes get in the throwing trig and then fuss with the stone for a while before getting into position. They're trying to find a good "handle" on the rock...a place where that shape fits nicely in the hand. You see, you don't GRIP a stone...you PUSH on it. If you spread your fingers apart to grip the rock, the odds are good that when you really go for it, you will lose the rock off the end of your fingers, resulting in cracked knuckles and cursing and short throws. So athletes generally put their fingers close together. Well, you can't grip a stone like that. Instead, you push the stone HARD into the side of your jaw, with your elbow up. That pressure keeps the stone in place until the put.

Nice, dense river rocks with rounded edges and one really flat side to push on are ideal. But they're not all like that! Every rock is different and every Games is different!

**Alan H** · 1st May 15, 07:23 PM

Hammer

The hammer throw evolved from throwing sledgehammers and mauls. Nowadays a hammer head is a sphere of cast iron with a tapered hole cast into it, or a cylindrical steel container with a cylindrical sleeve welded into it, filled with iron or lead shot and then welded closed. Again, some of the Games in Scotland are using hammer heads that have been used for nearly 100 years.

There are two hammer weights...heavy and light. d'oh!

Mens Heavy Hammer... 22 pounds
Mens Light Hammer ... 16 pounds
Womens Heavy Hammer ... 16 pound
Womens Light Hammer ... 12 pounds

Note that while lots of women compete in North America, Scottish lasses in the Heavy Events are few and far between. Most Games don't own women's implements.

Originally the hammer handles, which are 50 inches long, were wood. About 60-70 years ago, that evolved into rattan, which was imported into Scotland and North America. Here in North America, most Games have changed over to PVC plastic handles. They’re gray electrical conduit. This is because the conduit is about the same “flexibility” as rattan, but a LOT easier to mount inside the hammer head, when a handle breaks at the Games. It’s cheaper, too. However, a nicely shaped rattan handle is just a bit “whippier” than a PVC handle, so a lot of the records are set with rattan handles.

Weights

The original weights for the Highland Games were agricultural and farm weights. They were originally measured in “stones” which are roughly equivalent to 14 pounds. Pretty much every farm and feed store had a four-stone and a two-stone weight…or two or three lying around. They were used to measure out lots of hay or grain or whatever….or as Jock Scot remembers, for weighing down a plough!

These were block-shaped cast-iron weights, with a rod-shaped handle built into the casting. There were thousands of them all over Scotland, though they’re hard to find, now!

The Games on the Isle of Skye still use weights like this, though pretty much everybody else has moved on to other implements. Older weights tend to be cast iron, with a big loop cast into the top. A shackle attaches a round or D-shaped handle to that loop. Sometimes a round handle is put through the loop directly and welded shut. The maxim allowed length from the bottom of the weight to the end of the handle is 18 inches, but we must remember that some implements in Scotland were assembled before silly rules like this were implemented. For example, the weights at the Inverary Games are different from anything I’ve seen before…and they have MISERABLE, tiny little ring handles on them. They’ve been that way for 75 years, so you just shut up and throw ‘em and enjoy your little connection with history.

Modern weights are either cast iron balls or tapered cones with a steel eye-bolt set into the casting, or those same shapes with a hole through the middle. A big eye bolt is put through the hole and bolted in. Then the handle is shackled to the eye bolt. My own practice weights are cylindrical steel rod of different diameters, cut to length with steel eyes welded on top. A shackle holds the weight to the handle, or to a chain that leads to the handle. Lots of weights in North America are made like this.

Open Mens Heavy weight for distance, and weight over the bar ... 56 pounds or 4 stone
Open Mens Light weight for distance... 28 pounds or two stone

There really are no Masters classes in Scotland, that's a North American "thing". Over there, the old guys who are crazy enough to keep at it, throw the 56 pounder. Here, we give the old guys like me a break and our "heavy" weight is 42 pounds, or three stone. The Glenfiddich Junior Championships for Scottish Athletes 22 years and under, uses a three-stone weight for weight over the bar.

Masters Mens Heavy weight for distance, and weight over the bar... 42 pounds or 3 stone
masters Mens light weight for distance... 28 pounds or 2 stone

The "lightweight" classes (<200 pound men) , popular in North America, but not seen in Scotland, throw the same weights as the Masters.

Womens Heavy weight for distance, and weight over the bar... 28 pounds or 2 stone
Women's light weight for distance... 14 pounds or 1 stone.

What with the explosion of women's participation in the Games, there's now a Womens Masters class that's growing IN North America. The over-40 lasses and the lightweight lasses (<130 pounds) can now throw a 21 pound .. 1 1/2 stone heavy weight for distance, and weight over the bar at some Games. I don't believe there are any ladies in Scotland competing in these classes.

I hope this had been informative!

**Damion** · 1st May 15, 08:42 PM

Thank you, that was interesting.
Does anyone know where the caber tossing came from? Did it first appear in Scotland and how did it originate? It seems the oddest of the events and I can't see any practical need in throwing a log that couldn't be better achieved by carrying or rolling it.