Ninja wooden cannons ?

[THE BIG EVIL]

Anybody know anything on the Ninja's use of wooden cannons and guns ?.
I would love some links on this.

 

[Enson]

in the last black belt mag there was an article with hatsumi it it using a water cannon. didn't know the ninja used super soakers, but you learn something everday.

 

[Kreth]

I forget the name off the top of my head, but those "super soakers" are made from two tightly fitted pieces of bamboo. You push the smaller one into the larger, and a stream of water is forced out of the opposite end.

Jeff

 

[THE BIG EVIL]

The Blackpowder cannons !!! ?

 

[AaronLucia]

No..they are just bamboo..

My instructor had a water one and he shot us with it!

 

[Ronald R. Harbers]

I saw the bamboo cannon in an Akira Kurosawa movie! Can't remember which one.:idunno:

 

[Cryozombie]

From what I have read, Those wooden cannons were essentialy gunpowder packed into a thick walled bamboo tube with a wick in it... and rocks, shot, etc in the open end, ala big shotgun.

Ive never seen one, except in pictures in books, so thats the only source mateiral I can use. I think there were some good pics of that weapon in "Ninja Invisible Assassins" by Adams.

 

[Elizium]

Is it me or do wooden firearms see more dangerous than metal ones?

 

[Don Roley]

Is it me or do wooden firearms see more dangerous than metal ones?

Yes, but take a look at early cannons in the West and you will see that they too started out as wooden cannons reinforced by metal bands. That is why the tube of a gun is called a barrel, because it resembled the ones that cary water in the beggining.

 

[Enson]

Is it me or do wooden firearms see more dangerous than metal ones?

good to see you back! was wondering where you went.
peace

 

[Elizium]

good to see you back! was wondering where you went.
peace

Been busy Enson.

I guess on this subject, there is a limit between the size of the barrel and the effectiveness of the material in question.

You can have a long hollow tube of wood but only short enough to fire and of a certian thinkness. The larger you get, the more powder is used and the greater chance of it not firing in one direction as Mr. Roley has said. So somewhere there was a study made of the effectiveness of this and it was improved. Mostly through trial and error it emerged into what we think of as a cannon.

Like the European hand cannon, it is not a cannon, but more of a large barrelled gun fired from the hip, so I would say that it would be better classed as a mortor as a cannon is fixed to a mount whereas we are talking of hand held firing weapons.

Just my viewpoint, you may now rip me apart on this :whip: