Home-Made Ninja Stars (Starblades) Part II

With new Ninja Star design ideas racing in my head, I rushed to the "bodega" where we stored all kinds of tools and old junk. I needed a piece of flat metal. Thin enough to cut with the sheet-metal cutter. Nothing. Damn!

Then I remembered the under-construction house across the street. I rushed outside-- sheet-metal cutter still in hand--and lucky for me the carpenters were on break. I snuck into the still uncompleted house. I found some small pieces of flat "galvanized iron" (a common sheet-metal roofing material in Cebu), I err...borrowed...a bunch of those and rushed back to my house and went into my room.

Using a pencil and ruler, I carefully drew my desired Ninja Star shape into the sheet metal. It was an 8-pointed star. Then carefully, I cut the shape out. It took almost an hour of careful work. But the result was a sight to behold. I held up my fantastic and lethal creation.

I rushed outside immediately. I tested my new Ninja Star on all kinds of things. First target...the kitchen door again. I threw it hard. WHOOSSHHH! THUD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah! Fantastic. It cut into the door deep. I needed more targets...so I went outside.

I tried it on a banana tree. THUMP!!!!!!! It buried itself almost halfway into the soft flesh of the tree. Next target...papaya tree...THUCK!!!!!!!!! It buried itself about an inch into the tree. Hahahahaha! This is the best toy ever!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty soon other kids were watching me play with my new toy. They asked me where I got it, or who made it for me. I proudly declared that I made it myself!!! They were in awe! Everyone wanted to give it a try. So I let some of the kids try, specially those who were my friends. They all loved it and wanted to make their own. Some kids went back to their house to get their own metal cutters, and search for their own raw materials. Since I had spare raw materials, I invited my friends to my house. We also had 2 sheet-metal cutters, so all the better.

Within 1 hour, the garage of my house had been converted into a Ninja Star factory. There were about 10 - 12 kids now designing Ninja stars, cutting them out, sharpening them. I made another Ninja star for myself. A 12-pointed star this time. I figured the more points it had, the more likely it will embed itself on its target.

Everyone had a different design. Some had simple 4 or 3 point stars. Others had numerous teeth around the edge. It was fantastic.

After finishing making these lethal toys, we decided to do some target practice. So we went outside and set up some targets: blocks of wood, old action figures, a piece plywood with concentric circles drawn, etc.

We took turns throwing our Ninja Stars at the targets. But to our dismay, we found they were not that accurate. Yeah, its easy hitting a door, or a tree. But trying to hit a small block of wood from some distance away was hard. Worse...the Ninja Star's trajectory tended to curve or the wind would blow it off.

This problem needed to be solved!

We discussed this problem. Several theories were raised and discarded. But there were 2 main points: 1) real Ninja stars (or at least those in movies) were made of heavier metal and 2) they all had holes in the the center.

Well...using heavier, thicker metal was out of the question...we don't have raw materials for that...and even if we did, how the heck are we gonna cut it?!!

So we tried drilling and punching a hole in the centers of our Ninja Stars.

That did it!!!!!!!!!

With a hole in the center, the our lethal Ninja Stars found their targets more often! And it was less likely to be blown by the wind...the wind can pass through the hole.

And soon the whole neighborhood got into the new craze. In the next few weeks, almost every kid (well, almost every MALE kid) would have his own Ninja Star. "Targeting ranges" were set up here and there. Little kids were honing their Ninja Star throwing skills. I myself had become good enough to hit small targets from 25-30 meters away. Fortunately with all these Ninja Stars flying around...nobody got hurt. And so it went on. I looked with great pride at the new craze I had started. It lasted for about a couple of months, until we grew bored of the Ninja Stars, and found some other new things to do. But I was proud of what I had done. I, a mere 11 year old, had made his own Ninja Star, and started a craze the whole neighborhood would follow. That, was so so so so so cool!!!!!!!!!!!