I guess most of you connaisseurs of primitive weapons know what an Apache ts is.

More or less by coincidence, I tried to sling one with what Hondero re-invented as one possible form of the Cestrosphendon: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1074713443/300.

And it works!  :)

The whole discussion over the years is absolutely fascinating. Shame on me for only discovering it yesterday.

Hondero's final idea (the "Hollenback/Hondero"-Cestrosphendon) is as simple as ingenious.

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Einfach nur Genial Fundi. Supherb

When you throw that, does it rotate?

Yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVI8W5YUyo

@Thearos: Would the term "Astrosphendon" be correct?

Wow that's cool, I'll have to make one myself, I like the idea of increasing the contact area of my slung projectile.

Why don't you wrap the sling around the arms of the star the same was as Hondero wrapped the sling around the fins of his cestros?

Hondero wrote on Jan 13^th, 2009 at 12:11pm:

Hi friends… Ah! it have passed a year since my last post here, although I enter to read from time to time. As said in Reply 283, wich show the different designs of the cestros sling, I was working with a new design that could be the original Macedonian.  Past summer I´ve tested the design exhaustively and have found that is the best of all others. It locates the point of attachment of the dart over the fins, like in the Hollenback design.

Click on the quote to see Honderos pictures.

Way cool, Fundibularius!  I have to try that!

Masiakasaurus wrote on Feb 21^st, 2011 at 6:48pm:

Why don't you wrap the sling around the arms of the star the same was as Hondero wrapped the sling around the fins of his cestros? Hondero wrote on Jan 13th, 2009 at 12:11pm: It locates the point of attachment of the dart over the fins, like in the Hollenback design. Click on the quote to see Honderos pictures.

Not sure if I know what you mean, Masi. Basically, I did exactly the same as Hondero. The only difference is that, since the ATS has no fins to wrap the cord around, I carved out a hook to hold the cord in place before the release.

I also tried the alternative retention shown below, but it did not work well. The release takes way too much time, which means that I almost perforated my left foot with the ATS.  :o

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This is a better pic of the attachment.

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Fundibularius wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2011 at 3:59am:

Not sure if I know what you mean, Masi. Basically, I did exactly the same as Hondero. The only difference is that, since the ATS has no fins to wrap the cord around, I carved out a hook to hold the cord in place before the release. I also tried the alternative retention shown below, but it did not work well. The release takes way too much time, which means that I almost perforated my left foot with the ATS.  :o

I would treat two of the arms of the star like fins and wrap the sling around the star similar to how you did (the way that didn't work.) If you look at the picture in Hondero's post the sling is before the fin on the left side, wraps around behind the main shaft of the dart, and is folded back up before the fin on the right side. Does this picture of the Hollenback design make anything more clear?

Hondero wrote on Dec 6^th, 2007 at 2:24pm:

http://perso.wanadoo.es/s915415926/cestros/CESTROFORO.jpg

Masiakasaurus wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2011 at 8:45am:

I would treat two of the arms of the star like fins and wrap the sling around the star similar to how you did (the way that didn't work.) If you look at the picture in Hondero's post the sling is before the fin on the left side, wraps around behind the main shaft of the dart, and is folded back up before the fin on the right side.

It might be easier, and it seems to work fine for the arrow. As for the ats I used, however, I found that the distance the release cord has to "travel" in order to unwrap itself from the two arms of the star is too long. This means that the release of the ats is being considerably delayed, and it might land, as I described, where you don't want it.

It could work with a smaller ats, though. Surely worth an experiment.

Respect for the experimenting spirit and success!

Apache throwing star...

Well done sir, a good project indeed.

Thank you, gentlemen!

FundiLabs is brooding over the next project... ;)

Thats awesome I can't believe how well it spun.

I can see where this could be especially useful in areas where good sling stones are hard to find.  Unless you live in the desert or way, way up north you can usually find sticks.  Also it looks very deadly and effective.

It is still open for a lot of modifications and optimisations.

The way it is, though, I think it might already be quite useful for certain survival situations.  

Absolutely.  Though you do have to take the time to make the ammo, the projectile is much larger and easier to find after the shot.  It can't take more than just a few minutes to make an ATS. I have to try this.

Have you tried making a dart and throwing it?  With your hook up, you could make a dart with feather fletches and throw it.  You would not need wooden  vanes, so if you could find a feather you could make a dart.  Maybe a cut down arrow?  I am going to try this, but not until next week sometime.  Bill

What kind of range are you getting?  I'll bet weights on the cross pieces would increase the effective range.

Bill Skinner wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2011 at 7:38pm:

Have you tried making a dart and throwing it?  With your hook up, you could make a dart with feather fletches and throw it.  You would not need wooden  vanes, so if you could find a feather you could make a dart.  Maybe a cut down arrow?  I am going to try this, but not until next week sometime.  Bill

I made a few attempts to throw "normal" arrows and even a crossbow bolt, but they turned out to be too light. The projectile must have a critical minimum weight (the thick apache star felt quite right). In addition, standard arrow feather fletchings or vanes seem to be too flimsy to keep an arrow in position during the windup.

I think Hondero's model with the heavy arrow and the wooden vanes is an excellent solution to the problem if you want to throw arrows or bolts.

starhiker wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2011 at 12:19am:

What kind of range are you getting?  I'll bet weights on the cross pieces would increase the effective range.

I haven't done more than 10-12 throws yet, but 30-50 m seem to be no problem at all. I'm not sure, though, if weights would increase the range. Off the top of my head I'd say no. But, well, who knows.

alright where'd the video go ?

I had some second thoughts about leaving it posted, so I deleted it after a week.

Not everybody who visits youtube might use an information like that as responsibly as most members of slinging.org do.