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General >> General Slinging Discussion >> Making a Cestros sling
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Message started by David Morningstar on Jun 26th, 2012 at 7:28am

Title: Making a Cestros sling
Post by David Morningstar on Jun 26th, 2012 at 7:28am
I made another cestros (or kestros) sling last night and took a few photos and measurements.

I used thick jute twine and a section of a broken arrow shaft:



The peg is a little under 2" long. I whittled a point on one end and a shallow notch close to the other end:



I then took two lengths of cord. Each was three times hand-to-opposite shoulder (a total of about 3 metres or ten feet)



I reverse twisted these together to make a stouter cord:



From the release knot I measured the length that I wanted to suspend the dart at (hand to centre of chest, 32") and tied the Alpine Butterfly knot there. I worked the knot before tightening it so that there was enough loop to go around the shaft of a dart with plenty of room to peg it up. The length of the loop ended up at 4". I then tied in the peg using a Constrictor knot around the shallow notch. The distance from the loop to the peg  was also 4".



Lastly, I tied a retention loop at a distance that left some slack in the retention cord when a dart was pegged into the loop and held by the release cord. This came out at 38" from the peg to the top of the fingerloop.



Summary:
Release knot to dart loop knot 32"
Dart loop 4" long
Dart loop to peg 4"
Peg to tip of retention loop 38"

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Bill Skinner on Jun 26th, 2012 at 8:55am
Thank you.  I have been trying with so-so sucess to throw a dart.  Thanks to your directions, I see what I did wrong.  My peg is just a little bit too close.  I think this should go in the "How To" section.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Masiakasaurus on Jun 26th, 2012 at 12:42pm
Done. Nice job, DM!

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by David Morningstar on Jun 26th, 2012 at 2:06pm

Thanks! A few more pics show how the cestrosphendone works.

The retention cord runs up to the finger, the release cord hangs down.



Wrap the loop around the shaft,



Then push the end through itself,



A closer look



Now take the peg and push it through the end of the loop so it cannot pull back out



Now take the dangling release cord and pull it tight, this cinches the dart in a firm grip. The longer retention cord is slack.



When you let go of the release cord the peg is pulled out by the sudden tension on the retention cord and the dart is released.









Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by jlasud on Jun 26th, 2012 at 2:40pm
Excellent tutorial! Thanks DM!

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by farmerdave on Aug 9th, 2012 at 10:19am
How does it sling? I'll get around to trying it myself at some point, but some thoughts about performance, range, cautions in using it, etc. would be appreciated, if only to keep me satisfied until I make one. Nice tutorial- forwarded a link to a friend who's been a slinging buddy for decades. He'll be stoked, too!

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Dan on Aug 9th, 2012 at 10:35am
This is an excellent tutorial, I am definitely going to make one of these.

May I use this in The Slinger's Guide?

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by alex knapp on Aug 9th, 2012 at 2:01pm
Very nice tutorial. i will have to make myself one.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by David Morningstar on Aug 10th, 2012 at 9:30am
Dan, yes absolutely! I still owe you some words on the Cestros history as well.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by timpa on Aug 10th, 2012 at 3:59pm

jlasud wrote on Jun 26th, 2012 at 2:40pm:
Excellent tutorial! Thanks DM!

The same words!

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Dan on Aug 10th, 2012 at 5:47pm

David Morningstar wrote on Aug 10th, 2012 at 9:30am:
Dan, yes absolutely! I still owe you some words on the Cestros history as well.



That would be fantastic, I'll combine the two to make a really awesome 'other sling type weapons' section in the Slings of the World chapter.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by teenageslinger on Nov 17th, 2012 at 7:43am
so the toggle... peg... thingy is the retention cord, correct?

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by David Morningstar on Nov 17th, 2012 at 11:44am

Yes.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by teenageslinger on Nov 21st, 2012 at 11:15am
is the alpine butterfly a noose?

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by David Morningstar on Nov 21st, 2012 at 2:38pm
The knot by itself isn't, it is a loop of fixed size. When you pass the end of that loop through itself and secure it with the peg, it forms a noose around the dart.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by teenageslinger on Nov 21st, 2012 at 10:18pm
I get it finally.

DERP :P

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by legos896 on May 9th, 2014 at 6:01pm
why cant i see any of the pictures that are so posed to be their?

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by squirrelslinger on May 9th, 2014 at 8:11pm
they may not work.
EDIT-go to user CP, and then go to options, then change the forum template to 'old yabb 2.1 style - modded" and that should fix your problem.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by theguywitheyebrows on Nov 24th, 2018 at 11:40am
i have been making arrows out of home depot rivercane for the last two weeks (and shattering them on cinder blocks n my backyard, INADVERTENTLY, causing many storms of cusswords and stomping around the yard lol) and i have wanted to build and use one of these since i discovered it those 7 years ago or whatever. afraid to loose the battle to an arrow, i had never made the attempt; your golfball arrow solution is ingenious and i will mimic it for my kestrophendone if ever i get around to building one! excellent tutorial and explanation of the workings

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by kicktheotter on Nov 24th, 2018 at 2:07pm
Either I found then forgot about this post or I missed it entirely. I've been planning on a cestrus/kestros/cestrophendone for ages and have made one (only the sling part, no darts so not much use :D ) but in this style:

https://www.google.fi/search?q=kestros&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3mJm73O3eAhWlwosKHchDAEsQ_AUIDigB#imgrc=2gMkLqOwDwxTkM:

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Jaegoor on Nov 25th, 2018 at 7:02am
Es gibt bessere und einfachere Methoden.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by vetryan15 on Nov 25th, 2018 at 10:06am
I have made two of these in the past gave one as a gift but never made the darts or arrows to go with it

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by kicktheotter on Nov 25th, 2018 at 1:20pm
Well I had time today so made two :D One I made braiding jute (should really have twisted it as the flat braid I did did caused a bit of trouble with the knots but seems to have sorted itself out now) and one from paracord. The jute one took a LONG time to braid and then carve and sand the peg. The paracord one took 30 seconds and then half an hour to do the peg so I should have started with paracord. Jute one does look nicer though. I only have the one "dart" but it's just a pointy piece of pretty crappy wood with a cut out on one end. It's very thick, hence the deep cut out but I think it would work ok for practicing. I'm thinking of using a replacement broom handle to make more darts. I think I can get three shafts from the one handle and it looks to be a good thickness. Haven't thought about flights yet but I'll get to that later. I'll brave the cold some day soon and see how they do :D
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Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Jaegoor on Nov 26th, 2018 at 12:36pm
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y9SUw-DPW-8
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Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Blue Raja on Nov 26th, 2018 at 4:17pm
Unless I am sorely mistaken, we are about to find out why lawn darts are banned in the US.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by kicktheotter on Nov 26th, 2018 at 4:40pm
I'm sure I won't hit anyone and if I do... Finland has many deep forests...

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by kicktheotter on Dec 3rd, 2018 at 12:07pm
Well I've made my first darts. They aren't pretty and they don't actually have tips but I think they should work out ok. They're made from a broom handle cut into 4 with m24 hex nuts screwed on and duct tape fletchings. I did consider adding some large nails for tips but thought it best I get the hang of it without them to start with. I don't even have my ears pierced so I would rather not pierce any part of me with these... The fletchings were SO hard to get right, I wasted a lot of duct tape and they still didn't turn out as well as I would like. I really hope they're large enough to work. Tomorrow I'm going to take them out the field to see how they do. I won't be able to film it but eventually I'll try and film some practice.
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Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Kick on Dec 6th, 2018 at 9:15am
First test. The slings themselves work really well. Don't think I even need to adjust them. The darts worked surprisingly well as well. They would need more weight at the front which is fine because I was planning on attaching nail spikes anyway and the fletchings need improving (which isn't a surprise). They also travelled through the fig 8 wind-up very well as can seen in the video. Overall very successful and very happy. Now just to add those spikes...

https://youtu.be/nFrh_HEd9WE

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Frondeur on Dec 9th, 2018 at 12:50pm
That's the system I prefer. I called it Yureks Kestro, but it is so versatile it deserves to be called a polyphendon.

This post makes me want to make a new one: Mine is particulary short.

as for kestros themseves (By kestro I mean darts, Phendon should mean Funda) I will try to make lighter ones a soon as possible.

Title: Re: Making a Cestros sling
Post by Kick on Dec 9th, 2018 at 1:03pm
I've found it works really well. I would be out there practising with it now if it hadn't been raining and miserable for the past two days...

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