Stringman
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Think meteorites, we are not alone.
Posts: 172
England
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Dale
Wish I could oblige but it was quite some time ago, three decades, I moved away from the place at 15 and one of the farewell swaps was the sling, I got a catapult. It was the move that put the pause in my slinging probably, just life stuff. To be honest it wasn't a masterpiece of craftsman ship but for the record I'll describe it anyway. The stick was about the diameter of the second joint of my thumb after I'd stripped the bark off, I think it was old wood elderberry. Dead and well seasoned, beautifully straight hardly any taper at all. Probably any wood that doesn't flex would do. I whipped one end of it with string for a good grip in exactly the same way one would whip a rope end to stop fraying. Not counting the string grip the length was from my wrist to halfway between my shoulder and my elbow I then scraped the stick smooth with a piece of copper I'd sharpened ( my parents wouldn't let me have a knife then )and crushed the surface of it with the side of a screwdriver to make it smoother finally I buffed it with a handkerchief and ,this is maybe where you give up on the EXACT replica idea, some ear wax. I had got hold of a brass hook from somewhere, I think it was designed to screw to the bottom of shelves for holding cups, it had a long deep tapered thread. I screwed this down the center, where in most other woods the knot would be. I also screwed a small eye into the side at the top, later I changed this to a small hook for faster loading. Both the latter fittings were the sort used to hold the wire for net curtains. The fabric bit was really simple, the pocket was a strong canvas on one side and leather cloth ( plastic side out ) one the other, I put seams all the way round both materials and then put them, seams together and stitched them together. I'd left long square ended tails either side of the pocket and simply stitched these back on themselves to become loops. The cords were just cotton string which I fed through the loops and tied, I thickened the retention cord with chain hitching for it's entire length. I also thickened the release cord the same way but only to half an inch short of the top of the stick, about half it's length, after which it was single. I've missed out several of the slings evolutions as it took a while to get it just right but that part is important as the release cord has to run smoothly through the loop or hook. In fact a knot on the release cord is a bad idea as if it catches on the loop the stone can catch on the string and it's random shot time, I learned that the hard way. I tried whipping the end of the cord with cotton which helped but as it was only string I often just let it fray, it was good for a few hundred shots anyway. Bear in mind that I was a ten or eleven year old with little knowledge and feeble skills when I made this.
I don't think it was a miniature staff sling though, it's not like any staff sling I've read about anyway; the cords are of uneven length, the release cord runs right down the shaft, not to a toggle in a notch at the top, and is released by hand at the bottom. Doesn't work quite the same way. Until I know better I'll stick to the term mounted sling. If bow type weapons can be subdivided into bows, crossbows, arabesques etc why shouldn't we have slings, mounted slings, staff slings and trebouches ( does that put us one up?)
Much as I'd like to claim the credit for inventing some new sort of sling it probably isn't. Aside from being such a simple idea that it probably gets “invented” a dozen times a year by someone, I've read somewhere that the ancient Greeks had many lewd pantomimes in which staffs carved into the shape of phallus's figured. ALL these plays have been lost, unlike the tragedies, and apart from a few critical references and many of the staffs nothing remains of them. I have also read that slings with uneven length cords have also been found and that the manner of their use is unknown. Well could it be that the archaeologists are finding two parts of the same thing? The staffs would be just the right shape for a slipknot with a fixed loop (perhaps around a ring with a groove around the outer side)in the loop. But who am I to suggest that given a slightly phallus shaped bit of kit the lower ranks in the Greek army would be crude enough to make them even ruder. I apologize to any modern armed forces types who are shocked by such a suggestion.
Also sorry for the length of this post but hope it makes up for the lack of image. Just writing this makes me want to have one again so I'll pack my wire saw just in case I happen on the right bit of wood when I'm out. To return the subject to impact. This is unfair as I used a mounted sling a lot over four or five years and a standard sling only a year and a half about an afternoon a week but inches equal, folded length of sling compared to stick plus retention cord lined up in a mounted sling. I got more power out of the mounted.
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Impact of sling stone (Read 14107 times)
