I recently picked up a 3 kilo block of clay from a craft shop in Manchester. Today I have made ten sling bullets, all the same weight, five spherical and five biconical. I made the first one biconical and 5 cm long, which a trawl through the British Museum website shows is a good average size for clay sling bullets. I then mushed it back into a sphere and made all my other projectiles from a ball of clay that size.

I will let these dry out for a few days and take them out for a chuck. I am hoping for a dry weight of around one ounce. I should probably spray them with fluorescent paint as well.

The plan is to look for two specific things: is it possible to see greater range from the biconical projectile, and is it possible to see it self-orienting to fly point first?

I noticed something else while going through the BM, it states that many of the clay sling bullets are described as 'wheel made'. This would be pretty interesting if true, it would be easy to mass-produce shot this way, maybe with a half-bullet shaped cutout wooden tool that you press against the side of a rotating column of clay.

Does anybody know any potters? This could be worth a bit of experimental research....

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research.aspx

Also it may be tough with a tiny blob of clay.

....or maybe a two-sided jig,using both hands.

If I reckon I have point-first projectiles then I will try to catch them on high speed camera like this guy does with the bow and atlatl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B8kooDUlxs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia1X4lh7bJU

Rat Man wrote on Jul 19^th, 2009 at 6:16pm:


Easily, although it would be time consuming. This might be another interesting experiment, to compare spherical with  spherical + dimples.

After 24 hours indoors, not in the sunshine and breeze, they were almost rock hard. A fingernail would scratch them, a hard squeeze could make a slight dent. I reckon on a sunny day, 24 hours would be plenty of time to get chuckable ammo.

I'll check them tomorrow and probably have a few test throws.

peacefuljeffrey wrote on Jul 19^th, 2009 at 7:34pm:


Assuming clay to have a density approx. the same as concrete, ie. around 2.5 with a volume of 40 ml. would make it 100 grams, or around 3.6 oz. (Perhaps a bit more, that estimate of density may be a bit low.)

Cool.  So the next question is, what specific kind of clay do I have to ask for?  Do I get it at an art supply store?

I am beginning to see why others are having a problem with you, Jax.  
On the face of it, your post seems to be pedantic, condescending, and not offered as an attempt at genuinely helping.  Forgive me if I've misread that.

I guess I must, now, be a bit more specific when I ask questions, in that the person of whom I thought it was obvious I was asking my questions before is not the person from whom I got an... "answer."

David, is there anything specific you can tell me about the kind of clay, perhaps a brand name, that you bought for making glandes?  Thanks.