Jute

Pandanus

Those are fantastic slings, Pikaru.  If you ever get the chance to post a tutorial, I would absolutely love to see it.  Ethnographic slings are so awesome, and it's nice to see things other than the Andean and Tibetan stuff I've been focusing on of late.
 
Incidentally, do you know the traditional method for polishing and sharpening the stones?  The one you have featured with your slings is gorgeous and I would love to learn how to make one.

I made one and gave it to Mas.  It is greenstone and I pecked and ground it.  PM him, maybe he'll post another picture.

Quote from Atlatlista on May 2^nd, 2012, 7:04pm:

 
I have not tinkered with stones much yet. The guys I know who make them, like the blue coral one I have use electric grinders and polishers. As far as ancient methods I can only guess stone to stone using water as a lubricant and to carry away the sediment as you worked the stone. I've seen metate-like stones with groves cut into them that are said to have been used to form the stones but I don't have any pictures to post. Thank you.

Quote from wanderer on May 3^rd, 2012, 3:43am:

 
PS: This was a matriarchal society by the way. Children belongned to the mother and often times whatever was to be passed down was passed down through the mother more than through the father.

By matriarchal, you mean matrilineal, right?  In many native cultures it is common for women to "own" the children, or more properly for children to trace their line of descent through the mother.  In these societies, it is also common for women to own the houses in which people live.  However, in most of these matrilineal societies, it is exceedingly uncommon for women to actually exercise leadership over the community in any kind of ruling sense, which is what matriarchy implies.

OK, I'll take 3 of each. What do you want to trade?????

Quote from Pikaru on May 4^th, 2012, 6:42pm:

 
That's my preference as well.  Thanks a bunch for your efforts!

Chamorru

Fire hardend clay.  

Great stuff!! I am learning...............slowly.

can you please post a tutorial soon? i am only 13, so i am limited in trading abilities... but i have tons of cord, and stones. i need a good sling design to make.  

hey did you still want the palm fibers

Thanks all.  
 
I will post a tutorial when my schedule slows down.  
 
Part of the hold up has been that I keep changing up how they're made and the materials used.  
 
Still seeking the "perfect sling"...

Decorative sling stones. I've been painting up a few this weekend.

Too pretty to sling!

My new hang out. http://itanohu.blogspot.com/  
 
Come visit. Here is where I will post Chamorro cultural crafts such as, weapons, pottery, weaving and food.  
 
Tano' Hu I Islan Guahan

Mighty fine sling my man. I like the colors

And now I have the bone to do it. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it's not anyone you know.    
 
For the spear tips I just need to get new cartridges for my respirator. I recently found out about hazardous bacteria that can be present in bone. I have an air extraction fan with filters and maybe I have an ammunity from all the other bone and antler grinding I've done in the past but hearing about the bacteria freaked me out a little.

That's why you should always use direct ventilation whether it's bone, leather, wood, stone... Grinding bad, Ventilation good.

If you're starting in the middle with the pouch then half the battle is already won.  
 
I hope you post some pictures.

My new Acho`Atupat is ready.  45", 5 strand braid, jute.  I had to test fire it at 40 meters, short for this kind of sling.  Oblong stones weighting apprx 230 gram/8 ounce is great ammo for this one, I`d like to try real biconical ammo, that has to be absolutely devastating.  
I don`t think testing it with "underpowered" ammo like tennis balls will be worth the bother, this is a weapon made for war
I used mostly figure8 though the sling is quite long, that always sendt the ammo out spinning with the pointiest end first.  

Here it is along with my first Chamorro sling on it`s left side and a genuine Picaru on it`s right.  It obviously help having something to look at when figuring out this kind of sling.

Every time I build a sling I learn something new that is then applied into the next sling. A recent and important evolution for this weapon system, and it is a weapon not a toy is that the Chamorro warrior called the weapon Acho'Atupat. The sling AND stone. The shaped stone without the sling is just a stone and the braided or twisted sling without the stone is just a short fiber rope.  
 
Stones were carefully crafted and varied in size but overall the sling and stone are best as a matched set. The sling is built around the stone.  
 
I am working on tutorials and they will reside here http://itanohu.blogspot.com/ where I have control of access and content.

Wow!  That one is super pretty!  I love the contrast, and the netting work is gorgeous.

Tutorial is up. I'll be posting more.  
 
http://itanohu.blogspot.com

Thanks, Pikåru.  Masi, it`ll be cool to see your first.  I am working on my third and found some nice hints here.  This was a tutorial for using 5 thicker instead of 15 thinner strands, which is indeed a good way to get started.  
I guess I`ll make one like this next, though I begin getting used to mess around with the horrible 15-strand tangle

New sling Micronesian sling posted http://itanohu.blogspot.com

Nice. How does it throw?

Please let me know how it goes.

I'm continuing to work in the design and come up with other replicas.  
 
http://itanohu.blogspot.com  
 

I know! The slinging Muse descended late yesterday afternoon and I had to sketch and make a page of notes while the idea was fresh in my mind. Yup, more sling ideas.

Nice,nice,nice last sling and clay ammo. A question arrised while looking at them: why are they so fat? You can throw them more consistently rifled this way,or just you like the look of them better this way,or why?
My batch of ~90 ceramic glans weight about the same,it's a good weight. A nice compromise between the hard hitting,few to carry and the long flying,much to carry.

Aha. I only saw the usual more elongated shape,like your profile pic.Ok.
Is the new way to roll them,similar like the pill roler?

Since I made some smaller sling ammo, I had to make a smaller sling. It was several months ago that I tried making a sling using hemp that I found at Hobby Lobby. I was very unsatisfied with the cord because it was so stiff and didn't blend well when braided. One good thing about the cord was that it was very consistent in diameter. The sling functioned fine but I didn't like the way my first attempt using hemp looked.  
 
Well yesterday I stumbled across a great old school hobby shop. It was awesome! They had everything a hobbiest would want from model planes, trains, weaving, doll house making, plastics, beads... everything. At any rate they had hemp cord so today I made three slings using this new cord. It was windy and snowed all day so it was a good day to spend indoors watching episodes of Firefly and making slings.  
 
Here is a small sling I made using this new cord. The hemp was soft and easy to braid, blended well but had numerous lumps that had to be thinned out to get a good braid. It was a little more work to get even braids but I am happy with the end result. Even with the snow I took a few of my new small clay stones to see how the sling performed and was very happy with the results.  
http://itanohu.blogspot.com

Okay, what is a pill roller?

http://www.google.ro/imgres?um=1&hl=ro&sa=N&biw=1152&bih=725& ;tbm=isch&tbnid=d7RP9AcrwVj_MM:&imgrefurl=http://phisick.com/item/mahogany-pill-roller-maw-son-thompson/&docid=ZXV7I-Dnp41YPM&imgurl=http://phisick.com/core/wp-content/uploads/pill-roller-maw-1011.jpg&w=660&h=495&ei=uu2fUP_DCMXHtAaZsICADQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=116&vpy=151&dur=7245&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=125&ty=95&sig=112672742146978400865&page=1&tbnh=138&tbnw=171&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:66
C_A made a big one for rolling clay balls. I think it should work with biconical form too. It just had to be made with less than two half tubes.

It was a weaving kind of weekend.  
 

Fine craftsmanship!

Amazing, really superb.
 
Looking at these beautiful slings is making me want to spend the day braiding!

Same pattern, new material.  
 
This sling is made of hemp with a seven strand taperred braid.  
 
If you're using my tutorial at http://itanohu.blogspot.com , it's the same basic concept.  
 
I took five cords, each cord had three strands plaited together. I broke down each of the cords and braided it as you see here.  
 
With all of the untwisting and retwisting of the strands that make up this cord the finished braid took on some unusual twists but they were easily worked out and the sling works great.

DM, you`ll probably need to learn by doing it, that`s what I did
"Sew" and weave the strand from the 5-strand braid and between the separate pouch strands, and maybe around the braid itself too.  If it looks more or less like in one of Picåru`s pictures it`s probably allright.

Your sling may have to change as you go along. You have to be able to adlib. For example, when this sling was finished one side was longer than the other and overall it was too short. Rather than tossing it I used some scrap leather to extend the sling and gave the Chamorro sling a great and different look.

Yes the strap is run back and forth through the slits. It is a simple and somewhat popular design for tack. You can make an entire bridle set using slits in the material without ever running a single stitch.

Dziękuję  

Small woven sling.  
 
With the small shot I made this sling and it has done nice. I think this sling will throw better with lead or other small heavy shot.  
 
This sling is a modified split pouch. If you look closely you can see the overlap of the straps. I am going to try making a bigger version with heavier cord.

New Tutorial  
 
http://itanohu.blogspot.com

Yes. In time all the way down to the release knot. If you split the strands and make smaller, tighter braids past the release knot it'll last longer.

Gof Mannge! Kelaguen Manok  
 
http://itanohu.blogspot.com

Thank you.

Awesome!  What's pågu?

A private collection of Chamorro artifacts.

Yes it is.  Some of the folks out here have some really great collections.  I picked up two very nice marlin spikes this evening.

No trench spikes.  
 
Last night in Guam.  I'm hoping I can get all this pagu fiber off island.

I have returned from the Mother Country if Guam and have seen the sling pictured on the homepage of slinging.org. I'm not sure if everyone knows that the sling on the homepage is Chamorro, but yes, it is.  
 
I would have to say that the most interesting thing about the sling is its size. The size of the slingstone it holds and is pictured with is about the size of a dinner roll, just under six inches from tip to tip. The sling also has a wrist loop and no release knot or tab.  
 
Currently Guam is without a natural history museum but we were able to trace some artifacts down at the Governor's complex and a few private collections around the island. A new museum is going to be built now that the politics surrounding its location has finally been worked out. With exception of a few things, all of the artifacts for the museum are in storage. We tried to get a hold of the curator but apparently he has just retired. Head's up on careers; Guam is in need and in search of a new museum curator.  
 
Woven artifacts. It's a commonly known fact that there are very few organic artifacts that have survived from ancient times. When you factor in the climate, length of foreign occupation and world war, the most common artifacts are made of stone, shell or clay. I asked the young lady manning the small museum at the Governor's complex who made the sling in the display case and if the weaver might still be available. Unfortunately she knew very little about the displays, nothing about the sling and thought it was for fishing because it was in the display case for fishing stuff. There was a narrative card on a different display case, one that didn't have slings or stones that indicated slings were often made of coconut husk fiber or pandanus but this sling was not made of either, at least as far as I could tell.  
 
On a different but related note, near the last day of vacation I lost all of the photos I took which included the detailed photos of the sling. In a panic I was able to go back and take some new photos and the gentleman manning the desk knew a bit more about the sling.  
 
The sling on display is supposed to be one of the most well preserved organic artifacts found on the island and is ballpark dated around 1500ish AD. This sling, along with other artifacts was found under a layer carbon, basically ash from a fire and it is believed that this may have been a factor to why the fiber articles had not decayed away. They were able to soak, treat and clean the fibers enough to keep the sling intact. That's the the short of what was told to me about this sling. The attendant told us that the curator of the museum, along with local weavers believes that the sling may be made from fiber taken from the trunk of the coconut tree.  
 
The museum attendant also spoke of the various size of slingstones found and told us about a large stone weighing approximately 30lbs. A thirty pound stone! Not sure whether that's possible but like with many things lost in history, we can only best guess.  
 
 
 

I had an opportunity to go into the jungle to harvest some pago (pagu / wild hibiscus). I was also able to treat and dry the bark then stuff it into a suitcase and bring it home.  
 
Pago is the preferred fiber for making rope and while it's not recorded that pago was used to make slings, I don't see any reason why not.  
 
I had a chance to speak with TASA (Traditions Affirming our Seafaring Ancestry) members about thier passion, in particular rope making and use of natural materials used to build the Flying Proa. The group is building galides in Ypau Beach. http://guam.stripes.com/travel/beachside-group-rekindles-chamorro-seafaring-past
 
One of the builders gave me some very dry pago which I twisted and turned into slings for the group.

Pago, cured and drying. Since we're entering into the wet season I had to hang it under cover to air dry.

Use the tutorial on my blog itanohu.blogspot.com. It has a tutorial using thick hemp cord.

Quote from Pikåru on Jan 5^th, 2013, 2:41pm:

 
 
Thanks man, that jute sling at the bottom of the first inital page is the design I think I'll be using, just with a slightly bigger pouch for tennis balls.

Quote from Dan on Jan 6^th, 2013, 2:45pm:

 
You'll get a better outcome if you build the pouch to suit your ammo so if tennis balls are it the use it.

Mmmmm, chimichanga.

Quote from timann on Jan 12^th, 2013, 6:46am:

 
Thanks! It works pretty well. I think I'll add to the faux sinew sewing a bit to keep the cords a bit more seperated and inline but otherwise its a win in my book. Its been awhile since I've done something different. Me gusta.