You'd think the Romans would have gotten sick and died from their lead pipes.

Yfir wrote on May 19^th, 2023 at 6:15pm:


Well, they at least had high levels of lead. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/leadpoisoning.htm... https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceshot-did-lead-poisoning-bring-dow...

That makes sense. It's interesting how what's viewed as a highly poisonous substance these days was pretty commonly used in the past.

Exactly Mersa. I like to shoot stones. Finding really good stones is difficult for me, but it's worth it for me. I only shoot lead out of scientific interest. I work with different universities. Many years already.Lead is also easy to work with. This isn't steel. You want to use lead? Try it. It's interesting. Use a mask and take care of your hands. I still want up indicate something else. If you want to pull lead with a stab, there is a danger. Cooling down in the water. Only submerge it halfway into the water. Then they waited until all the water evaporated from the lead. Only then do they immerse it again in the liquid lead. If they don't, water vapor will form. This escapes explosively in the liquid lead. The lead then splatters around. So protect your eyes with glasses.

Teg has a video where he's doing some braiding and linked these resources in the video description.

https://www.jeanleader.net/othercrafts/peruvianbraid.html
https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/tutorials/tutorial-palma-and-margarita-br...

I've never done this type of braiding so I can't comment on the helpfulness of the articles.  But if Teg linked them, I'm sure the information is good.

Thanks for the info will definitely be trying that

First thing I would recommend is to step down your expectations.  You mentioned no power or accuracy.  That's absolutely normal when just getting started.  Both of those things can take a long time to develop.  You also mentioned getting 35 of 40 tennis balls out in front of you.  That's great!  Depending on the release type, it's common to have projectiles going up in the air, way off to the side, straight into the ground, etc.

As with power and accuracy, coordination takes time.  Don't try to include too much body movement at the beginning.  Work on getting comfortable with releasing the sling at the right time.

You should be able to dry fire any sling.  But if you want one that will open up in a smooth motion (and possibly crack), you'll need a braided sling with a tapered release cord.

When I first introduce people to slinging, I usually start them off with an underhand release.  Sling Moustachio has a good video showing this method: https://youtu.be/I6kIZZQlW84.  Something I'll mention though is that you don't need to rotate the sling as fast as he is.  You can rotate and release it more slowly and controlled at first until you get used to the release point.  And when practicing underhand, you don't need to permanently adopt this as the style you're going to use forever.  This is about training your brain to recognize when to release the sling.  Once you're doing it well with underhand, you can try out other styles.

I'd recommend sticking with tennis balls for at least a few sessions and see if you get used to them.  No one loves them, but they're such a common projectile and no real threat to anything around you.  Other options will be dependent on what kind of areas you have to sling in.

In Project Goliath, Tomberlaine has been experimenting with the
"Greek Vase" overhand throw...  No wind up, no helicopters, the sling is just and extension of your arm, like a flexible atlatl.