Adjustable Ancient Sling A Modern Tale To Labradors everywhere.

Dogs love to chase balls. They seem to love it more if they get to chase more, and that means throwing the ball farther. Yeah, right. The first hunters had the same need. Animals are still dangerous, even after you hit them with a rock. Hence the Ancient Sling was invented. Now that we have “powderactuated lead projectors”, we can use the Ancient Sling for more peaceful pursuits. The dogs will thank you. Let's get slinging! MATERIALS NEEDED 1. Cord – modern, hollow-braided Nylon or Poly works best, but any braided cord can be made to work. If you find “natural braided cord”, Good Luck – use glue to sculpt the pointed ends you'll need and wait for it to dry. I start with a piece as long as I can hold my hands apart – about a fathom – cut in half. Longer slings throw farther, but are much harder to use. Plus, sometimes the longer slings will scare the dogs at first... I suggest starting with “the length of your arm” as the finished, loaded sling size that's “best” for you. 2. Candle, campfire, cigarette lighter, stove eye, any source of cord-melting heat. Obviously this is where I abuse you over safety. Don't blame me if you burn your house down. Go outside. 3. Balls, stones, cans, baby ducks (“DFT”), etc. for projectiles. 4. A working brain. 5. A dog to bring the balls back...

As usual, we rely on several “tricks” to get us where we need to be. First “trick” is using modern braided synthetic cordage. It doesn't matter how cheap. That saves you the time and effort of making your own cords. Plus, the “synthetic” is required for the next trick. It must be hollow, so if there is any core present you'll need to extract that. Just push the cover back, grab the end of the core, haul away until it all comes out. Feel free to recycle the core yarn, unless it's diapers. Trick Two is, for the ability to adjust the sling, the ends will be buried in the heart of the braid. As you adjust the Eye, these will need to be pushed IN as well as OUT; so they'll need to be “pointed”, which used to be done with a Backsplice. We will use what Brion Toss calls a “Butane Backsplice”, but with a little style (and a few blisters) to suit our needs. Trick Two is just this: “Melt and Mash” the ends into points. If you're not comfortable playing with fire and maybe getting a few blisters, please stop now and go away. This is not the article you are looking for. The final “trick” is the Adjustable Eye Splice we'll be using. I found this on the WWWeb somewhere, and have no idea now where to go look for it. Thankfully mon ami Charles retained a picture. The “trick” is to “merge” two of these into a single “pouch”. If you can already see the Eye as a Standing Arm and a Working Arm erupting from the Crotch, then use the Standing Arm of one Eye as the Working Arm of the other, you're done with me and can go make your sling now. All that's left is me describing the details.

If you're ready to play nice, think for yourself and be careful, let's get that cord ready for your sling: First a bit about modern braided synthetic cordage: It's not all Nylon. Not all of it melts like you'd hope or expect. Test first. What kind to use? Whatever scraps you have to hand is what kind!! Assuming the braid has enough “hollow” inside to Bury the Working End, and the cord itself isn't so huge as to be a problem, you made the Right Choice! The smaller the better, of course, due to Windage, as long as you can bury the ends. But you'll need to get very familiar with how it melts. The secret is to use Just Enough Heat to make the material melt Just Enough so you can mash it together without burning yourself. Yes you can use gloves! Your goal is to melt a rather long point on three of the four ends, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. POINTING THE ENDS I start by lighting a candle. That keeps both hands free and saves on Butane. Heat the end in the flame until you just see it start to melt, then pull it away, blow on it a little to get the surface to “skin” over, then carefully mash-and-roll with your fingers to work the end into a nice long point – as long as you can stand. You won't need to worry about “too long” unless you just like blistered fingers. Sometimes you need to move more of the end into the flame – quickly and deliberately – to make a longer point. Practice will both make your points better and give you callouses to help next time. You're going to need to get this Right before any of the rest of it will even make sense, so get melt-&-mashing... It doesn't really take much. This works for me: The fourth end will be frayed to make the Release Knot pull away when you throw. If you pointed up all four ends, pick the ugly one to cut back off later. The points just need to be solid, smooth and small; and not as “pointy” as you might think. MAKING THE ADJUSTABLE EYE SPLICE Let's start with the Retaining Loop, which goes around the fingers of your throwing hand. Making the Adjustable Eye Splice here gives you the practice you'll need for the Pocket, plus lets you adjust the Loop later. That can be useful if you're wearing gloves or share this with someone with differently-sized hands. Here's my crude sketch of this trick Adjustable Eye: Now you see why I write, not draw! Notice how the pointy end plunges through the cord? Find where the individual yarns in the braid cross. Notice how there's a little

diamond-shaped hole between yarns? THAT is where your Butane Backsplice goes – In the hole on

one side of the cord and straight Out the matching hole on the other. Be careful to NOT disturb the braided fibers ever, anywhere, especially here. A “splicing needle” may help open the holes, or any slick, pointy tool. If your backsplice grabs at the fibers, fix that & go back to melt&-mash until the points are slick and not too sharp. Not trying to make up a new term here, but call the point where this crossing happens, “the Crossing Point”. After you get the end fairly through, the rest should be obvious. Pass the Working End around the Standing Part & over the Crossing Point. Bury the Working End just a “hole” or two past the Crossing Point. Bury an inch for practice, but remember you'll be passing cord – maybe a lot – in and out for adjustability. BONUS: This will make an Adjustable Eye, which you can use elsewhere, e.g. water skiing, fishing, climbing, etc. For the sling pouch, please continue.

MAKE THE POCKET by ADAPTING THE EYE Now that you see the parts of the Eye, consider using the Standing Part of one Eye as the Working End of another, and vice-versa... You'll notice I clipped the end of the Eye above, just to help see it as two cords. I'll use two different colors so I can describe it more easily. I mix my metaphors sometimes, so let's call the Blue one Cord 'A' and the Red one Cord 'B'. Start with the largest projectile you expect to throw. I'll use tennis balls. The idea is to size your Pocket big enough for the biggest, so you can just bury more of the Ends as the projectiles get smaller. Estimate the size of the eye as about 1/3 the size of the projectile. The pocket has to slightly hold the ball without letting it slip through. Look at the globe: If

your pocket fits where the Tropics go around the globe, that's perfect. I don't know “how much” Bury you'll need, but for this Sling, you're more interested in looks than security. You won't strain the cordage much throwing dog toys! First, take the End of Cord 'A'. Pass it through the Crossing Point of Cord 'B', lead it around Cord 'B' and bury it inside Cord 'B' just past the Crossing Point.

Repeat “going the other way”. When the pocket is sized properly, finish fairing the buried part.

Now you have a nice Adjustable Pocket. How to adjust it?

ADJUSTING THE POCKET

Take your next projectile. I'll use a golf ball. Arrange the pocket around the same “Tropic of Capricorn” as you did on the tennis ball.

Push each 'half' of the excess pocket throughand-around the Standing Part and milk it into the Bury.

When it's fair again, you've just converted “calibers”.

Time for the Release Knot, aka “Trigger”. Any knob knot you know will work here, as long as it's hard, and arranged so that the ends enter & exit from opposite side of the knot. You will fray the last inch or so to act as a brake keeping the trigger knot from smacking the ground in front of you. Clifford Ashley's Oysterman's Stopper Knot (ABOK#526) is as good as any:

Now that you know how to adjust the Pouch and Loop, get a projectile, adjust the Pouch to fit, make sure the Trigger Knot hits the Crotch of the Retaining Loop Eye, and go make friends with a dog! As for the method of throwing, I can only say do NOT spin it around-and-around your silly head expecting this to work! There may be a dozen 'correct' ways to throw things with a sling, but that's beyond the scope of this article. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do! That's all for now!

Jimbo the Kinky Wretched Knottyer of Lower-Eastern Cordage Knots Tied. Ties Knotted. Cross-Eyed Splices still our specialty. Dumb looks are still free.