Penobscot Stick Sling

hello everyone I have a fairly unique sling to talk about today it is a pinup Ascot stick sling and it's based off of one that is currently located at the National Museum of the American Indian I'd like to thank the National Museum of the American Indian for their help they were very quick and my query about this item and gave me plenty of nice information I had originally read about this and slings and sling stones book I've talked about in my earlier videos but actually getting an image from the museum was very helpful to copy they're a great resource for photos of artifacts and for us digital scans of photos taken at the turn of the century the pinup of Scott and I really apologize I'm terrible with pronunciation were people who lived in northern Maine not much is known about them prior to contact it is known that they lived off of seafood in the winters because it got really cold up there and there have been a lot of shellfish and fish remains and there middens their trash piles after contact they worked as fur trappers during the French and Indian War they cited on the side of the French feeling that the rights were being attacked by the British unfortunately the French lost the French and Indian War so they had reparations put on them a matter of fact during the war the British instituted a reward system for the scalps of the Penobscot they sided with the Americans during the American Revolution and were actually instrumental in preventing attacks from Canada into America by the British unfortunately they still didn't get any recognition from this from the new American government and they were moved onto reservation life this sling was found in 1910 and it was found with three sling stones so we definitely know it was a sling which can be daunting sometimes to identify pretty much you can't identify a sling stone a hundred percent unless you find it with this link so this sling is unique in the way it's used because it's used much more similar to an atlatl or spear thrower the construction is also very similar to an atlatl at the same time I was surprised but how similar the structure is to a bow or half of one just kind of cut in half but you have the center the limbs and up here is where you'd have this string so I'm wondering if this was actually a recycled bow this is a two-part construction the stick is pine that I carved I don't know what type of wood the original was made out of but pine is pretty much all I have available and it's fairly similar to what I think would be expected in Maine and then the second part is just a hide chord with pouch which is used for releasing a stone to make this I first used a steel knife to cut it down shape and then after that I sanded it down with various grits of stones to give it a nice smooth finish as this was found in 1910 it's possible that it was made using steel tools so it's not entirely inauthentic on the museum copy right here there was a secondary slit and I really had no idea what this was for and then further down in front of the pouch there was another square knot so last night I tested the stick sling and this is not as good hide as I currently have on but if you can see all the knots and the tears and the rips and I launched 21 stones from this and I had a total of six breaks so after dealing with this I realized the square knot was probably a repair and that this slot right here was so when this these cords broke that you could take a knife or a stone and slide it through there and slice straight up and you could tie it right back on the one thing testing has definitely shown me is that this is a very limited use item the force on the hide is pretty great with the extra leverage from the wood but it was neat to figure out what this little thing meant just from testing out so yeah experimental archeology so all in all this sling took about six hours to make most of it was refining and shaping the wood it's a significant increase from the usual half hour to hour it takes me to make my current slings I'm well aware that there are four more complicated slings out there but I don't have the skills to make them yet but it was a good day's work now before I go any further in this video I will admit I have a bias I'm a slinger I've been singing for a couple years so this is very unnatural and awkward to me I have a friend who's great with atlatls and I really wish I could put this in his hands and have him try and use it because I really can't make heads or tails of it so that's pretty much all there is about the sling let's go test it out so through testing one of the things I learned is that smaller rocks are a better idea I'm not really sure why I thought with all the extra leverage that larger rocks would be more effective they'd be able to go further but it really seems like the sling has trouble launching the larger rocks and the smaller rocks when they are released are released fairly easily and they go in a generally straight line so insulins and sling stones the authors declared that stick slings and staff slings are easier for the untrained to use but they have less range and are less accurate and the hands of a skill to user kind of like a comparison of a longbow to a matchlock musket I have to agree with them if you have the right ammunition and you have someone who knows what they're doing with it you can give this to someone who really doesn't know what they're doing with it and the sling will definitely release stone in the direction you intend it to I also think that again if you gave this to someone who's familiar with an atlatl and use this to possibly kill birds or small game this would be very easy for them to use so that's the pinup of Scott stick sling it's a little awkward for me to use then again I am a slinger and biased but it's a pretty unique and cool tool so thanks for watching and if you get the chance please check out the National Museum of the American Indian

Channel: Coyote Slinger

Views: 68,319

Rating: 4.6314497 out of 5

Keywords: Sling, Rock Sling, Stick Sling, Staff Sling, Atlatl, NAMI, Natioanl Museum of the American Indian, Archaeology

Id: OCVkrVSWwPs

Length: 7min 42sec (462 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 18 2016