Down the Lane

We have just taken up learning how to fire these, as a kid you just got a Y shaped branch added some elastic bands or knicker elastic (does anyone remember that stuff?) and off you went.

I never realized how far things had moved on, tubes and bands of all different strengths, lengths and thickness, different grips and a multitude of frame designs, fancy wood ones, ornate metal ones, plastic ones and all sorts of other material I have never heard of.

Anyway we are having great fun attempting to hit a target, several broken barn roof tiles and birds flying for cover when they see us coming are an indication as to how good we are! Still it is early days yet!

Currently looking for some Y shaped branches to attempt to create our own and looking for some "theraband gold" exercise bands that are meant to make good slingshot bands. So far not much luck in tracking any down but the search will continue................

Trev62 wrote:..... some elastic bands or knicker elastic (does anyone remember that stuff?) and off you went.

I never realized how far things had moved on...

What do you mean "does anyone remember"? I still use it for the proper purpose, (repairs, I don't knit my own). Mind you, it is harder to find these days, though you can get anything online.

As for things moving on, my little sister played Chinese skipping. It hadn't reached England when I was at primary school. She and her friends found and collected rubber bands and looped them through each other to make a chain, then joined the ends to one big loop. By the time my children were at school they used a length of knicker elastic. Recently I saw a covered elastic rope loop for sale.
Half of the fun was making things out of findings - not that there was a lot that we could afford to buy, postwar.

Mo wrote:
What do you mean "does anyone remember"? I still use it for the proper purpose, (repairs, I don't knit my own). Mind you, it is harder to find these days, though you can get anything online.

Knitted knickers, now that is something I have never seen!

I used to leave for school with it holding my socks up but it was on a branch as a catapult before I arrived there! It used to have a multitude of uses, a bit like WD40 it can be used for anything!

Hi Knitted swim ware I can remember , When wet the bagged ddown to tour knees , better off wearing nothing ....
Bob

My lovely partner brought me back some theraband gold from England so I can make and replace our slingshot bands, now to do this I found I needed four hands, something I do not possess (strangely), so I cast around for a band jig. After an internet search I needed a rather stiff drink...........well, two actually!! 40 Dollars from the Good Old USA or between 15 - 25 Pounds Sterling from the UK, madness, total madness, no way so I made my own, a piece of wood left over from the roof, two bolts, six washers, four wingnuts, two normal nuts and two carpenter/market stall clamps. Thirty minutes later jig completed, total cost.......... 4 Bulgarian Leva @ 2 Pounds Sterling, basic but it works!!!

So a successful day in my book