Slingshots Forum banner

Good size of blank and preferred woods

1434 Views 14 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Lisa
Hi,
I'm going to be making an appointment at Bell Forest products in Ishpeming pretty quick to get some exotic wood blanks. They are letting people in by appointment only, but at least i can go see the pieces for myself.
I was wondering what size blanks would be a decent size. They have some bowl turning blanks 4x4x2 on up. The also have a box of exotic wood pieces, fifteen pounds for $35, so I was planning on getting one of those and trying to learn now to laminate small pieces together.

So what is a good size of blank to start with for a standard sized slingshot?

Many of the templates don't have measurements, you just resize as you'd like and print out the page. I'm using an iPad mini and don't currently have a printer, so I'm eyeballing them.

I'm guessing most are 5" tall or less?

What is a decent thickness that would give me room to make a thicker palm swell if I want to?

I didn't find one, but I was wondering if there was a thread or chart that mentions wood that is superior to use for slingshots, or a Janka hardness or density number i should be looking for?

Thanks, Lisa
  • Like
Reactions: 4
1 - 8 of 15 Posts
You might want to take a look here if you're thinking of making a board cut. http://kookaburrakatties.blogspot.com/p/streng.html
Thank you for that interesting info. The finished ss looks nice with the angled grain. As I was reading, I thought it was going to recommend laminating two or more thinner layers together, alternating vertical and horizontal grain. But as I've stated, I know nothing!

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
  • Like
Reactions: 2
I literally just poured myself a big mug of coffee that I just perked. Yes perked, in my old school coffee maker. Nothing better, except Swedish church coffee make with an egg, but I was too lazy to make that.

Anyhow, my next question regards hand size, which was mentioned.
What is average?
I happen to think I have big hands. Now I've never had a meet up and went plinking with friends, passing around slingshots, but I bet many of you have.
So the 5' 3" guy hands his SS to his 6' 3" buddy. Is there enough of a difference in hand sizes where the big guy and littler guy are going to not like each other's SS?
I do watch videos of what I perceive to be bigger guys shooting tiny pfs frames and they do okay. Some seem to shoot pfs almost exclusively. Do they get cramped hands faster than a big frame, or does the action of reloading give them enough of a break?
Am I right in assuming people just adapt their larger hands to different holds, or perhaps do add a wrap to bulk up a frame? Maybe simply not shoot a small frame as long?

I can palm a full twelve pack box of pop (soda to you people not from my area) I can pick one up and carry it dangling down from my fingers, not just hold it for two seconds, so I think I got big hands and a good grip. I don't have delicate baby hands like most women. I have lumberjack hands, huge meat hooks compared to any of my female friends. As a home care aide, I've actually had both men and women ask to hold their hand against mine and I always win the big hand contest with the women. Their fingertips usually hit just below my last finger joint and often men's hands have shorter fingers than mine, even if their palms are the same, so it is something I wonder if I need to adjust for.
Do I need to look for thicker working materials, be it deadwood or wood blanks, or if the differences between a large hand and small hand thinking a grip is comfy a few millimeters?
Lol, I'm over thinking this, right?
But I already typed all this so I may as well post it.
Lisa
77c19ffa146d822014b56e437d032175.jpg


Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 2
Okay, the coffee is kicking in and I reread your post a couple times now.
The length following the contour of my right hand, from thumb tip down along the webbing and to my index fingertip is about 8" and when I touch my thumb and index tip together over a ruler, I can see 2" as an inner diameter. So the high end of your formula would probably work for me?

Thanks, Lisa
Edit for spelling
Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
  • Like
Reactions: 2
Nope, buy they sure got a lot of tires. I believe the weight limit on those is 120,000 lbs? I pulled usually 48ft spread axle flatbed, a skateboard, or sometimes a 53ft drybox. I did a lot of oversize loads and had to have a police escort once to get some 62ft laminated beams through Gary Indiana on my way to Minneapolis. The beans were lashed to a steel beam for support since they hung way off The back. The highway was under construction and I realized I couldn't make the bend of the offramp I was supposed to take, as I had permits and was supposed to follow a certain route. I stopped before I scuffed them up. I had to wait a day up the road at a truck stop for new permits. I ended up being escorted through residential neighborhoods with cops blocking entire intersections. It was a cool! I felt like the President with their motorcade. People came out of their houses to see what was going on as I swung those beams using every inch of real estate I could use. That's my longest load story.
Heaviest load was live trees whose rootballs of dirt got saturated during a night rain storm along the way. I could tell by my gauges when I woke up, I was in trouble. I was now at 92,000 pounds, 12,000 lbs over limit. I had to run all kinds of county roads to avoid the state scales. That was the heaviest I accidently had to haul. I had a lot of very interesting things happen when I was trucking.
Lisa

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 2
Totally cool link! Using their picture as a guide, I'm 7 3/4" long, 3 1/2" wide and 8" circumference. So I do have grapplers, as my dad used to call my hands.
Lol, so when I'm foraging, I better go big or go home on the handle size, if I want some comfort. In just starting out, I'm sure I'll practice for a half hour or so to start.
Lisa

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
I was planning on ordering a cheap chinese one off of eBay with that curved pistol grip kind of style just to see if I like it, but if course we are talking a two month shipping wait. I got some cheapo wrist rocket which feels okay, but it's not very contoured, no curve, just a tube with some slight finger grooves.
Thanks again to everyone for all your great help, especially Pebble Shooter, I really appreciate it!
Lisa

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
  • Like
Reactions: 1
My mom is 92, but she's got most of her wits about her. She's visiting with my brother and i just called to remind him to log in and play her church service for her after lunch. I told her i was fiddling with the wood she watched me forage during out walks down the driveway and discussing with internet friends about hand size in relation to slingshot size. We determined it seems like i have somewhat large hands for a woman. Without skipping a beat, she said, i always thought you had man hands by the time you were ten years old, but didn't want to say so and hurt your feelings when you were a girl. I'd tell your dad to quit saying stuff like, Lisa, use your grapplers to open this jar of pickles. But you got man hands, dear.
Lol. Thanks Mom.
1 - 8 of 15 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top