Emergency production SMLE sling?

Recently picked up this SMLE sling. Professionally made, but very stiff (mainly due to the age and wrong storage I assume?) and totally different material. Anyone ever seen such a sling before and knows where and when they were used and made? And am I'm correct that it's a SMLE sling, probably emergency production like the Germans and Austrians had at the end of WWI?

I have a few here. They are linoleum covered with sewn cloth and get hard as a rock. You can sit them in the sun to shape them but they are pretty much useless after all these years except for being an interesting collectable.

Hi Brian, what were they intended for? And which period were they made?

They are rifle slings. I'd imagine they were much more pliable when they were new. The ones I had were all British manufacture and dated 1941.

Never seen one or heard of such a thing in all my life. Reminds me of the rubberized Japanese slings.

always that little detail left to discover.....

there is a little more info on karkeeweb:

Pattern 1937 Web Equipment

Thanks, looking closer on my second picture it could be that there once was a 1941 marked also. So rather WWII item than WWI.

I've put it on a rifle, mine are anyway just for display. So it doesn't matter if it's stiff as wood :). Learnt something new!

I have a few here if anyone wants one. Useless but interesting!

Must be something that was hurriedly cobbled together in the days after Dunkirk when everything was in short supply. Pity, really, that they stopped doing that. We had some really ugly lino in my house when I was growing up that could have been put to much better use covered with cloth............

Ed

If it IS a linoleum based material covered with cloth then Linseed Oil will soften it. Mind you, it'll also make the cotton covering a bit waxy/oily too!