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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!
Here's another I believe to be either an Emergency production P14/Enfield sling or else it's a 1939 pattern leather sling I have but I can't find it listed in the Karkee site here under the 1939 pattern leather equipment section.. Ray Karkee Web
The sling in mint/ unused and stamped, Cliff. Walsall 1940, with a 134 over a Broad arrow.
Attachment 67309Attachment 67308Attachment 67310Attachment 67311
Had one of those come on this piece in the MKL:
1917/1945 No.1 MkIII* H.T. Sniper Rifle (Short Bracket)
Refer to comment #6...
6. The sling shown mounted on the No.1 MkIII* H.T. Sniper Rifle in this Knowledge Library entry is a WWII version of the ersatz sling, made of folded canvas due to the shortage of webbing. Most but not all of these went to the home guard - the one in the MKL entry here looks particularly nice. B.H.G. Ltd are Barrow, Hepburn, and Gale. This was the WWII version of the name for one of the great British military suppliers - a firm that dates back to early Victorian times and were at times variously called Hepburn Ltd.; Hepburn & Gale; Hepburn, Gale & Ross (aka 'HGR", the most prolific supplier of leather goods, as well as some web, during WWI); and other names as the small military suppliers combined forces to stay alive. ....... (Feedback by "John Thorne")
http://photos.imageevent.com/badgerd...0_Medium_2.JPG(Click PIC to Enlarge)http://photos.imageevent.com/badgerd...0_Medium_2.JPG(Click PIC to Enlarge)http://photos.imageevent.com/badgerd...0_Medium_2.JPG
Regards,
Doug
I've come across various webbing-substitute items made in this rubberised cotton material. Invariably they've hardened over 70+ years.