For March, Nathan will be extracting the slingshot from within a piece of split firewood found on SimpleShot Advisory Team member Blue Skeen's property. While digging through Blue's wood pile a few years ago, this piece of Chestnut Oak was found. It appears that the tree began its life as a slingshot, but through unknown forces during its lifetime, was enveloped by the tree. When Jeorg Sprave, creator of The Slingshot Channel, hosted a fire wood slingshot build off on his forum, it was time for the slingshot to find its way back out of the tree. This March, Nathan is looking for the slingshot within. Stay tuned!
Next, step... cut away all of the surrounding wood.
The inner slingshot reveals itself and the Axiom shape is the winner for this particular build..
Rough shape... several voids and cracks need attention. A bit of CA glue and clamps and it is off to the vacuum chamber for stabilization....
A neutral color stabilizing resin was used, though it still darkened the wood quite a bit. A few of the larger cracks were filled with CA
Next up, shaping of the slingshot to develop the overall curves and proportions. A 1/4" oak dowel was epoxied through the left fork to further stabilize the final product due to the fact that it came out of a stick of firewood!
Finally, the shape is discovered and refined...and complete!
The final:
