I think the reason the spears were doing little damage and breaking easily is because they were basically extra long carbon fiber target shooting arrows. The spears they used in the past were wood and they were also way heavier and thicker as well as probably sharper.
yeah, definitly. And ancient people would use bigger, broad headed spears that would cut more than actually pierce. Usingg a torso dummy would have shown that a bbit better, but still wouldn't have the same effect as an ancient atlatl.
Similar issue with the sling, a lead sling bullet is going to give much more impressive results than a stone because it's much denser and thus concentrates the impact force in a smaller area. I've actually seen someone else test them on a ballistics gel head and they didn't just smash the face, they went about halfway through the head.
Not sure if they were sharper, but the warhead, the missle shaft, and the thrower were all probably a bit heavier. P.S. I'm pretty sure that when you throw a spear it should be called a javelin :).
the coolest part of this video is Mike showing his failures. Not only it shows the whole thinking process, but also show to everyone that making mistakes is part of the process
too bad those games are unplayable on modern machines......and the updated editions have super bugs like where mouse clicks stops working and such....meeh was it win xp era? have quad 3ghz computer just standing in a wardrobe, might install xp black edition on it and try my original cd's
@@Belnick6666 as someone with 350 hours on Rome Total War on Steam, idk what you're on about, game works fine. Can dip to 20 fps if you have too many units but in general it runs fine. The remaster is pretty sweet too, the only thing I don't like is the UI.
I follow Aztec etc history/archeology, who widely used obsidian for tools/weapons (including Atlatl & slings, see below): To get the hyper-sharp edge obsidian is known for, you can't just knap it like you did here, even if you were an expert knapper. The way to get the absolute sharpest obsidian blades is via the prismatic blade method, where you gradually knap a "core" piece of obsidian to process it into the right shape, to then be able to flake off evenly shaped blades which each have single continuous edge. Those blades are what have the 2-3 molecule wide, insanely sharp edges: The actual starting "core" piece is a waste product. Traditional knapping, what you're doing here, is taking your starting piece and flaking pieces off to shape the piece you started with into a blade (rather then the starting piece being a means to an end), but it won't have a single even edge since each bit you flake off is creating microscopic breaks and peaks or valleys between each fracture. Knapping obsidian like that can still produce a deadly sharp blade, but as sharp as the prismatic method. The prismatic blade production method wasn't a static practice either, there were innovations in obsidian working and prismatic blade production with how the core is struck even only a few centuries prior to Spanish contact in the postclassic period, by which point the region has already been heavily urbanized with city-states and empires for thousands of years and already had a robust obsidian industry. Those innovations in blade production may have actually been what allowed Macuahuitl ("swords" with a wooden core/shaft with obsidian blades lining the edges) to pop up in the form the Aztec used them, since it could produce consistently evenly sized and shaped blades, wheras before that the types of weapons used in Mesoamerican warfare didn't tend to have evenly lined edges like that. That's not to say the Mesoamericans didn't also do normal knapping: That was done to produce knives, arrowheads, etc, as well as ceremonial "eccentric" obsidian or flint blades which were knapped into shapes like faces, serpents, etc, but the prismatic method is what you want for the sharpest edge possible. Ultimately though my area of interest isn't in lithics and tool production so I can't get into this in too much depth beyond what I already said above. Next, as I said, Atlatl and slings were commonly used in Mesoamerica. That slings were used shouldn't be too surprising, as you said the Greeks, Romans, etc used them even alongside bows, but Atlatl were essentially entirely replaced by bows in Eurasia by the time organized city based state societies become a thing. in Mesoamerica (as well as in the Andes down in South America, where the Inca, Nazca, Moche etc were) atlatl continued to be used alongside bows as projectile weapons even as you had organized city-states and empires. Atlatl actually were more associated with civilized, refined warfare and royal power by many groups in Central Mexico (including various city-states etc we call "Aztec" today), due to it's association with civilizations like Teotihuacan and the Toltec (the Toltec may or may not actually exist, it's kinda complicated, but the point is that later Mesosmerican civilizations revered them as a mytho-historical predecessor civilization) , wheras bows were often seen as a more primitive hunting tool, though many city-states and armies still used bows too to an extent, especially outside of Central Mexico. In general, I think people unappreciate the diversity of Mesoamerican weaponry: People know about Macuahuitl,. but even it had a good deal of variation in size, shape, blade shape and arrangement, etc; plus there were other forms of bladed or spiked clubs or swords, maces with spherical or flanged heads, various other clubs and batons; polearms ranging from normal spears to things like halbreds or glaives, very long pikes, weird serrated or multiform polearms; axes and what I guess you could call warpicks, thrown javelins, emplaced stone throwers, siege towers, etc. Most of these were stone or wood, but these would often still be finely crafted and intentionally designed weapons which could have gemstone or gold, silver etc inlays and accenting and fine sculpted or engraved details, and some did actually use copper or bronze blades or striking portions, though most examples of that seem to be ceremonial or for domestic craft use rather then in warfare (but there is some evidence suggesting use in war as well, even if not commonly). Armor as well: A lot of depictions show Mesoamerican soldiers as basically half-naked barbarians wearing Jaguar pelts and big headdresses, or just a loincloth. Certainly, lower ranking soldiers might just have a loincloth or tunics, but there were actual forms of armor as well: padded cloth vests or tunics, like Eurasian gambeson, was the base of much of this, and for the Aztec at least, high ranking soldiers would have also worn warsuits or tunics made of thick cloth and covered in a mosaic of tens of thousands of iridesecent feathers over the gambeson, with the different colors of feathers forming a mosaic image of specific patterns or designs. The "Jaguar" suit people often imagine was most often actually this form of warsuit with the feathers making the jaguar spot pattern, though allegedly commoners who achieved the right to wear that warsuit design had to make do with warsuits made from Jaguar pelt rather then feather mosaic, but this would still be a full body suit, like a fine fur piece of clothing, not a cavemen style hide. There were also shields and helmets (made of either bamboo or wood, perhaps with cloth padding, and then sometimes feather mosaic or pelt coverings and gemstones/gold accents or inlays), apparently some golden or silver "mail" jackets/tunics (though probably more as status/ceremonial pieces then true functional metal armor) and other civilizations had other forms of armor.
im honestly more suprised that people are shocked a smaller expert in a ranged weapon beat a large fighter at a distance.... like, yeah, theyre a professional flingin rocks at someones skull
Biblically, it never says the goliath died from the sling just that he fell... Then David picked up Goliath's own sword and beheaded him.😮 Edit: Keep reading, because I was wrong in this comment.
As a kid with nothing but seeing pictures and maybe used in a movie scene, I made one and it is surprisingly easy to get the hang of. Sure several hundred if not thousands of iterations but seriously very intuitive. Be way away from anything in any direction, trust me.
- I grew up in Palo Alto, CA, and obsidian is sometimes used as a lawn replacement or decoration here. When I was in high school, being an idiot, I once picked up and handled a piece for a block or two before discarding it. The piece wasn't particularly anything, just an oblong pretty faceted stone, but after another block or two: bloody hand from dozens of super fine cuts. So, like others in the comments have noted, sometimes obsidian can be dangerously frighteningly sharp.
I came upon an obsidian deposit on a trip to Guatemala about 15 years ago, and being a geologist and rock lover, availed myself of its awesomeness (I gave away most of the pieces I collected, but kept a few choice samples for my rock collection). After I got back in my car and drove on, I noticed that I was bleeding from several extremely fine cuts that I did not even feel. So yeah, it's sharp.
I was reading an article in National Geographic many years ago - can't remember what the article was about but one thing that stuck in my mind was the statement that some surgeons will use obsidian scalpels for extremely fine surgery because the sharpness does less trauma to delicate tissues than even the sharpest steel.
@@TubeRadiosRule whilst obsidian blades are extremely sharp, using them for surgery is rather problematic. They get dull super fast cause they break down into extremely small and sharp fragments that would be left in the wound, which you don't really want to happen in such delicate tissues. You can buy such scalpels, but they are usually just an experimental substitute for diamond scalpels.
Alexander hid 500-800 slingers, Greek peltast, that jogged on the outside of his companion cavalry at the battle of Gaugamela . Being mirrored by the Persian cavalry, when Alexander saw the gap in the Persian line and went for the charge, the Persians tried to counter only for the slingers to unleash a barrage on them which was quite devastating. Horses and men don't like being hit by hundreds of rocks and it created chaos among the Persian cavalry which gave Alexander a clear shot to Darius, who was so terrified that he ran for over 50 miles, leaving his entire family to be captured by the Greeks. Those slings were no joke and the people that used them were deadly accurate.
@travisolander4749it wouldn’t cut through it idiot because the thing is probably metal and if it isn’t metal then make one that is metal/steel so it isn’t cut
Fun facts, a skilled slinger when suddenly come to a melee with no time to reach the sword or dagger, the slinger would use the sling as improvised whip. It really hurts on unarmoured flesh.
The world's oldest weapon is fists. The world's best oldest weapon is tricking your buddy Trog to go look for mushrooms when there's a ticked off T-Rex roaming the mushroom patch.
I would say crude clubs, charcoal spears and stones are older than fists as weapons. Could you imagine seeing a protohuman throwing a proper hammerfist or punch? I think it would have been comical to see.
@@KaiserOfPrussia0910nice prank i remember sending my homie grg to kill t-rex eggs because they were “invading” but i was lying so i got to see him run from a t-rex
Omg I have an Apache handmade Atlatl! I was taught to throw it by a Cherokee woman and it's my favorite weapon I own. I love that you featured it here! A tip when throwing it is to aim with your non throwing hand. Wherever the middle finger of your non throwing hand points is where the spear will go.
Slingshots could crush bones and skulls even with a helmet on. Don't forget a lot of armies had experts using them. If you practice daily, you will hit the target.
My mum was an archaeologist, I remember going to an exhibition with her when I was young and saw an ancient Egyptian maybe Sudanese skull which had a rock embedded in the orbital socket from a sling weapon. You think the power of one sling is deadly, imagine a whole unit, its almost like line combat
A tip for the sling, river rocks work way better. You want them to be smooth and slightly larger than a golf ball, as too big and you throw off the timing of the spin while being smooth helps them release from the sling and fly straighter
Adored this video, those demonstrations were so cool! For the spear thrower, could it be that the spears weren't the right ones? I'm a hobbyist fan of prehistoric periods, I've visited all the caves I could in france, and even did some training events with specialists there who teach people how to knap flint, use a spear thrower, or light fire like our ancestors did. And one thing I recall is that the spears were not hollow, were in wood so definitely heavier than what you used, and had a sort of detachable head? The head would detach and stay IN the target while the spear body bounced off but didn't break. The sling was awesome, and I'm impressed by how quickly you managed to hit the target! Knapping is an art form, when I did my training event I recall the teacher would knap so fast, make it look so easy, but then he explained how it required a lot, looot of knowledge, to look at the stone and see the grain of it, and the direction of the grain, to know where and how hard to strike. Our ancestors actually did it by preparing a knapping "side", exposing a flat area, that would allow easier knapping after. It's normal that you didn't manage just watching videos, hitting at random. But it was still fun to see XD
The INCAS used it as one of their main weapons and they were very good at it. In fact, in Incan descending countries, they are still widely used today.
I was literally just reading the story of David and Goliath in my Bible study a week ago and thinking, "I wonder if Mike would test that out...". One thing I didn't know until recently was the size of the stones used in old slings. Cartoon recreations of the David and Goliath story always show David grabbing what essentially look like skipping stones from a river. The stones ancient warriors actually used were more like tennis balls in size, made mostly of limestone, and naturally rounded.
I've been hunting with primitive weapons since I was a kid. I can assure you that everything from slings, throw sticks, atlatls, and pretty much anything you can throw is deadly. Add metal to the mix or just some napped obsidian/stone/glass, and they become extremely effective. Also wanted to add that blow guns are something you might find interesting and extremely easy to use.
+1 on the blowpipes, they are heaps good fun. so simple that probably not worth a youtube video. I would suggest a piece of U or V channel aluminium cabletied to a 1m, 13mm PVC reticulation riser with a 13-25mm F-F as the mouthpeice. the darts can be quickly and easily made from electrical tape rolled into a cone and a small flat top nail. we used to play darts with one, about 3x the distance of a regular dartboard. new players were sceptical, but it was incredibly intuitive, and so very accurate. highly recommended for anyone with 10 bucks and an afternoon and a few mates. the size of the nail determines power, so go for small ones if your in a rental apartment. if you have good lung control and some decent safe space, you'll be exploding soda cans in no time
centripetal he said, correctly. Centrifugal is the force away from the center of the circle, centripetal is the force towards the centre of the circle. He is right since the centripetal force is the force that is creating the enormous momentum for the sling, coming from his muscles
...David didn't kill Goliath with the rock thrown from the sling. He knocked him out (or down), and ran over and used Goliaths own sword to cut off his head. 1st Samuel 17 (it's a good read). I would say though, Pretty SWEET video. You have a knack for picking up random weapons and being VERY good at them quickly! Keep it up!
The text says that the rock sunk into his skull so I presume a wound similar that depicted in the test; left a contusion or possibly stuck half-in or something. That head was a great trophy.
The spear would work better being heavier. In archery light weight and speed doesn't translate to penetration on game animals. You want slower heavier arrows with tough broadheads to carry the momentum to the target.
Mike is the one unemployed friend on a Tuesday morning doing experiments at home, while you're at your miserable job contemplating if you're gonna be able to pay the bills and live normally next month.
The sling and the atlatl are two skills I have always wanted to develop for in case of a zombie outbreak. Bet you they would make me very popular with the ladies when they compare me with all the "We ran out of ammo, wuaaaa!" guys 😃
just wanna add this about David and Goliath, 1) the rocks that were typically used rock of certain weight, shape and smoothness, this allowed them to fly better and be slung better and harder. 2) David was a very experienced fighter and experienced with the sling by the time he faced Goliath, this means he had the physical strength to throw really hard and the skill to use the sling shot to its maximum potential. its not surprising that Goliath went down in the hit when God is backing you up :)
Ear nose and throat surgeon here , the first shot you landed to the neck is quite possibly a lethal blow . I would expect significant blunt laryngo tracheal injury . The “patient” could easily die shortly massive swelling (edema) and bleeding into the airway and patient would in essence suffocate shortly after the injury . Not to mention the strong possibility of damage to the spinal column based on the slow mo footage . Absolutely terrifying what a simple stone may do
You can make a sling much deadlier if you use 1 inch pure tungsten spheres, if you can make it work with 1 1/2 inch spheres then you have a god-level weapon. Those weigh over one pound, the one inch spheres are a little over 5 ounces so they wiil knock someone out but probably not kill them. If you are throwing into a crowd use a handful of 1/2 inch spheres.
It probably got him. The cutting off the head with his own sword was probably a big middle finger to the philistine army for insulting Yahweh and Gods chosen; it also sent the philistine to a panic and route
@@brandonverdugo5720 This. Not to mention David likely trained a lot, whereas Mike is inexperienced. Like Garand Thumb says, you gotta get out there and train.
Don't wind up multiple times with the sling. Just one semi-arc overhand is enough, and it's easier to be accurate that way. And oh yes the Atlatl (spear thrower) is good for a specific size of animals (ancient megafauna). There is some time from when you make a big movement to throw to when the spear(dart) hits. So if you try this against an agile, alert animal like a Whitetail Deer, it will invariably have time to duck, jump or run away. My hypothesis is that as the larger animals began to get more scarce, the Bow was invented out of the need for faster arrows needed to be effective against the smaller, more agile animals (deer, etc).
To this day Australian indigenous Aboriginal people still use a variant of the Atlatl (commonly called a Woomera here) to hunt kangaroos, which are pretty agile and alert. I think a huge part of it comes down to the hunter's skill and experience.
Great Tests! although it should be noted, that while many slingers used rocks (specially for the purposes of hunting, or protecting one's flock), soldiers in antiquity usually fired lead bullets from slings against armored opponents instead of rocks
Hey mike, can you make a video on handwriting improvement like I learned to write cursive fast and beautifully? As you have already learned to write with your non-dominant hand, you can also learn this. Please make a video on this if you like my suggestion.
BRO obsidian is sharper at a molecular level. Measuring it by cuting paper will be like mesuring the sharpness of a katana vs an axe cutting trees... The device you had measured the overal sharpness, all the peacks and valleys (so it shows "less sharpness"). Tou will need an really clean crack in order to see the sharpness of obsidian at that scale You will need a scanning electron microscope if you want to compare that kind of sharpness.
Great video! I've gotten into slinging for the last couple of years. They are a ton of fun, and you can always have one in your pocket on hikes, slinging at trees. For accuracy, I like my braided balearic style hemp one, but for speed, distance, and small rocks, I like my leather pouch one with 550 single strand cord. I've also been making them with my son's scout troop, and the kids are loving making and throwing them! The key is to just keep practicing. it's slow going but worth it.
Well to answer the starting question: Yes, because guns are designed to hit vital spots. It's like saying "Can my cleaver cut harder than this scalpel?" *proceeds to hit a slab of raw meat*
ya it's the bullet's penetration that makes it so deadly. Having slightly less energy in a much more concentrated point is going to cause more damage. Still extremely deadly tho
That was the sound of the alarm for the firefighters' lunchtime. In Portugal this sound is usually heard when we are near to a fire station at the luchtime
I grew up hearing the story of David and Goliath countless times but I've never seen a proper video of a sling in action until this and I have to say I'm quite impressed! That thing packs one heck of a punch!
as a kid in the 1970s we used to make throwing spears but we called them Dutch Arrows and we used a boot lace wrapped around the shaft of the arrow instad of the handle thing you're using here......they were pretty deadly 'toys' and we could lob them 100 metres without trying very hard (well, it seemed like 100 metres)..
@@normanquednau putting random force behind the blade like shown will snap the test filament at an arbitrary point and actually favors blades w a jagged burr often. The point of the blade should be rested on the provided stand which is missing from all of these tests and the blade should be rested on the filament and slowly rocked back until the filament snaps.
We used to make these slings as children, we used leather boot laces, and water-formed a leather pocket for it. Banned weapon though, and so we had to dispose of them.
Interesting factoids about the Balearic Island slingers who served in the Roman army. They were highly specialized in using slings, basically training for years first as children, then young adults, then as soldiers. They could throw a projectile accurately up to 300 yards (three football fields) and could throw up to 7 projectiles a minute. Also, they could operate at a rate faster than archers. A group of them on the battlefield would be very close to having a group of men with rifles, and they could cause incredible damage to an opposing force.
Hey mike, can you make a video on handwriting improvement like I learned to write cursive fast and beautifully? As you have already learned to write with your non-dominant hand, you can also learn this. Please make a video on this if you like my suggestion.
I think the reason the spears were doing little damage and breaking easily is because they were basically extra long carbon fiber target shooting arrows. The spears they used in the past were wood and they were also way heavier and thicker as well as probably sharper.
Yeah the weapon was good not the weak ass stick
yeah, definitly. And ancient people would use bigger, broad headed spears that would cut more than actually pierce. Usingg a torso dummy would have shown that a bbit better, but still wouldn't have the same effect as an ancient atlatl.
Yeah, I'd want to see him make and throw a spear made out of wood
Similar issue with the sling, a lead sling bullet is going to give much more impressive results than a stone because it's much denser and thus concentrates the impact force in a smaller area. I've actually seen someone else test them on a ballistics gel head and they didn't just smash the face, they went about halfway through the head.
Not sure if they were sharper, but the warhead, the missle shaft, and the thrower were all probably a bit heavier. P.S. I'm pretty sure that when you throw a spear it should be called a javelin :).
the coolest part of this video is Mike showing his failures. Not only it shows the whole thinking process, but also show to everyone that making mistakes is part of the process
Playing Rome Total War taught me you don't fuck with slingers, especially the ones from Rhodes
best comment, best game
@@TOBI-W4N-KENOBI true
too bad those games are unplayable on modern machines......and the updated editions have super bugs like where mouse clicks stops working and such....meeh
was it win xp era? have quad 3ghz computer just standing in a wardrobe, might install xp black edition on it and try my original cd's
@@Belnick6666 as someone with 350 hours on Rome Total War on Steam, idk what you're on about, game works fine. Can dip to 20 fps if you have too many units but in general it runs fine. The remaster is pretty sweet too, the only thing I don't like is the UI.
There is also a really old game, called Master of Magic, where one race (hobbits I think) has sling thrower units, and they're totally OP.
I follow Aztec etc history/archeology, who widely used obsidian for tools/weapons (including Atlatl & slings, see below): To get the hyper-sharp edge obsidian is known for, you can't just knap it like you did here, even if you were an expert knapper. The way to get the absolute sharpest obsidian blades is via the prismatic blade method, where you gradually knap a "core" piece of obsidian to process it into the right shape, to then be able to flake off evenly shaped blades which each have single continuous edge. Those blades are what have the 2-3 molecule wide, insanely sharp edges: The actual starting "core" piece is a waste product. Traditional knapping, what you're doing here, is taking your starting piece and flaking pieces off to shape the piece you started with into a blade (rather then the starting piece being a means to an end), but it won't have a single even edge since each bit you flake off is creating microscopic breaks and peaks or valleys between each fracture. Knapping obsidian like that can still produce a deadly sharp blade, but as sharp as the prismatic method.
The prismatic blade production method wasn't a static practice either, there were innovations in obsidian working and prismatic blade production with how the core is struck even only a few centuries prior to Spanish contact in the postclassic period, by which point the region has already been heavily urbanized with city-states and empires for thousands of years and already had a robust obsidian industry. Those innovations in blade production may have actually been what allowed Macuahuitl ("swords" with a wooden core/shaft with obsidian blades lining the edges) to pop up in the form the Aztec used them, since it could produce consistently evenly sized and shaped blades, wheras before that the types of weapons used in Mesoamerican warfare didn't tend to have evenly lined edges like that.
That's not to say the Mesoamericans didn't also do normal knapping: That was done to produce knives, arrowheads, etc, as well as ceremonial "eccentric" obsidian or flint blades which were knapped into shapes like faces, serpents, etc, but the prismatic method is what you want for the sharpest edge possible. Ultimately though my area of interest isn't in lithics and tool production so I can't get into this in too much depth beyond what I already said above.
Next, as I said, Atlatl and slings were commonly used in Mesoamerica. That slings were used shouldn't be too surprising, as you said the Greeks, Romans, etc used them even alongside bows, but Atlatl were essentially entirely replaced by bows in Eurasia by the time organized city based state societies become a thing. in Mesoamerica (as well as in the Andes down in South America, where the Inca, Nazca, Moche etc were) atlatl continued to be used alongside bows as projectile weapons even as you had organized city-states and empires. Atlatl actually were more associated with civilized, refined warfare and royal power by many groups in Central Mexico (including various city-states etc we call "Aztec" today), due to it's association with civilizations like Teotihuacan and the Toltec (the Toltec may or may not actually exist, it's kinda complicated, but the point is that later Mesosmerican civilizations revered them as a mytho-historical predecessor civilization) , wheras bows were often seen as a more primitive hunting tool, though many city-states and armies still used bows too to an extent, especially outside of Central Mexico.
In general, I think people unappreciate the diversity of Mesoamerican weaponry: People know about Macuahuitl,. but even it had a good deal of variation in size, shape, blade shape and arrangement, etc; plus there were other forms of bladed or spiked clubs or swords, maces with spherical or flanged heads, various other clubs and batons; polearms ranging from normal spears to things like halbreds or glaives, very long pikes, weird serrated or multiform polearms; axes and what I guess you could call warpicks, thrown javelins, emplaced stone throwers, siege towers, etc. Most of these were stone or wood, but these would often still be finely crafted and intentionally designed weapons which could have gemstone or gold, silver etc inlays and accenting and fine sculpted or engraved details, and some did actually use copper or bronze blades or striking portions, though most examples of that seem to be ceremonial or for domestic craft use rather then in warfare (but there is some evidence suggesting use in war as well, even if not commonly).
Armor as well: A lot of depictions show Mesoamerican soldiers as basically half-naked barbarians wearing Jaguar pelts and big headdresses, or just a loincloth. Certainly, lower ranking soldiers might just have a loincloth or tunics, but there were actual forms of armor as well: padded cloth vests or tunics, like Eurasian gambeson, was the base of much of this, and for the Aztec at least, high ranking soldiers would have also worn warsuits or tunics made of thick cloth and covered in a mosaic of tens of thousands of iridesecent feathers over the gambeson, with the different colors of feathers forming a mosaic image of specific patterns or designs. The "Jaguar" suit people often imagine was most often actually this form of warsuit with the feathers making the jaguar spot pattern, though allegedly commoners who achieved the right to wear that warsuit design had to make do with warsuits made from Jaguar pelt rather then feather mosaic, but this would still be a full body suit, like a fine fur piece of clothing, not a cavemen style hide. There were also shields and helmets (made of either bamboo or wood, perhaps with cloth padding, and then sometimes feather mosaic or pelt coverings and gemstones/gold accents or inlays), apparently some golden or silver "mail" jackets/tunics (though probably more as status/ceremonial pieces then true functional metal armor) and other civilizations had other forms of armor.
📝 this is legit so interesting to read thank you for sharing your knowledge
Bro....
thanks for the history lesson
This is fascinating, would you have any sort of resources to shoutout if I wanted to look at some of this?
The hell kind o comment is this
David and Goliath is often laughed at, but it is a viable weapon. Many tribes have already showcased that.
im honestly more suprised that people are shocked a smaller expert in a ranged weapon beat a large fighter at a distance.... like, yeah, theyre a professional flingin rocks at someones skull
David use that kind of thing to scaring away predators from sheeps.
Biblically, it never says the goliath died from the sling just that he fell... Then David picked up Goliath's own sword and beheaded him.😮
Edit: Keep reading, because I was wrong in this comment.
As a kid with nothing but seeing pictures and maybe used in a movie scene, I made one and it is surprisingly easy to get the hang of. Sure several hundred if not thousands of iterations but seriously very intuitive. Be way away from anything in any direction, trust me.
I never laughed at the story of David and Goliath.
But Noah's ark; that shit's hilarious. Imagine how long it took the sloths to get to South America.
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I grew up in Palo Alto, CA, and obsidian is sometimes used as a lawn replacement or decoration here. When I was in high school, being an idiot, I once picked up and handled a piece for a block or two before discarding it. The piece wasn't particularly anything, just an oblong pretty faceted stone, but after another block or two: bloody hand from dozens of super fine cuts.
So, like others in the comments have noted, sometimes obsidian can be dangerously frighteningly sharp.
I never saw that around houses there!
Obsidian flakes (and plate glass) have the sharpest edge of any material. Before lasers, obsidian scalpels were used for eye surgery.
1:40
The projectile and camera alignment is just perfect.
Obsidian can be flaked ridiculously sharp, to the point that once you feel you touched it you have already been cut.
I came upon an obsidian deposit on a trip to Guatemala about 15 years ago, and being a geologist and rock lover, availed myself of its awesomeness (I gave away most of the pieces I collected, but kept a few choice samples for my rock collection). After I got back in my car and drove on, I noticed that I was bleeding from several extremely fine cuts that I did not even feel. So yeah, it's sharp.
I was reading an article in National Geographic many years ago - can't remember what the article was about but one thing that stuck in my mind was the statement that some surgeons will use obsidian scalpels for extremely fine surgery because the sharpness does less trauma to delicate tissues than even the sharpest steel.
@@TubeRadiosRule whilst obsidian blades are extremely sharp, using them for surgery is rather problematic. They get dull super fast cause they break down into extremely small and sharp fragments that would be left in the wound, which you don't really want to happen in such delicate tissues. You can buy such scalpels, but they are usually just an experimental substitute for diamond scalpels.
Alexander hid 500-800 slingers, Greek peltast, that jogged on the outside of his companion cavalry at the battle of Gaugamela . Being mirrored by the Persian cavalry, when Alexander saw the gap in the Persian line and went for the charge, the Persians tried to counter only for the slingers to unleash a barrage on them which was quite devastating. Horses and men don't like being hit by hundreds of rocks and it created chaos among the Persian cavalry which gave Alexander a clear shot to Darius, who was so terrified that he ran for over 50 miles, leaving his entire family to be captured by the Greeks.
Those slings were no joke and the people that used them were deadly accurate.
The sling experiment REALLY makes me want to see a professional MLB pitcher use a sling, just to see how fast they can get a rock going.
Pitcher skills not necessarily would transfer to slinging skills
As a professional sharpener and someone very familiar with the Bess test. You are doing the cuts FAR TO FAST to get true results.
@travisolander4749 I love seeing someone so into something!
@travisolander4749 what did you use as reference to measure sharpness?
@travisolander4749it wouldn’t cut through it idiot because the thing is probably metal and if it isn’t metal then make one that is metal/steel so it isn’t cut
What else you expect from Integza's cousin? 😂
is he really integzas cousin?@@patrickw9520
slings should be an Olympic sport.
All fun and games till one of em hits the audience
Mike casually creating 5star grade military weapons and testing them on watermelons
a spear is not a military grade weapon
matter of fact none of the weapons in here were military grade weapons
@@aoro4803Liking your own comments when being a buzzkill. Good job.
@@aoro4803 this was military grade up for a couple million years
@@aoro4803ratio
Fun facts, a skilled slinger when suddenly come to a melee with no time to reach the sword or dagger, the slinger would use the sling as improvised whip.
It really hurts on unarmoured flesh.
Even armored, that's not gonna be a fun hit to take. Especially to the head.
The world's oldest weapon is fists.
The world's best oldest weapon is tricking your buddy Trog to go look for mushrooms when there's a ticked off T-Rex roaming the mushroom patch.
😂
Bro, I remember sending my pal Ug over to the other cave with some raw meat tied around his body. He didn’t see the sabre tooth coming 🗿🗿🗿
I would say crude clubs, charcoal spears and stones are older than fists as weapons. Could you imagine seeing a protohuman throwing a proper hammerfist or punch? I think it would have been comical to see.
@@KaiserOfPrussia0910nice prank i remember sending my homie grg to kill t-rex eggs because they were “invading” but i was lying so i got to see him run from a t-rex
i remember my tribemate grog.. he went out hunting and died to a raptor, rip grog 74,997,976 BCE 🪦
Omg I have an Apache handmade Atlatl! I was taught to throw it by a Cherokee woman and it's my favorite weapon I own. I love that you featured it here!
A tip when throwing it is to aim with your non throwing hand. Wherever the middle finger of your non throwing hand points is where the spear will go.
The nuke siren really said DAMMMN
Slingshots could crush bones and skulls even with a helmet on. Don't forget a lot of armies had experts using them. If you practice daily, you will hit the target.
Wait til he gets bored of ancient weapons and just starts playing with lasers and guns lol
Future weapons lol
Wait is he american
I think he said he was italian
@@SamiKhan-lr8vd
@@SamiKhan-lr8vdhe is an Italian indeed
he already made a supersonic nerf gun lol
video starts at 5:56
My mum was an archaeologist, I remember going to an exhibition with her when I was young and saw an ancient Egyptian maybe Sudanese skull which had a rock embedded in the orbital socket from a sling weapon. You think the power of one sling is deadly, imagine a whole unit, its almost like line combat
A tip for the sling, river rocks work way better. You want them to be smooth and slightly larger than a golf ball, as too big and you throw off the timing of the spin while being smooth helps them release from the sling and fly straighter
Adored this video, those demonstrations were so cool!
For the spear thrower, could it be that the spears weren't the right ones? I'm a hobbyist fan of prehistoric periods, I've visited all the caves I could in france, and even did some training events with specialists there who teach people how to knap flint, use a spear thrower, or light fire like our ancestors did. And one thing I recall is that the spears were not hollow, were in wood so definitely heavier than what you used, and had a sort of detachable head? The head would detach and stay IN the target while the spear body bounced off but didn't break.
The sling was awesome, and I'm impressed by how quickly you managed to hit the target!
Knapping is an art form, when I did my training event I recall the teacher would knap so fast, make it look so easy, but then he explained how it required a lot, looot of knowledge, to look at the stone and see the grain of it, and the direction of the grain, to know where and how hard to strike. Our ancestors actually did it by preparing a knapping "side", exposing a flat area, that would allow easier knapping after. It's normal that you didn't manage just watching videos, hitting at random. But it was still fun to see XD
For obsidian you want to use pressure flaking instead of striking to get the best edge out of it.
The INCAS used it as one of their main weapons and they were very good at it. In fact, in Incan descending countries, they are still widely used today.
This guy takes those random "man thoughts" we all have and makes videos out of them. 10/10.
1:07 "Máquina hoy vamos a aparecer en el vídeo de Mike Shake"
I was literally just reading the story of David and Goliath in my Bible study a week ago and thinking, "I wonder if Mike would test that out...".
One thing I didn't know until recently was the size of the stones used in old slings. Cartoon recreations of the David and Goliath story always show David grabbing what essentially look like skipping stones from a river. The stones ancient warriors actually used were more like tennis balls in size, made mostly of limestone, and naturally rounded.
12:22 Bro thinks we never played Minecraft 💀💀💀
Ikr
Fr
4:05, I think the local farms have a couple giants (windmills, you may not get the joke).
Reference to david and goliath but not a very funny joke if you don't mind 😂
Oh i am laughing so it s a good joke now ! 😂
If I got it right, it's a Don Quijote reference. In that case it's fire man, what an outstanding book
I've been hunting with primitive weapons since I was a kid. I can assure you that everything from slings, throw sticks, atlatls, and pretty much anything you can throw is deadly. Add metal to the mix or just some napped obsidian/stone/glass, and they become extremely effective. Also wanted to add that blow guns are something you might find interesting and extremely easy to use.
+1 on the blowpipes, they are heaps good fun. so simple that probably not worth a youtube video. I would suggest a piece of U or V channel aluminium cabletied to a 1m, 13mm PVC reticulation riser with a 13-25mm F-F as the mouthpeice. the darts can be quickly and easily made from electrical tape rolled into a cone and a small flat top nail. we used to play darts with one, about 3x the distance of a regular dartboard. new players were sceptical, but it was incredibly intuitive, and so very accurate. highly recommended for anyone with 10 bucks and an afternoon and a few mates. the size of the nail determines power, so go for small ones if your in a rental apartment. if you have good lung control and some decent safe space, you'll be exploding soda cans in no time
Old school centrifugal force weapons are amazing!
And scary!😰
centripetal he said, correctly. Centrifugal is the force away from the center of the circle, centripetal is the force towards the centre of the circle. He is right since the centripetal force is the force that is creating the enormous momentum for the sling, coming from his muscles
@@tommy-g5k I see...
Mike 3 years ago: Learning parkour
Mike now: Making lethal weapons.
...David didn't kill Goliath with the rock thrown from the sling. He knocked him out (or down), and ran over and used Goliaths own sword to cut off his head. 1st Samuel 17 (it's a good read).
I would say though, Pretty SWEET video. You have a knack for picking up random weapons and being VERY good at them quickly! Keep it up!
The text says that the rock sunk into his skull so I presume a wound similar that depicted in the test; left a contusion or possibly stuck half-in or something. That head was a great trophy.
Pretty sure it was a fatal wound but yeah he did cut Goliaths head off with his own sword…
7:13 Recreation of what happened to Goliath
He’s alive!
Slingers practiced for years to achieve that level of lethality, being able to hit small targets far away.
This basically just goes back to one of my favorite lessons in physics...."Anything- and I do mean ANYTHING, if flung fast enough, will kill you."
Yes it needs to either be very heavy or very fast and it will kill you
I love this channel because this guy shows us whole process of training him to shot with these ancient devices.
7:32 FATALITY. MIKE WINS. FLAWLESS VICTORY.
That Sling And Stone Is Precisely How David Killed Goliath.
Just Like Putting A Bullet Through They Skull.
✝️🙏🏼🧔🏽♀️
Safety glasses!!!
The spear would work better being heavier. In archery light weight and speed doesn't translate to penetration on game animals. You want slower heavier arrows with tough broadheads to carry the momentum to the target.
MAQUINAAAAAAAAAAA!!! 1:08
Ahhhhh estaba buscando este comentario
Big obsidian rocks into small obsidian rocks is literally the birth humans using tools lol. I couldnt stop laughing for some reason
1:07 Me sorprendió ver al "Maquina" jajaja crack
un crack amigo jaja
Coming from a small-ish town, that air siren was to recall the volunteer firefighters. No nuclear weapons involved!
Mike is the one unemployed friend on a Tuesday morning doing experiments at home, while you're at your miserable job contemplating if you're gonna be able to pay the bills and live normally next month.
9:04 no mike it's wrong , u must throw both of them at 45 degrees for maximum distance
11:04 nether portal time 😂
14:00 that felt so random until i realized the joke lmao
The sling and the atlatl are two skills I have always wanted to develop for in case of a zombie outbreak. Bet you they would make me very popular with the ladies when they compare me with all the "We ran out of ammo, wuaaaa!" guys 😃
Finally i see someone calling it an atlatl
@@Lordofhogs 😎👍
My religious parents always said that the story of David and Goliath is a miracle, I guess they never seen how devastating a slinger can be
4:36 Donald trump special
You are the funniest person alive
@@Leonardojed-q8n thanks
Lol 😭
With the sling, I have a feeling the mechanics would be similar to a baseball pitch.
1:25 Right out of a cartoon movie😂😂😂😂
The slowmotion is dope, btw
9:26 what a job to have
just wanna add this about David and Goliath, 1) the rocks that were typically used rock of certain weight, shape and smoothness, this allowed them to fly better and be slung better and harder. 2) David was a very experienced fighter and experienced with the sling by the time he faced Goliath, this means he had the physical strength to throw really hard and the skill to use the sling shot to its maximum potential. its not surprising that Goliath went down in the hit when God is backing you up :)
2:42 new text layer
Ear nose and throat surgeon here , the first shot you landed to the neck is quite possibly a lethal blow . I would expect significant blunt laryngo tracheal injury . The “patient” could easily die shortly massive swelling (edema) and bleeding into the airway and patient would in essence suffocate shortly after the injury . Not to mention the strong possibility of damage to the spinal column based on the slow mo footage .
Absolutely terrifying what a simple stone may do
The skill of knapping flint,glass, or obsidian can be difficult to those unpracticed.
You can make a sling much deadlier if you use 1 inch pure tungsten spheres, if you can make it work with 1 1/2 inch spheres then you have a god-level weapon. Those weigh over one pound, the one inch spheres are a little over 5 ounces so they wiil knock someone out but probably not kill them. If you are throwing into a crowd use a handful of 1/2 inch spheres.
I asked my teacher to play this video as it's to do with forces and energy and she did 😂🎉❤❤ keep it up
7:28 Toy joya🤙
✌Muy interesante kpo jajaja falto el gigante Saludos desde Argentina👋
1:30 had me laughing 😂😂😂 lol
Discksular practice
I mean I would also cower seeing as aincent slings are capable of causing rockslides if use correctky
That throat shot xD Skull fracture aside the throat shot was the best.
The sling didn’t kill the giant it just knocked Goliath out. David cut his head off
It probably got him. The cutting off the head with his own sword was probably a big middle finger to the philistine army for insulting Yahweh and Gods chosen; it also sent the philistine to a panic and route
In other terms Jehovah god, the only true god.
@@brandonverdugo5720 This.
Not to mention David likely trained a lot, whereas Mike is inexperienced.
Like Garand Thumb says, you gotta get out there and train.
Don't wind up multiple times with the sling. Just one semi-arc overhand is enough, and it's easier to be accurate that way. And oh yes the Atlatl (spear thrower) is good for a specific size of animals (ancient megafauna). There is some time from when you make a big movement to throw to when the spear(dart) hits. So if you try this against an agile, alert animal like a Whitetail Deer, it will invariably have time to duck, jump or run away. My hypothesis is that as the larger animals began to get more scarce, the Bow was invented out of the need for faster arrows needed to be effective against the smaller, more agile animals (deer, etc).
that right there is what a conspiracy analyst should sound like
To this day Australian indigenous Aboriginal people still use a variant of the Atlatl (commonly called a Woomera here) to hunt kangaroos, which are pretty agile and alert. I think a huge part of it comes down to the hunter's skill and experience.
7:26 my guy became david
Great Tests! although it should be noted, that while many slingers used rocks (specially for the purposes of hunting, or protecting one's flock), soldiers in antiquity usually fired lead bullets from slings against armored opponents instead of rocks
Hey mike, can you make a video on handwriting improvement like I learned to write cursive fast and beautifully?
As you have already learned to write with your non-dominant hand, you can also learn this.
Please make a video on this if you like my suggestion.
King David had mad aim! ✨🎯✨
BRO obsidian is sharper at a molecular level.
Measuring it by cuting paper will be like mesuring the sharpness of a katana vs an axe cutting trees...
The device you had measured the overal sharpness, all the peacks and valleys (so it shows "less sharpness"). Tou will need an really clean crack in order to see the sharpness of obsidian at that scale
You will need a scanning electron microscope if you want to compare that kind of sharpness.
I would love to see you use the sling with sharpened lead bullets ! awesome video btw, thank you for bringing more popularity to the sling
saw this Video with zero views and I was like "omg am I the first one??" the comment section in respond: "hell nah" 🗿
hell nah
hell nah
Great video! I've gotten into slinging for the last couple of years. They are a ton of fun, and you can always have one in your pocket on hikes, slinging at trees. For accuracy, I like my braided balearic style hemp one, but for speed, distance, and small rocks, I like my leather pouch one with 550 single strand cord. I've also been making them with my son's scout troop, and the kids are loving making and throwing them! The key is to just keep practicing. it's slow going but worth it.
Well to answer the starting question: Yes, because guns are designed to hit vital spots. It's like saying "Can my cleaver cut harder than this scalpel?" *proceeds to hit a slab of raw meat*
ya it's the bullet's penetration that makes it so deadly. Having slightly less energy in a much more concentrated point is going to cause more damage. Still extremely deadly tho
Since you are making your own weapons lately, I suggest and would like for you to make a homemade whip
Finally it’s been 1 month
Mike is the master of making weapons no matter what
I have been waiting for this video since the ancient weapons video
An interesting fact, the device you used to throw the spear/arrow is called an Atlatl. It's a very cool piece of engineering.
8:35 matpat reference???
No, just a phrase in English
@@oscarsalazar2652 no sense of humor
@@beefsupreme67 cry
@@oscarsalazar2652 ive never seen someone get this salty bc they didnt get the joke
@@beefsupreme67 I did get I'm just rage baiting
You should try a sling stick. It's attaching your sling to a stick increasing your fulcrum power. Basically, making a mini trebuchet.
9:57 somebody explain what was the alarm abt pls
Propably a test. Where i live its something like every first monday of a month the alarm systems are tested.
Yeah sounded like a tornado warning tho
That was the sound of the alarm for the firefighters' lunchtime. In Portugal this sound is usually heard when we are near to a fire station at the luchtime
Ok thx
@@boy1015 it might have been a tornado test, they do them at noon on the first friday of the month where I live
I grew up hearing the story of David and Goliath countless times but I've never seen a proper video of a sling in action until this and I have to say I'm quite impressed! That thing packs one heck of a punch!
In Indian mythology it is said as chakram is one of the oldest weapons in the world
Can you try the chakram please
Oh please do the staff sling next and make a mini one.
You don't have guts to throw it through your chronograph 😂.
I wouldn't 😅
I doubt that'd be a good idea
as a kid in the 1970s we used to make throwing spears but we called them Dutch Arrows and we used a boot lace wrapped around the shaft of the arrow instad of the handle thing you're using here......they were pretty deadly 'toys' and we could lob them 100 metres without trying very hard (well, it seemed like 100 metres)..
You’re using the Bess machine wrong. None of your sharpness scores are remotely accurate.
Here is the expert. How do you do that then?
@@normanquednau putting random force behind the blade like shown will snap the test filament at an arbitrary point and actually favors blades w a jagged burr often. The point of the blade should be rested on the provided stand which is missing from all of these tests and the blade should be rested on the filament and slowly rocked back until the filament snaps.
We used to make these slings as children, we used leather boot laces, and water-formed a leather pocket for it.
Banned weapon though, and so we had to dispose of them.
2:42 I spy "New text layer"
Man going to be on the most wanted list if he continues making deadly weapons
bro is literally the fruit ninja
Interesting factoids about the Balearic Island slingers who served in the Roman army. They were highly specialized in using slings, basically training for years first as children, then young adults, then as soldiers. They could throw a projectile accurately up to 300 yards (three football fields) and could throw up to 7 projectiles a minute. Also, they could operate at a rate faster than archers. A group of them on the battlefield would be very close to having a group of men with rifles, and they could cause incredible damage to an opposing force.
5:59 is end of sponsor
Ayergh
Thx
Thanks bro 👍
Your amazing 😊😊
Hey mike, can you make a video on handwriting improvement like I learned to write cursive fast and beautifully?
As you have already learned to write with your non-dominant hand, you can also learn this.
Please make a video on this if you like my suggestion.
Love your videos
I love to see an Obsidian Knife crafting video!