SMLE sling - help requested

Nabs

Nabs

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Hello all,

I was able to get the final pieces to complete my SMLE that I picked about two months ago. Along with a brass oiler and pull through cord, I bought this sling. It is a period item and is web canvas as you would normally find on Enfield slings. It also has the brass end fittings that show their age where part of them has oxidized. Strangely, the sling seems to be painted white sometime during it's service life. Was this a standard issue sling that was turned into a ceremonial sling at one point ? There are no markings visible.

Fits my SMLE perfectly so no complaining there.

Pictures up in a few.

Thanks all.
 
Here are some pictures. Any thoughts ?

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I don't mind the white paint on the sling honestly. It shows this sling was actually used and not buried away in some stockpile. Long shot, but any rough ideas when the sling would have been made and when they would have painted it white for parade purposes ?
 
Nabs said:
I don't mind the white paint on the sling honestly. It shows this sling was actually used and not buried away in some stockpile. Long shot, but any rough ideas when the sling would have been made and when they would have painted it white for parade purposes ?
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Any guess would or could be right, 1914 to 1950's. Real hard to say. Any stamps on the brass??

A parade sling would have the brass polished up and they used blanco to whiten the sling and other pcs of kit that were to be white, paint in this case.

Pete
 
The stuff on the sling is called Blanco. It came as a powder and was mixed with water and applied with a brush to clean/waterproof the Mills pattern web gear. It came in different colours including white and different shades of khaki and green. It's not unusual to find old web equipment covered in the stuff.
 
Blanco or Webbo. Salvator was rubber-based and it was black, used on all the Armoured Corps web kit, but Gawd HELP you if you put it on your boots!

One thing I will say about all of them and that is that they go ON a helluvvalot easier than they come OFF!

You can get the stuff down pretty well with sandpaper and elbow-grease, believe it or not. Once you have it down to the point where it is just about translucent, you can soak the sling overnight, then polish most of the rest out with a really stiff brush.

Miserable job.

Correct way to put the sling onto the rifle is with the SLING showing all down the OUTSIDE as a single stretch. At the butt, the sling rounds the swivel and comes up for FOUR inches only; that is where the hooks hook around to the front of the sling so that you can see just the hooks when you look at the man on parade. The TOP of the sling fits on the same way but the top loop will be much longer, as it is drawn tight before hooking for parade use. For carrying the rifle slung, you loosen the top loop only.

Carrying the rifle slung a bit loosely will give you a useful length of sling for steadying the rifle during offhand shooting. The method for this was to put your left hand through the sling then bring the hand back toward you, grabbing the sling as you do so. The left hand slaps the sling against the underside of the fore-end wood and draws rearward until the sling is tight. You should be able to do some pretty decent offhand shooting like this. Do it right and your left hand should be roughly under the rear sight.

Gotta write all this down before people forget. Heck, gotta write it all down before I forget it!!

Have fun!
 
Amaziah Rimfire said:
The stuff on the sling is called Blanco. It came as a powder and was mixed with water and applied with a brush to clean/waterproof the Mills pattern web gear. It came in different colours including white and different shades of khaki and green. It's not unusual to find old web equipment covered in the stuff.
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Capo used here. Liquid. Came in tins with a screw cap. Green and white being the most commonly seen. Disappeared from use along with battle dress back in the early 70s.
 
Very interesting stuff being posted here. I think we can safely say what happened to this sling.

There are no marks on the brass end caps so I am thinking this is a post WW1 sling, perhaps made during the pre war years right up to WW2 with these brass end caps ? Without any date markings we will never know but it is not WW1 era from what my research has showed me. Since my SMLE was post war refurbished and used during WW2, this sling is a perfect match in my opinion.

The sling must have seen some post war use as well if it was painted white. Probably was used on a No 4 Mk 1 in drill practices but who knows. A nice piece that still works quite well.

On that note, anyone have any period pictures of British or Commonwealth soldiers with these white painted slings and web equipment ?
 
I remember growing up and every single schoolboy and schoolgirl in the country was to have their shoes blancoed white, no exceptions. We all wore white "badminton" shoes, which were basically canvas shoes with rubber soles.

That stuff on your sling looks a lot like Blanco. If I remember correctly, we washed it off every weekend by soaking in detergent on Saturday, washing and drying Sunday and fresh blanco Sunday night.
 
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