I have never been that into slide playing. I only ever learned one piece too (in my 1st year of playing) called ‘Andu’s Easy Rider’ from Michael Chapman’s “Fully Qualified Survivor’ album. The fascination has not abated though.
I have made (and lost / broken) many actual bottle neck slides from wine bottles.
Method: Take half a dozen bottles & smash them on the back step. With luck at least one neck will come out the right shape for slide use. The next stage is to blunt the sharp edges using (again) the back step until its safe for pinkies.
I recall on a live Little Feat collection (‘Hoy Hoy’ I think) hearing a snippet of chat from Lowell George where he say’s:
“There are a lot a kinds of slide guitar, I use specifically this, Sears & Roebuck Craftsman 11/16†socket wrench, because you can go most anywhere…..†(fades out).
I assumed this was a spark-plug socket spanner (spanner = wrench in UK to USA translation), as that would be about right. It seemed an ideal solution; heavy, well made and smooth.
You can be sure I tried more than once to find this item & failed. I even looked at some UK plug sockets spanners but they had embossed lines and other slide-spoiling-features.
I recently found this. A 'Socket Slide'. I got a small one on ebay (ok for my modest pinky).
http://www.steveclayton.com/slides.php
This has the socket star in place of a smooth ID. Inspired no doubt by George or other ‘spanner-wrench’ players. Its less heavy than expected, but produces a good ringing tone.
I have never used a slide on stage, but I will remedy this next Saturday.