Anyone know of any plans on making my own sling out of weaved string or yarn or whatever?

I have seen people's weaving blocks, but does anyone have a link to some instructions on making it?

Thanks for any help!

Anyone can buy a sling.. I wanna make one! :D

I made my first sling this past August using the "20 Steps" to a sling method. Jeff H revised it and it is on this site under  " Articles" I'm not sure if he tells you how to do the braid. I posted a web site that I found to be the best and easiest to follow on how to do different braids. I will find it and tell you where it is.

On the "General Discussion" page you will see in the upper left corner --Pages 1,2,3...9    go to page 7 and find a topic Here are my slings by Jeff H on Sept 22. On page two of this topic Chris gived the web site uou can click on. go to the home page of the site and find "Knots used" then find the round knot illustration. It is easy to follow. Hope that helps

Yes, the 4 stranded plait I use is quite easy, though I don't have an illustration for it.  If you want to do more strands, just keep them even and when you get to 6 or 8 you may want to add a core.  

Whipartist is our resident plaiting expert.  Maybe he could direct you to some easy to learn illustrations.

jeff <><

Here is the info: great colored illustrations with explainations that make sense.
-------
A braid:
http://www.home.zonnet.nl/willeke_igkt/tables/twist_to_braid_table.html

List of all the knots and braids:
http://home.zonnet.nl/willeke_igkt/frames/homepage_frame_eng.html

Edro,

By the way, Jeff's pouch design is great. I've made 6 or more using it. The "ears" really help protect the cords from the stones rubbing at release. I have used hot glue to hold the ears together and they have not let loose on any of the slings. I also put a "dab" of hot glue on the strings on the inside of the pouch. It protects the string from being cut by the sharp concrete I sling. It also makes a great release node. I tie a knot on the end and then put a glob of hot glue on the knot. Then put alot of spit on your thumb and first two fingers, wrap them gently around the glue and spin the cord to round out the glue and form it to the knot. The spit keeps the glue from sticking to and burning your fingers.

There is a picture of one of my earliest slings on the Gallery page.

Check this out:
http://www.tirdefona.com/catalan/marcocat.htm

It's Balearic, so it's in Catalan, but the pictures do most of the talking, anyway.

Go to Tecnicas, then Confeccio...

Thank you, Trevis,

That was very nice pictures! I just wish I understood some of the text too.
How many metres cord do you start with?
cinc... is it 5 Metres??

Ulrica

Ulrica,

   You are right: cinc is 5. By the way, I offer myself to translate to english any text in catalan for the diffusion of the slinging knowledge.

Foner

wrote on Feb 4^th, 2004 at 4:26am:

Ulrica, ou are right: cinc is 5. By the way, I offer myself to translate to english any text in catalan for the diffusion of the slinging knowledge.Foner

Hi Foner!

That would be very nice, yes. Shall we suggest you what we wants you to translate?
It would be nice to understand more of the text to the pictures. "how you make that sling".

Ulrica

Thank you for the offer, Foner.  Actually, you and Hondero occured to me as people who could help with translating.

I can understand a lot of it (studied Latin for four years and am exposed to a lot of Spanish here in Colorado), but some words seemed to be without familiar cognates.  This is my first exposure to Catalan.  I studied linguistics for a while, and am very interested in the way languages evolve and change (specifically, how Latin became so regionalized - the most extremely "morphed" Romance language seems, to me, to be French - the phenomes - like gutteral r's, soft l's, etc. - are so different from standard Italic sounds, like rolled r's, etc.)

What does, "llargada" mean?  I noticed, too, that a leather (pell) protective cover is placed on the pocket (pita) of the sling.  It seems to be stitched on with thread - what kind of thread is specified?

Thank you

Travis,

Welcome to the site! I think you will enjoy it. I used to live in Durango back in 1973-4. A group of us from S. Carolina go there to backpack every year or so. Its a beautiful state. Next trip, my pack will have several slings in it!!

Thank you for the welcome.

I've been interested in archery for a while, but have recently become enamored of slings.  I very much enjoy military history, and find the sling to be (as all of you already know) criminally overlooked and grossly underestimated in most historians tomes.

My first sling was made for me by my parents when I was 4.  They dressed me up as David for Halloween, and actually sent me to preschool with this sling.  My mom had made "stones" out of rolled-up pieces of toilet paper covered with tape.  I got into trouble at preschool, because I was slinging my ammo at kids, and when it ran out, I started slinging other (harder!) things.  As I recall, I understood how to use the sling almost immediately, but I hadn't played with one since then.

Apparently, my dad played with slings when he was a little boy in Texas.  The one I got from my parents definitely worked!

Durango's really nice.  I haven't been there in a while, but I like the western slope a lot.  I was born in Denver, but moved to Fort Collins about 10 years ago.  

Travis,

Welcome to the site. "Llargada" means length. In the "second step" says that you have to cut up six cords of 5 meters of length.

Ok. "pita" doesn't mean "pocket". Pita is the kind of cord he his using to twist and make the sling. The pita is made of a fibre that we get from a plant called pita or pitera. Its name in english is agave. I think you have plenty of this plant in Colorado.
 Ok, they say in their site: "Amb fil i agulla , cosirem la pell a la zona on s’allotjarà la pedra. Aquesta pell protegirà la pita del desgast" Thant means: "Using thread and needle, we will sew the leather to the zone where the stone will be placed to protect the pita fibre from wear".
  It doesn't say what kind of thread but when we say "fil i agulla" we usually refer to the thread used in clothes' sewing.
  I'm sorry I can't specify more, but I guess you can try with different types of thread and see which one works better.
 
   Foner

Speaking of fibers, I like to use hemp cord to braid mine. It is a little thin, but it is certainly strong. Look for it in a ball so you can cut the lengths you want.

Bondia Foner,
me gusta Catalonia. quisiera pan tomaquet por favor.
haha, I have friends from barcelona.

Hey Brent,

    I see you know just the right words to order the good stuff. I've lived many years in Barcelona (when I was in University) but I'm from Valencia. Have you heard about it? I think you would enjoy too, specially during the festival of Las Fallas in march. And here you can practice your catalan because we speak it here too.

   Pleased to meet you,

Foner

Nice to meet you to! I only know like two words in catalan ;D I learned them through my catalonian spanish tutor and from a trip to barcalona.I have heard of valencia.
Brent

Dan, I'd love to get some photos of your slings to put in the gallery.

Chris

Hi, Foner,

Actually, where I live, Yucca is much easier to find than Agave, though for fiber they're virtually identical.

However, I'd much rather buy hemp (my wife already has a few balls in different sizes for necklace making).  It's very durable, and easily available.  I haven't seen Yucca or Agave fiber available commercially (though my favorite Agave product would be Tequila!)

I made my first sling when I was about ten years old back in 1960.  I've been a sling enthusiast ever since.  The best and quickest way to make a sling is to take the webbing out of an old baseball or softball glove for the pouch and use nylong parachute cord for the strings.  You can buy the parachute cord at just about any sporting goods store where they sell camping equipment or you might find it at an army surplus store.  The ideal webbing from the ball glove will not have any holes in it and will have a solid weave or is made from one piece of leather.  I have found the optimum cord length to be around 30 to 36 inches for a full grown person.  To protect the release cords from rock abrasion make sure you pass the nylon cord through the webbing hole that the baseball glove makers use to attach the webbing to the fingers of the glove.  Make your anchor string long enoug to go around your wrist with a slip knot in it.  Adjust the cords so that the pouch hangs level when the release cord is held by a double knot at the end between the your thumb and forefinger and the anchor chord passes through your forefinger and middle finger.  Old golf balls make great and consistent ammo.  I can get about two hunderd yards out of my sling just like the one I told you about.  Have fun.  Cheers  BG

Hi BG,
and welcome to the Forum!

Thank you for your advice!

Ulrica

wrote on Feb 8^th, 2004 at 11:09pm:

I made my first sling when I was about ten years old back in 1960.  I've been a sling enthusiast ever since.   BG

Me, too!  Mine was boot lace leather cords and the tonque from one of my father's discarded shoes. Welcome to the board, Dan

Hallo.

I´ve been surfing around to find some good instruction of braids. I found a page, that was very interesting:

http://www.stringpage.com/braid/medbraids/medbraids.html


And here I found a nice pic of peruvian-braids:

http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~makiko/peruvian.html



I haven´t test the braids yet.. But I surtenly will.

Take care and sling carefully.

Ulrica

Great sites!  I've been going to the first one for a while.  I especially like the finger-weaving at the end, but it works better for me if I go from the inside to the outside.  I've got a couple of other sites bookmarked on my home computer as well, but I'm not there now.  I'll try to post them later.