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Message started by Cliff on Nov 25th, 2007 at 4:37pm

Title: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Cliff on Nov 25th, 2007 at 4:37pm
This is my build-along for a simple sling with a woven pouch, as shown below:



Mine is Para-cord, and 60 cm (2 ft) long from mid-pouch to the release knot.  The pouch is 15 cm (6 in.) long, and the split in it is 9 cm (3.5 in.)

Materials and Tools

Cord -   About 4 meters (13 feet).  This length is approximate, it can vary depending on your cord and how tightly you weave it.  I used para-cord for this tutorial.  Para-cord does wear slightly when used with rocks, so if that is a concern, some other cord of similar thickness would be fine, and resist fraying better.

Sharp scissors or knife - to cut the cord.  You will need to trim the cord very close in some spots.

Pen - to mark the cords.

Flame source - to melt the ends of the cord, and prevent fraying.


Instructions

First cut your cord.  You will need four pieces: two  will be about 15 cm (6 inches) long, and two will be about 2 m  (6 1/2 feet) long.  Melt all the ends into large globs of plastic.

Tie a finger loop on the end of one of the long pieces, and a release knot on the end of the other.

Mark 2 feet from the knot/loop on each cord with a pen or twist ties or something, and 6 inches later, make another mark.  These are the beginning and end of the pouch.  Align the two cords at the marks with their knots facing different directions.



Take one of the long “tail” ends, and wrap it around the other cord, at the mark, as shown



Continue the wrapping, weaving the long tail end (I'll call the portion of the tail end that's doing the wrapping the weft) around and around the other two cords, which should remain straight (I'll call these the warp) until there are 3 wraps on each side, as shown.  You will be doing a lot of weaving like this, it is important to keep an even tightness for every wrap, or the sling will be slightly uneven and lumpy looking.



Here’s where the two short pieces come in:  lay them on top of the sling thus far as shown.  They should be between the two cords that make up the warp, so that one of the short straight pieces and one warp cord will be partnered up on each side, acting as a single warp cord.



Continue to wrap the weft around, pairing up the short and long pieces as stated above.



Again, stop after three wraps on each side have been done since the short cords were introduced.  Around here I like to tug on the loose ends of each of the short cords to get them close to flush where they are first joined in to the pouch.  You can see I waited a while before I remembered to do this.



Here’s where we start the pouch, and this is where I always mess up: On the last wrap (so there will be three wraps on each side since the short cords were introduced), instead of bringing it past two cords and then bringing it up (between the two sets of two cords) as I accidentally did in the picture above, bring it past the first three cords, and then bring it up.  The picture should make this clearer.



Continue weaving  around the long and short cord on that side, so that each one serves as an independent warp.  Continue this for about 9 cm (3.5 in.)



Now, just repeat the process, but with the other tail.






It is sort of hard to get all the cords correctly positioned, one side of the pouch may be longer than the other, or it may be deformed/pursed, so you might need to adjust it by tightening / pulling some of the warp cords. Needle nose pliers are a big help.



Trim and melt all the danglies.  You can see in this picture, how the warp cords aren't properly tightened, as described in the step above.  This is causing the pouch to purse funny.  I had to go and tighten it again.



And here it is, completed:





One thing I learned is that large globs of molten plastic on the ends of the cords are key, it will prevent them from pulling through, and save you a lot of time.

I was able to make one, including measuring, cutting, adjusting, trimming, and melting, in less than 45 minutes.  It’s easier than it looks, although it can be a little tricky in some parts.

Criticisms questions and comments are always welcome.  If you notice any mistakes / misused terms, or anyone has suggestions to make my tutorial better, clearer, or more consistent, please post them, and I will go back and edit it.

Sorry that this is late, stuff came up, as it tends to do.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by sv on Nov 25th, 2007 at 4:44pm
that's a very neat sling, and the instructions are easy to follow. well done.

SV

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Altay on Nov 25th, 2007 at 5:03pm
Nice tutorial! I'm going to have to try it out when/if I can get my hands on some paracord...

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by dork on Nov 25th, 2007 at 6:11pm
I have seen your sling un a previous post and wondered how you got it so seemless, now I know. I like it a lot very clean looking. Is it for tennis balls only? How would it hold up to the ware of stones. I think I will try it with some jute.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Tint on Nov 25th, 2007 at 11:14pm
very nice!

Thanks, Cliff.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by macka on Nov 26th, 2007 at 10:58am
You should put this on instructables.com. This would definately be a good project for me.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by DesertPilot on Nov 26th, 2007 at 10:09pm
That looks... Way Cool.  I don't have any paracord handy, but I do have plenty of nylon 505 cord, which is almost the same thing.  And members of my tribe have most certainly mastered the 'melting things into large gobs of plastic' part of the operation.  I'll have to give this one a go!  Thanks for posting it!

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Altay on Nov 27th, 2007 at 10:22pm
I cycled out to Walmart to buy some paracord today, so I finally was able to try it out. Here's the result:
P1010031.JPG (389 KB | )

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Altay on Nov 27th, 2007 at 10:25pm
I couldn't figure out how to attach two images to a single post, so here's a closeup of the pouch. It curved a whole lot more than the one in the instructions, but I think that it was mainly because I pulled it so tight. I like it better curved anyway, so I didn't bother to try to change it. The pouch was much stiffer than I expected (but that's probably also because I pulled it so tight). Overall it's a wonderful sling. I've only slung one tennis ball with it so far, but I already love it.
pouch.png (1017 KB | )

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by siguy on Nov 29th, 2007 at 8:43pm
this would be great to put in the articles section

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by macka on Nov 29th, 2007 at 8:48pm
nice.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Cliff on Dec 2nd, 2007 at 5:55pm
Thank you all for your comments.  You will notice that I've revised my instructions a little.

Dork, it is not for tennis balls only, although the dimensions for this one are intended for tennis balls.  I have made them sized for rocks, and they held up fine, but they did show a (very) small bit of wear after maybe 100 or so throws.  Honestly though, for rocks I prefer a simple leather pouch with para-cord cords.

Altay, thanks for trying this out.  Did you have any trouble when you got to the beginning of the split in the pouch?  I accidentally had a mistake on that step in my instructions, which i fixed.  The original (wrong) step is here:

Here’s where we start the pouch, and this is where I always mess up: begin another wrap, but instead of bringing it all the way around both cords on one side, only bring it fully around the longer cord, then bring it up between the two, as shown



If I remember correctly, I've tried it both ways, but my revised way is easier to make, and better, because it helps to keep the pouch from spreading too widely.

Sorry about that!

Also, as Siguy suggested, I was thinking of having someone put this in the articles, but I thought I'd leave that decision up to others, if they thought this was good/useful enough.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Altay on Dec 4th, 2007 at 12:53am

Cliff wrote on Dec 2nd, 2007 at 5:55pm:
Altay, thanks for trying this out.  Did you have any trouble when you got to the beginning of the split in the pouch?  I accidentally had a mistake on that step in my instructions, which i fixed.

I think I see the difference, but I don't think it would change anything dramatically. I looked at my sling carefully for about a minute to see if I could tell which way I wove it at that point, and I'm not entirely sure. The only part that gave me trouble was starting out when my weave was extremely loose and hideous. I almost undid the weave so that I could go back and redo it tighter, but then I got the hang of pulling it tight after weaving.

EDIT: I should probably rephrase that last sentence, because I realized that it doesn't sound the way I meant it to. I wove as tightly as a could, but the string remained "loose" in that it would pass across the perpendicular strings sinusoidally rather than pretty much straight. I tried pulling it tight as a worked, but it didn't really help. When I arrived at the point where the pouch splits I decided I would have to tighten it or restart. I pulled on it as best I could, and the weaving sort of collapsed in a way that made it look the way it should. I don't know how well I explained that, but hopefully it gives you an idea.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Nallekarkki on Dec 15th, 2007 at 8:37am
Here is mine! Thanks Cliff.  

Sorry bad quality.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Cliff on Jan 8th, 2008 at 9:41pm
Nallekarkki, it looks good, thanks for trying this out.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by CanDo on Jan 8th, 2008 at 11:12pm
Cliff, this is a great tutorial, would you consider submitting it to my wiki? http://Klippe.funditor.org . If you're interested, let me know, and I'll do the work of moving the pictures and such.

Thanks,
CanDo

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Mr.Joel on Jan 8th, 2008 at 11:30pm
Wow, that's definatly the coolest woven paracord sling i have ever seen 8-).

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Mr.Joel on Jan 8th, 2008 at 11:48pm
I wonder how fast you could build one in the field from making natural fiber cordage to fully assembled. My guess would be about half a day if you already had located some good fiberous plants.Stinging nettle or dogbane(indian hemp) would really work well to make a field expediant sling like this. It doesn't require massive amounts of cord like some others i have seen. More streamlined as well, really looks like a winner.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Cliff on Jan 9th, 2008 at 10:16pm
Thanks for the compliments.  Cando, you are more than welcome to use my tutorial, or any of the content.  I could do the transferring of it if you want, but not until this weekend.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by CanDo on Jan 10th, 2008 at 12:26pm
Cliff,
That's awesome, thank you very much. If you don't mind, I changed some wording to make it more encyclopedic. If you want to add some sort of credit (name, website, whatever) please feel free to do so. you can check it out here http://funditor.110mb.com/wiki/index.php/Making_a_Woven_Sling

If anyone else wants to contribute, please go for it!


Thank you,

CanDo

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by big_sling_gland on Jan 13th, 2008 at 11:00am
        This is great I think this should be a sticky topic for newcomers.  :)
It should also be in the guides and articles section on the homepage!

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by wanderer on Jan 13th, 2008 at 1:14pm

wrote on Jan 13th, 2008 at 11:00am:
        This is great I think this should be a sticky topic for newcomers.  :)
It should also be in the guides and articles section on the homepage!


Given the slingfest newspaper postings have just been removed to reduce the stickies on the forum that does not seem likely to me. Guides and Articles - I'm sure it's being considered.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by big_sling_gland on Jan 13th, 2008 at 1:21pm
Yeah it did seem alittle far fetched :)

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Cliff on Jan 17th, 2008 at 9:24pm
Chris has recently made a request for new articles, and I am submitting this one.

Cando, I saw this on your wiki a while ago, that was quick.  I'm glad that this seems to be helping some people out.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by don1 on Jan 18th, 2008 at 8:12am
Very nice job, Cliff.  


If you don't mind me saying so, after looking at your post several times I've come to the conclusion that the pouch of your sling reminds me of Rattle Snake rattles.

(Thumbs up!)

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by RealK on Feb 18th, 2008 at 7:34pm
'Just made mine today.  I could follow the instructions nicely.  'Cool sling.  Thanks.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Cliff on Feb 19th, 2008 at 11:19pm
Glad to be a help.  Chris posted this in the Guides and Articles section a while ago, which I appreciate.  The link is listed as my website.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by JustMe on Dec 17th, 2008 at 12:45pm

Cliff wrote on Nov 25th, 2007 at 4:37pm:
This is my build-along for a simple sling with a woven pouch, as shown below:


Ok I feel stupid.  I've tried doing this a couple times and keep getting a mess.
On the first picture, the brown is on top, the second picture shows green on top.  

In the close up pictures, can you ID which side of the cord is the knot/loop ends?

:-[

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by peacefuljeffrey on Dec 17th, 2008 at 3:20pm

don1 wrote on Jan 18th, 2008 at 8:12am:
Very nice job, Cliff.  


If you don't mind me saying so, after looking at your post several times I've come to the conclusion that the pouch of your sling reminds me of Rattle Snake rattles.

(Thumbs up!)


;D  It DOES!


I use Cliff's design when I go slinging far more than I use my own--in large part because it's so much easier and faster to make Cliff's design than it is to make mine.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by peacefuljeffrey on Dec 17th, 2008 at 3:45pm
For those who use Cliff's design, and want to know how many turns to use,
I altered this photo of one of my own slings to show you where I count from.

The segment identified by the lines is 11 turns.  I count from that "first" turn on the left
that emerges from under the short segment seen going left-to-right.  I count to the last turn
before the split part of the pouch joins together again.

Formula:
- for Golf Balls: 11 turns (10 and 12 also work)
- for Tennis Balls: 16 to 18 turns
- for Racquetballs: 14 turns

Note that these figures are for using 7-strand Paracord,
and will vary if the thickness of your cord varies.


Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Cliff on Dec 19th, 2008 at 4:27am

JustMe wrote on Dec 17th, 2008 at 12:45pm:
[quote author=Cliff link=1196026630/0#0 date=1196026629]This is my build-along for a simple sling with a woven pouch, as shown below:


Ok I feel stupid.  I've tried doing this a couple times and keep getting a mess.
On the first picture, the brown is on top, the second picture shows green on top.  

In the close up pictures, can you ID which side of the cord is the knot/loop ends?

:-[/quote]


Hmm, I did get that flipped.  If it helps, the part that is pointing down in this picture is the free end- no loop or release knot:



The release knot and retention loop always just sit there, the free ends are the ones doing all the weaving.  Hope that cleared it up.

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Post by curious_aardvark on Apr 14th, 2009 at 9:02am
Off topic replies have been moved to This Thread

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Et Cetera on Apr 24th, 2009 at 7:27pm
Very nice. I think I'll make one.
A few questions though:
-how long should a pouch for rocks be? (never mind this anymore)


Cliff wrote on Dec 2nd, 2007 at 5:55pm:
Honestly though, for rocks I prefer a simple leather pouch with para-cord cords.


-what type of leather pouch do you use for rocks?




like some people said, a good one to put in the articles section
again, very nice

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by castanon93 on Apr 25th, 2009 at 4:49pm
i think it is already on the articles section ¬¬

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by RealK on Apr 26th, 2009 at 11:18pm
'Not as pretty as Cliff's, but still a good one and quite functional.   Thanks, Cliff.



DSC00068.JPG (1252 KB | )

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Et Cetera on Apr 27th, 2009 at 5:17pm
I made one, and I think it is a good design for a sling. The only problem for me though is when I sling it, after a few slings it starts to bunch up and the pouch get uneven. Any suggestions? I tried tightening it, but it still got bunched up.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Cliff on May 2nd, 2009 at 5:06am
Et Cetera - I trim all my lose ends of cord, such as the small inserts in the pouch, as short as possible and then melt the ends into large globs of plastic, so that they can not pull through.  It still does purse a little, but it is insignificant, and i usually just mush it back into shape every once in a while.  Hope that made it clear, if you're still having problems I'll try to help you figure out what's up.

This is my leather sling, simple, but I've had it forever and it works well.  The pouch is roughly 2x5 inches, a little narrower:
sling_008.jpg (16 KB | )

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Et Cetera on May 2nd, 2009 at 11:22am
So you just reshape it every once in a while? I'll try tightening it more too.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by horomancer on May 2nd, 2009 at 10:21pm
When i was making mine for a friend I left all the left over cord for forming the pouch on. I went out and pitched a few medium rocks (bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball) I found this streched the cord and showed me I could tighten up both arms of the pouch with almost double the turns i had at the start!
I wove in the rest of the cord, give it a few more test slings, then trimmed my edges and burnt them. I think that this process might help those with minimum braiding experience make sure they have nice tight pouches. I also used a pair of pliers to pull the slack out good and hard before trimming.
Hope this helps

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Et Cetera on May 5th, 2009 at 8:01am
I'll have to try that, with the pliers.

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Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Conor147 on Oct 11th, 2010 at 12:15pm
i figured out that globs of molten paracord trick on my own. really, really useful. i really prefer to avoid excess knots.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Mr.Joel on Jun 20th, 2011 at 3:11am
I wonder if using Dyneema would alleviate the bunching issue with the woven paracord sling?

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Masiakasaurus on Jun 20th, 2011 at 9:42am

Mr.Joel wrote on Jun 20th, 2011 at 3:11am:
I wonder if using Dyneema would alleviate the bunching issue with the woven paracord sling?

What are the physical characteristics of Dyneema?

The bunching on a paracord sling is from the paracord sliding a little bit during a throw because of a little slack. It isn't much of a problem, really, and one of my woven slings (out of 2 woven slings) actually started throwing better after I broke it in.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Mr.Joel on Jun 20th, 2011 at 9:59am
It's less stretchy than the paracord, it's other name is Spectra. It's an extremely strong cord allegedly stronger than Kevlar.

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Intifada on May 5th, 2013 at 11:38am
I have enventually got around to making my own. One slight difference is that instead of 2 short pieces of cord in the pouch I used one and doubled it over which results in 2 fewer meltyblobs (which are at the rear and far too ugly to be photographed).


paracord-sling.png (801 KB | )

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by TheMightyAslan on Jan 30th, 2019 at 8:27pm
I maybe 6 years late but I made this design this morning and went slinging compact snow with it to test it out, great british weather and great sling design!
rsz_dsc_0575.jpg (101 KB | 62 )

Title: Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Post by Mersa on Jan 30th, 2019 at 10:12pm
I must try one of these , they look like a good design

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