Well, 30 hours worth of video rentals, half a bottle of ibuprofen, several jugs of coffee, and a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts later, and I have a new sling. 



It's intentionally made to look rugged in it's weave (though some parts are less intentional than others ).  Made of hemp, it's a 16 strand sling braided with an 8-strand square braid with an 8-strand core, and an additional 16 strands added in for the split pocket.



Overall, the sling measures 78 inches, but doubled over the slinging radius is 35 inches.  This is the first sling I've made using hemp and it is rather stiff, but not overly so.  It is also a bit thicker than I usually make, but it has a nice feel to it.  To compensate for the thickness I tapered the release line over the last 16 inches or so and I really like it - it cracks very easily when I sling. 



The color pattern is mirrored which took a bit of time to measure out properly.  Overall I'd say the sling took me about 16 to 20 hours to braid which is faster than usual - probably because I used an 8 strand braid rather than a 16 strand braid.  My legs still went pretty numb sitting on the floor all that time, and half the time i was holding the core in my teeth since i couldn't be bothered to go out and make an attachment for the maru dai to hold it for me.  Next time I will. 

anyway, I'm pretty excited about it.  Unfortunately we just had a lovely snow here and I can't find rocks to sling.  I managed to dig up a couple and whipped them off - it was pretty smooth action, especially with the taper.  One of the other threads mentioned doing a video of throwing techniques, I might try filming one tomorrow and give it to Chris to post.

Barak -

JB,

Awesome dude! 8)

I use leather conditioner for my shoes on my hemp braided slings and it really softens them up. I assume it helps protect them from moisture as well.

Beautiful man!!

I'll add these to the gallery at some point under your name.

Chris

Awe shucks guys - twernt nuthun'  - just long hours. 

David, I'll try out the leather conditioner and see how it works. 

Chris, I'll get you a couple gallery pictures that are better - these I took at night b/c I was excited and couldn't wait and they are rather dark.

mgreenfield, I wish I had the brains to be an engineer.  My hydrology degree suffers for my lack of math.  ???

soon as the snow melts (a couple of days) I'll give it a run for its money.  This sling and two others, I'm photographing the creation process, to use in a sling braiding/making tutorial that I'm about half way through.  I plan on posting it online for awhile to get everyone's input on - sort of like unofficial editors - to help me improve it, add, modify, correct, etc.  Someday I may print it in book form.  Anyway, I hope to have it completed in a few weeks.

Barak

Barak,

I'm drooling.  That is a beautiful sling!  I love how you alternate the colors on the cords, and the cradle was no easy task.  Was that the first time you did that pattern, or have you done it before.  I've seen it in Adele's book, and always admired it.  Awesome!  You're inspiring me to get to work on another sling myself, when my wrists are better!  I'm distracted by my Scorpion right now. 

                                            Ben

Sweeet!  Nice job.  If you write a book, I'll buy it.  Seems like all the good braiding books are out of print.

I've done the cradle pattern before.  I have no idea how they are done by the Andean cultures; I just fiddled with techniques till I got one that made a cradle that looked like the pictures.

mgreenfield, I'm ok when it comes to trig and algebra, it's the calc & physics that kill me.  Pressure equations, determining hydraulic head, groundwater pressure head, trying to do complex environmental calculations that require infiltration, evapotranspiration, friction, latent heat, the square root of the average number of jelly beans in a quart jar...  Makes my head spin.  I'd go into hydrogeology exams with three pages of calculations written as small as I could possibly make legible...  Thank goodness the prof didn't make us memorize them.  - oh I'll need canivorous editors.  It is so hard to describe braiding without huge long explainations...  Brevity and clarity... That's what I'm going for.

Barak

Is that sling based on any particular design, or is it something you just came up with?  I must say, it looks like a kick ass sling.  Much better than anything I could ever come up with.  However, I sold my first sling today, so I am happy.  I made a profit of three pounds.  It was just  a simple split pouch thing made of string and stuff. Nowhere near a quarter as cool looking as that sling.