Barak Bruard has a set of pictures on his own web site, that shows how he braided a sling.  He uses a braiding table called a maru dai for braiding the cords, but he removed it from the table while weaving the pocket.  Here's the link:



I'm hazy on the details, because I haven't actually read Barak's instructions for a few months, but the pocket is basically several groups of jute strands, with each group wrapped (whipped) with another jute strand.  He joined the groups together so the pocket is two wide bands, but I'm not sure how.

Maybe Klarh can explain how he made his sling.  That pocket is obviously not the same as what Barak did.

I'd love to find out how to make a sling very much like the one pictured on the main page of the site. It's clearly a braided sling, but seems to have a wider pocket. I like Dan Bollinger's article about braiding slings, but the only real disadvantage I can see to the design is that the pocket is too thin. His directions, though, are completely clear and easy to follow, and I can now make a braided sling in less than an hour. Barak's directions though, are probably a little complicated for me, and I couldn't figure out from the pictures how the maru dai works, but if anybody here could enlighten me on how to either combine or widen braids, I would be most appreciative.

My two cents on pouch abbrasion.

My first "real" sling was braided from hemp twine following Dan Bollinger's instructions. Slinging wet, sandy rocks has induced a fair amount of wear to the pouch. That said I'll probably make more as the materials are cheap, and production time reasonable.

My second sling used hand-spun coir fibers and has held up much better than the hemp. The hard spin of the cord and the toughness of the coir makes for a reasonably abbrasion resistant pouch. I have used this sling about as much as the hemp, but can detect little to no wear.

Currently I am working on a sinnet and braid sling in tarred nylon twine. Frankly it is taking forever to make and may well end up as more of a showpiece than a workaday sling. This will be highly dependant on how well it wears.

One last bit. While on a philosophical level I really like the spun plastic bag slings, I know they will wear out fairly quickly. My first bag sling has seen two heavy slinging sessions. It is already showing clear signs of wear. Once again, the harder you spin your cordage, the better it will resist abbrasion.

Trebor,
You got a lot of information, but I think not the bit you was asking for.

That sling in the picture was made by Klahr, he wrote somewhere how he made the pocket, I re-tell this in my own words and with the information I read in the picture. He did unwind a little of the string, where he wanted to have the pocket, tied a knot at the start of the pocket and in that same knot also tied an extra strip of plastic. By unwinding the string he got four thinner strings next to each other. (If you have store bought string you will have 6.) Now he wound the plastic strip round the 4 strings, going over one, under the next, over and under till there are no more strings to pass, then go the other direction. Keep the strings in the same order, and now go under where before you went over and over where you did go under before. Go on with weaving round the strings till the pocket is long enough. You can do this weaving (sometimes called wrapping) with string too. At the end of the pocket you make an other knot, in this you tie the end of your weaving string or strip.

You can also start the sling like the split pocket sling, http://www.slinging.org/20.html or like the sling with the leather pocket http://www.slinging.org/13.html make the pouch like Klahr did and go on with the instructions in the article for the second half of the string.

Weaving might be easier if you tie the string between 2 fixed points, (table cairs will be enough) or one end to your body, (belt?) and the other end to a fixed point, (table?)

Succes, Willeke.

PS, Klahr, if you read this, can you please explain how you really made this pouch?

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of your replies... they have helped.

I've read everything suggested and looked at all the pictures - the pics really helped.

I've just completed my first sling about 30 mins ago!  The pouch weaving came out pretty nice, and I'd say that the whole thing looks pretty good (compared to similar types I've seen pics of).  It is braided out of jute according to the instructions of making the "Apache" style sling, except I chose to weave the pouch rather than using  leather.  I'll take a picture of it and post it here soon.

I went outside and couldn't resist slinging a rock.  As it is dark at this time I didn't see where it went, but I could hear it bouncing off in the distance where I intended to shoot it.  So I'm a "slingin' virgin" no more!

I think that the "sligin' bug" has bit me... you can be sure that you'll here from me again (will post again soon).

'till later...
Trebor

i dont know what a good sized rock would do to a garbage can lid

It's a pity that I came late to this party! Been trying to check the links but all of the pages have disappeared.

Did anyone by any chance saved them somewhere or have an updated link?

I braided my first sling and I want to weave one now.

Thanks slingers