Hello, Howdy, General Greetings,
My name is Bjorn, 30 years old and male. I wanted to introduce myself to the forum and issue a general hello but more than anything express my thanks to the worldwide modern slinging community. It has been less than a year since I discovered slinging and began incorporating its benefits into my life and lifestyle.
I have developed a broad interest in primitive skills, including but not limited to primitive weaponry, for their practical utility. At a moment of impasse in not having adequate materials to develop truly primitively-wrought atlatl gear, I spoke to a much older friend who had messed around with slinging as a youngster. I soon fashioned my first sling out of some beat up paracord and a cutoff pants cuff for a pouch. In retrospect, my first sling was a piece of shit. But even the first one got me going on this wonderful rhythm of seeing what went wrong in field testing and going home and improving my gear.
Since then I have constructed wonderful, functional, and indestructible "beater" slings out of climbing accessory cord. From there it was with the helpful guidance of slinging.org info that I began braiding slings. First of jute, then of sisal, then of masons line, then of hemp (and I do love hemp), then of masons line, then, most recently, my first wool sling, a true thing of beauty. Though to be fair, I love all of those aforementioned materials, even jute. Cheap, pleasant-smelling, effective.
My life experience so far (and many other people in my life have told me that age 30 is a sort of crossroads age) has taught me that one of the most important things in life is to have projects that you are passionate about. The very act of caring about seeing a process through from beginning, to mistake-prone middle, to glorious, or sometimes failure stricken end, is very beneficial to one's constitution and mental faculties.
What I have found is that what is so valuable to me about slinging is that it provides me the opportunity to be both slinger and slingmaker. Just as (to borrow from another passion of mine) all TRUE fly fishermen also tie their own flies, all true slingers are addicted to slinging because of this never ending process of refining both sides of the craft. You must be a slingmaker to be a true slinger.

You create a sling based on an idea.
You take the sling out into the field and throw with it.
You learn while doing so what is right and wrong with the sling.
You return home and create another sling that directly addresses the negative criticisms and enhances the positive criticisms you had for the sling you went and tried that day.
So as you go through myriad cycles like this, you become both a better slinger AND a better slingmaker.

From my simple cord slings that I started with, I have been through hundreds of prototypes, and my craft has gone from those simple cord models to cracking the lid on braiding slings and weaving their pouches, sometimes split up, sometimes continuous filament - retention to release knot. No matter what though, it's always been fun.

If one thing amazes me most about slinging and slingmaking, it is that no two slings are alike. I know I'm not the first to say this. But it cannot be overstated that each and every sling you, me or anyone else makes, has its own thing going on. I'm not even that far away from saying my slings each have their own souls, and I'm sure yours do too. More than anything else I have done in my life, it means a lot to me that when I spend hours making a sling, I get a product that, when I go and throw with it, has its own inalienable personal character. Especially the continuous filament braided slings really feel to me as though they are alive when I go out and throw with them.

I realize my introduction is wordy, and I thank whomever among you actually read my whole text. Mainly my message is one of thanks. Without the input of slinging.org members it would have taken me a lot longer to arrive at some of the ideas I have now near mastered. I intend to post some pics of some of my darlings soon, but my USB cord is still in storage (I've moved a lot recently).

My name is Bjorn. That is my real first name, though I am an American citizen (regrettably). I had major misgivings about joining an online forum because I generally try to keep my life away from computers and anything resembling social media. But I have benefited so much from this forum that I did not want to persist in giving nothing back. I look forward to pleasant interactions, informative exchanges, and hilarious outbursts with any and all of you.

After all this writing, all I want to do is beat up a coffee can with some river rocks. But my current surroundings make this inadvisable.

All the best, good folks.

Hallo Bjorn, I agree with everything you wrote and share your passion for fishing - even if I prefer to use a bronze harpoon modeled on an Iron Age one found here in Italy.
I share your will to avoid social media too: this is the only forum I write in, and I really believe it's worth every second of my time.
You will find a great community here: we have different cultures, religious, sexual and political beliefs, but we all are linked each other with an unusual and undefined feeling that is hard to find elsewhere on the net.
I really think you will learn to love being part of this community!
Greetings and thank you,
Mauro.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks for all the greetings folks.
I will do my best to stay active on the forum. The fact is that my life has had a recent occupational shift and I now work on a rather remote organic farm and have no internet access at the awesome yurt I call home. I don't miss the internet one bit. But I will do my best to take a few pictures of some of my designs and get them out to you.
One of my primary reasons for wanting to join the forum was so that I could participate in the SITH exchange or any other trade opportunities. I love the idea of making a sling to be sent to an online acquaintance on the other side of the country or the world, and in turn, receiving a sling from someone far far away.
Enjoy yourselves.

Hi Bjorn!! Welcome from the wilds of upstate New York. You're gonna love it here!.

Welcome Bjorn, you've pretty much discovered the secret of sling making! Take what you made, use it, have fun, realize what could be better, remake!