David Morningstar wrote on Mar 6
th, 2013 at 3:57pm:
Two strands, one for each side which meet up at the final hole at each end and become a 2-ply reverse-twisted cord.
As it turned out, the number of holes I had punched (19 on each side, including the end ones) meant that the ends of the pouch 'stitching' were not the same. If I started by going down into the first hole then I finished by coming down out of the last hole. I wanted to be coming up out of the last hole so that the two ends would look the same.
I dealt with this by doing the two sides 180 degrees out of phase. If the left side was up-down-up-down then the right side was down-up-down-up. This made the ends the same but the sides were out of step. I can live with that. If this makes no sense to you, dont worry. It bent my brain a bit and I had it there in front of me.
The moral of the story is, there is a difference between using an even or odd number of holes.
Very beautiful reproduction!
Based on this I started to make a “York-style“ sling that doesn`t follow exactly the shape and size of
the originals shown in the publication. It has also 19 holes on each side, but I´ve sewn the double
amount of strands in, i.e. on each side one up-down-up-down an one down-up-down-up. The length
of the cords was chosen in a manner, that on each end of the pouch there are 3 long strands and one
shorter strand coming out, to start with a 4-strand braid and tapering to 3 strands. The leather I used
is very thin. I haven`t braided the cords yet, but I´m looking forward to try a sling that doesn`t lead to
a bump of ammo, as you wrote.
Until now I had no problems with whipping at the release cord. Usually I don`t tighten the protection
whipping, cause it has only to cover the cord, which so remains almost as flexible as without
whipping. Some tight and (due to glue) hard whippings I use to attach the pouches e.g. in my
“hunting slings”, but surprisingly it`s them I use actually improving my accuracy. No feeled deflection.
In the past I made a sling, that was cut from one piece of leather – no whipping or cord attachment
at all. The release was very bad, the leather tended to bend around the stone in the release moment.
It improved after having added a straight whipping at the release end to make it stiffer. So
sometimes a stiff part on the release cord can also help. I think it depends on many factors like
length and position of whipping, pouch length and stiffness, that influence the physical wave that is
formed upon release.