Kick wrote on Aug 28
th, 2017 at 2:29am:
I'm fairly certain it's cotton but no way to guarantee.
Cotton has a characteristical "smell" while burning and becomes a very crumbly ash (fine like pigments for painting). If it melts mostly, then it is some kind of thermoplastics. Besides silk cotton also has the most thin fiber of all natural fibers, while fibers of hemp or linen are some thicker and more bristly (... especially jute and sisal are very bristly). White (bleached) linen or hemp also is seldom at all.
For braiding slings from (a lot of) very thin yarns there Jaegoor was posting some tutorials.
http://blog.ottonenzeit.de/schleuderbau ... for example (... its a very nice handcraftet piece too).
But for braiding all yarns indivdual (for a coat braid or something similar) you would need a "Mobidai" (germ.: Flechthocker / eng.: braiding stool). This also would have the advantage to be able to braid it (the release cord) "rejuvenating" like a bullwhip: Because your yarns are very thin you can start the braiding with up to 24 (even 28 or 30) strands and to reduce its number step for step down to 10, 9 or 8 strands only.
The relative thicker braiding close to the pouch (and the thinner, lighter wightet end of release cords other end) causes a much better (faster and more "regulary") release. Nevertheless you were able to terminate its sonic boom (if this were not wanted) with help of a more heavy knot or "marble" ("button").
"Knots" of my own slings I allways make from PVC, PA, POM or leather, because small balls of it are nearly light as wood, but much more resistant against hard hits from released stones. 10 or 15 hard hits from a stone ... and a wooden release-knot were gone (broken / damaged). But especially knots or marbels from black PA or PVC (type: "hard") looks and feels like marbels mede from horn (respectivley very similar to horn), while black POM looks and feels more like black ebony.
When braiding a coat braid instead of a massive braid you also can fill it with a bundle of strands that was given a "stage cutting" (as hair cutters do to long hairs sometimes). That also makes the cord narrowing.