Hey everyone! A little while back, I got into making my own twine by braiding fibers I found in my backyard. Well, it's paid off! I finally braided enough twine to make a sling out of this stuff (Albeit with some twine I bought mixed in - It's 4/6 twine I made myself, 2/6 sisal twine from the store.) I'm not sure how well it will work yet, but it's been exciting to be able to make a sling (mostly) without commercial materials.

Here's some pictures: (1) The ball of twine I accrued, and (2) the sling I made from it.

Wow. This is super! Nice work!

How did you source the twine fiber from the backyard? Is it from a specific plant? How do you transform the fibers into a twine?

I am planning in the future to make a balearic sling made of sisal 

Cheers

Lusitano wrote on May 10^th, 2020 at 1:39pm:


I started when I found some wet sticks in the mud (Not sure what species); the moisture had apparently made the bark very stringy and easy to peel off, so I just took it! I had seen a tutorial on YouTube on making a sling out of natural fibers previously ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzDMCVdPwnE ), so I used that for guidance. found another stick to harvest from eventually, but the darker material came from some roots that got dug up, which appear to have come from a nearby black walnut tree (I didn't realize then that it could stain so badly; my fingertips were blackened from the tannin for weeks ) I basically just peeled off the bark from the roots and used my knife to cut the material just behind the bark into strands, which I then braided into the ball. (The strands are MUCH easier to work with when they're wet - They get brittle as they dry. You can store them in a plastic bag to keep them fresh, but eventually they'll start to rot if kept too long.)

The actual process of putting it together was pretty monotonous, I just grabbed three strands and braided them together until one strand ran out, at which point I'd lay a new strand across and braid it in. I managed to braid about 449" of the stuff after a while, though I think if made a point to braid regularly, I might be able to get my hands on quite a bit more.

Morphy wrote on May 10^th, 2020 at 2:17pm:

Kick wrote on May 10^th, 2020 at 12:38pm:

Thanks everyone! It's been a work in progress for a while now, so I'm glad I could bring it to completion/share it. I tested it out this morning, and while it doesn't perform as well as my 'main' sling (Though it may be a matter of not having practiced with it, or throwing off my consistency), it's good to know how to make a sling out of non-commercial materials if need be - Or any rope/cord product, for that matter!