Well, 30 hours worth of video rentals, half a bottle of ibuprofen, several jugs of coffee, and a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts later, and I have a new sling.
It's intentionally made to look rugged in it's weave (though some parts are less intentional than others
). Made of hemp, it's a 16 strand sling braided with an 8-strand square braid with an 8-strand core, and an additional 16 strands added in for the split pocket.
Overall, the sling measures 78 inches, but doubled over the slinging radius is 35 inches. This is the first sling I've made using hemp and it is rather stiff, but not overly so. It is also a bit thicker than I usually make, but it has a nice feel to it. To compensate for the thickness I tapered the release line over the last 16 inches or so and I really like it - it cracks very easily when I sling.
The color pattern is mirrored which took a bit of time to measure out properly. Overall I'd say the sling took me about 16 to 20 hours to braid which is faster than usual - probably because I used an 8 strand braid rather than a 16 strand braid. My legs still went pretty numb sitting on the floor all that time, and half the time i was holding the core in my teeth since i couldn't be bothered to go out and make an attachment for the maru dai to hold it for me. Next time I will.
anyway, I'm pretty excited about it. Unfortunately we just had a lovely snow here and I can't find rocks to sling. I managed to dig up a couple and whipped them off - it was pretty smooth action, especially with the taper. One of the other threads mentioned doing a video of throwing techniques, I might try filming one tomorrow and give it to Chris to post.
Barak -