With thanks to Neolyth and FunSlinger - I just spent the morning finishing up a signal-whip style sling, which I am just going to call a "signal sling" from now on. He answers a few questions that we talked about in a Neolyth's recent thread, and a couple that have been hanging around for a while as well.


First off - Material. I have been holding onto this spool of lead cored trolling line for a while. I made one experimental sling out of it (that could throw ping pong balls!), but never really had a plan. It is great stuff if you like knots, as the lead core really makes it nice to work with, while hilding knots beautifully.


I started out with a "braid on a string" on four strands to form the finger loop.


The core is then round braided using the eight strands from the finger loop + four additional strands (two doubled - the blue is one "tracer" pair). The braid is continued, dropping strands to taper the core. I split to two three stand braids (same as a Balearic style) for the pouch, then back to a round braid. Eventually, the core drops down to two strands, that I twist together for the last little bit.


I was originally planning on doing one braided belly with an eight-plait overlay, so I started the next layer with twelve strands (six doubled) and plaited the cover using a standard four-type braid.


Strands are dropped to taper the braid again. The covers for the pouch cords are the same four-braid, with four strands each.


When I finished up the first layer, I started to have second thoughts about adding a third. One, it was going to be a whole lot more work , particularily since I wanted to do a more complicated pattern, but also the sling was feeling pretty heavy as it was. I wanted a sling that could crack, not a whip that would sling, so I finished off the braid with a eyesplice and tied on a nylon fall/cracker. The loop and lark's head knot form the grip point for the sling. The leather pouch was sewn to the frame cords.


Closeup of both ends, showing the amount of taper (twenty-four to four strands in the sling), the attachment point and the "cracker".

....

Do does it crack? Now keep in mind that I've never played with whips, and haven't ever really been interested. To be honest, I don't own any tight black leather pants, which seems to be a bit of a prerequisite... There was some concern expressed about whether the pouch would slow it down, and I put a solid leather one.

I was expecting a wet towel type *pop*... I mean this is a pretty tiny whip as far as things go, and who knows how to swing the thing.

I wasn't expecting a forest reverberating, neighbour police-phoning, altogether startling thunderclap of a *CRACK*...  

Ok so now maybe I understand why people like playing with these things. (I have a pretty good idea why they trend toward leather pants as well - I'd be wearing my full fencing getup before I'd try anything bigger than this little guy).

Next question is "does it sling ok"? Feels really good! I think the retention stiffness and cord weight really do contribute to a more accurate release. The other good news is that the rock seems to help direct the sling to not whip back at you if you screw up. This might just be due to much more practise with the sling than the whip.

That said, does the rock inhibit the cracking? Not at all! In fact, for my mediocre newfound whip cracking skills, it seems to make it even easier/louder! It seems a little funny, as the slinging motion is nothing like a standard whip crack, with the energy stored in the retention side hardly contributing? (maybe should have thought about that before I braided twenty four strands up there...) I don't know - but I do know that it cracks effortlessly while slinging. Range doesn't seem to be affected at all either - if I didn't know better I'd say I was getting a little more power...

....

I thought you guys deserved a video. Quality is not great, and the sound recording is mediocre at best, so the crack is not really as pronounced as it is when you are standing right next to it. A plane flew over too. Turn up the volume and enjoy!

Click here to watch Whip Sling

Matthias

jesus christ on a bike!!!!
sv

what about electrical flex?
sv

Yes, the weighted strands used here are a pretty uncommon way to vary the mass dist. What I meant I guess was: are there any easy/ready made core materials that would open this up to the non-braiders. The paracord slings are rightly popular since all you need to do is cut them to length and tie a couple of knots. We need something like that.

I've already made a bicycle tube whip since my last post. (BTW if you want to avoid looking like an S&M whip-type, you probably also want to avoid black rubber whips...) and if you had a non-structural core and tapered cover strands, you could probably get away with one pass of fours strand braid. Pretty quick - the pocket remains a problem as the contruction gets simpler...

I'm on it though.

sv - Electrical cord might be a reasonable core (I've seen whips like this on the web) but you need to taper the mass, which means binding more than one cord together, which means you sort of need to cover it, which puts you back to braiding...

me - Have you been able to crack a shepherd's sling like this? I get a mild chuff from some of my heavier braids, but nothing like the boom this one produces. I'm very interested in other's experiences!

Matthias

(I'll send the video to Chris a bit later - maybe I'll get someone to help me make a better one...)

Quote:




I made this one with a tapered release cord. I always just called them rattails. No cracker on it at the moment, but I still get some decent cracks. Nothing compared to yours though. After watching that video I immediatley wanted to
try it with a cracker attached.

I want one !
And I'm not alone :-) Which begs the question Matthias: How much ?

Funslinger, that slinging technique is the one I use. And from my point of view (ie: until finding this website a week or so ago assuming I was the only person left who'd ever used a sling) it's the natural way of using a sling, ie: the one I adopted without knowing there were traditional techniques.
The initial up and down swing gives the stone momentum and the sideways release gives you straight line accurate aiming. Plus you can walk around with the sling in the resting position and get a shot off accurately inside a couple of seconds without looking like a prat. (no offence meant to the people who hold their slings above their heads first  and look daft :-)

But more importantly, How much Matthias ????
Yeah yeah I know I should make one myself. And I have just printed off the guide to making a simple braided sling. Getting round to making it (getting cord etc) could take months. Making one of those babies - well conservatively we're talking years :-)
So yes there's a market, name your price mate :-)

That there is a pretty cool slingwhip....I am really like that lead-core cord. I will be definately looking for some of that.

So what's your hourly rate ?
Don't underestimate the amount of money idiots like me are prepared to spend on essentially useless toys
And as for toys that go BANG !
Well, lets just say at the moment in england to have something that goes bang and you can't be arrested for using, that's almost priceless

Plus the pound is worth many of your canadian dollars
Go on put a price on it - you know you want to