Hey guys. I just thought I'd show you guys pictures of the three slings I've made. [sorry for the insanely huge pictures, but I don't know how to make them smaller ]


larger image at: http://www.altay.vilko.net/DL/sling/first_sling.jpg

This was the first sling I made. I made it out of cotton because it was the only string we had in the house... It's nice and soft, especially the fluffy tail, but it's VERY heavy.



larger image at: http://www.altay.vilko.net/DL/sling/netted_sling.jpg

Probably not the best choice for my second sling ever, but hakuna matata (the past is in the past). The netted sling was INSANELY hard (probably because I didn't practice the knots much... ). I got so frustrated while I was making the net that I started working on my chainmail to relax. Now that it's finished, it's not as nice as I was hoping for when I started, but much better than I expected halfway through.



larger image at: http://www.altay.vilko.net/DL/sling/long_sling.jpg

This is my latest sling (I made it right after the netted one). I made it because I wanted a sling that would practically reach the ground when I held it (with my arm extended down, next to my leg). I love how much power I get with this sling.


I know one of you is going to suggest it, so I might as well mention it. What do you think about a sling with an [aluminum] chainmail pouch? Would that be a waste of chainmail? Would it hold the stone well, or would it just slip off? (metal = smooth) I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Thanks. I edited them down to half size with a link to the full sized image (though I doubt anyone will want to see them that big). Below is an image of the chainmail I'm talking about. I think it might hold a rock better than a netting, but do you think it might not be flexible enough or it will fall apart from the wear & tear?


detailed image at: http://www.altay.vilko.net/DL/sling/chainmail.jpg

Yay. Questions I can answer .
I bought 16 Gauge "Shiny" Aluminum wire from http://www.theringlord.com. I then started making chainmail by winding the wire around a jumbo pencil with a hole drilled in it (to hold the wire). This was EXTREMELY painful and tedious and resulted in many blisters [and callouses ]. After a while I got "high tech" and made [with much much help] a machine to help me wind the wire into coils. This sped up the coiling process by about 30x. Anyway, you can see a coil (I just found under my bed [I thought I had them all cut]) on the contraption. I then used wire cutters to cut the coils into little rings. From there it's downhill, just bend the little rings open, slip them into other little rings, and bend them shut (hence the needle-nose pliars).
To answer your question, the size of the ring/chainmail depends solely on the diameter of the bar you wind the wire around. My rings are about 1 cm in diameter. I think it's roughly the size of the average chainmail. If you make the rings too small, they won't be able to move around, so it will lose its flexibility.


detailed image at: http://www.altay.vilko.net/DL/sling/chainmailstuff.jpg

I'm not too familiar (aka haven't hear of:P) carbon-fiber and kevlar, and aluminum (I have over 10 lbs) is light, cheap, strong (for its weight), knife-resistant, easy to work with and most importantly

Sorry, but I am absolutely obsessed with aluminum. Kevlar and carbon-fiber sound good (I assume you're familiar with them). If you're serious about trying to make chainmail, you can find a guide to making it at http://www.chainmailman.com/tutorial.html. I'm not too sure what non-metal chainmail would be like... Are kevlar and carbon-fiber rubbery or hard?

You may want to take a look at my chaimail link at my website (http://www.altay.vilko.net/), though currently it just has links to other chainmail pages.


About the idea of a chainmail-pouched sling, the hardest parts would be making the chainmail just the right size and hooking it to the sling. The easiest way to do this would probably be to make the chainmail pouch first, then braid the regular (http://www.slinging.org/20.html) pouch around/through the loops until you braided the entire pouch onto the sling.

Kevlar and Carbon fiber are just fibers, sort of like anything that clothing would be made of, except that they're extremely strong and light. Kevlar is so strong that it's used on the belly of airplanes to reinforce them. If you make a landing with the gear up, the paint gets scratched off but the plane suffers no structural damage. In addition, enough layers of kevlar are bullet resistant. But to be honest, if I had to make something to stop a knife, I wouldn't waste my time making a chainmail shirt out of kevlar, I'd just make a regular shirt out of several layers of kevlar and wouldn't have to worry about the fact that a well placed stab could penetrate the links in the chain. Plus the fact that it'd be much easier.

However, those are really nice slings. Good work!

I believe Kevler sheets can be cut with ordinary scissors can't it?

Anywho, I think a chainmail sling is an awsome idea. I have a friend who loves to work with chain mail. I'll ask him what he thinks.

-Unsapien

There have been several discussions on chainmail slings already, and as far as I remember no real conclusion. But I think all chainmail for those slings was made of steel/iron. So yours will be much lighter in weight. The heavy weight was wat made using those slings hard.

And I do like the pictures. I always want to see the closeups of the knotwork and braids.
An other way to save space but still show your work well is cut away all unneeded parts of the photos. You have nice carpet, but need not show it of. 

Willeke

It would be like knitting, only much harder. I wouldn't even try it because weaving it or netting it would be better.

I haven't been working on my chainmail pouch much because I was stuck at school until 5:30 PM (my ride's car's battery broke down). I was stuck with my sister, a tennis ball, my homework and... MY SLING!!! Poor neglected homework. I spent the whole time slinging the tennis ball and teaching my sister and a friend how to use the standard figure-8 style throw. As soon as they caught on (about 30 minutes...), they were addicted to the throw. It's SOOO fun. I practice it without the sling (just the hand motion and steps) in the hallways. Everyone that sees my sling loves it. And everyone wants it, but no one wants to make one. Excuses vary from no string to too lazy... Well, I gave the short cotton one away, but I'm definately hanging onto my netted one. They'd have to wrestle me down to take it from me.

Anyway, back to the topic. I can post a little picture of what I plan to do, but it probably won't be very clear and a tutorial to make the pouch would be hard for anyone who doesn't know how to make a basic 4-in-1 pattern.