Teg, Raffia IMO is best worked wet. Most of my dry-made raffia slings look bad. Even with fine fibers. What I do now is keep a pan of hot water nearby, and soak each bundle of fibers in it before I weave them, and periodically dunk the sling too. BTW I do it on the deck, not inside.

The answer to the question "is something better than another thing" is usually: It depends.
It depends on:
- the technique you work with (I will never try to sew or knot with dry raffia, but I will braid with it)
- How you work (High or low tension, how dense or loose ...)
- When you work
- The effects you want to achieve (density, stability, flexiblity, how fine, resistance against wear and sharp stones, ...)
- The quality of your fibers (size, length, preparation of the fibers, ...)

You can soak your raffia and then dry it again. The structure of the fibers will change. And both fibers ("soaked" and crude one) are "dry".

When I work with raffia I produce a lot of waste. This is because I run the fibers so many times through my fingers that all irregularities are removed and only the strongest fibers remain. For me, this is easier to do when the fibers are dry. Then why should I make the effort to work them wet? I also have so many fibers that I really don't mind if some break.

In the attachment you see a photo of several fingerrings, made with "single strand" techniques. They are all worked wet as it would be simply impossible to make them with dry fibers. The fibers would constantly break while working. And as I only have one fiber it would be more than a nuisance.

You see, it really depends on what you want to do with the fibers. You never work without a plan and as you want to achieve a certain "effect", this effect will determine the material, the technique and the way you work with it. And there isn't a best answer to this questions but usually many very different approaches. My "raffia rule": Single fibers and loose -> wet, dense and many fibers -> dry. It usually works quite well.

Please show me some of your works ("wet" and "dry" ones), so that I can see, why you think that it is best to work raffia wet.

Licorice sling! Who says you can't play with your food!

The sisal cordage seemed to be of good quality.  Years ago I unraveled some cheap sisal an braided a horrible sling from the short stiff fibers I was  able to salvage from it.  This material seemed better, and while this sling  was  made  from 5 simple  strands, maybe I`ll separate some of it into fibers and make a  sling from it.  I`ll take another look at Aurelio`s tutorial while I consider it

Tomas wrote on Jul 13^th, 2013 at 9:22am:

Darn, I can see the pictures just fine.  Well, through trial-and-error several of us manic sling braiders(walter and myself, I seem to rememer there where others too) realized, sometime ago, that accuracy was better without a tail behind the trigger knot.  I`m mot sure if this is a result of the tail distorting the grip, or wind resistance, or something else.  But the fact still remain.  Even in a simple single strand paracord sling the difference is noticeable.  The knot should be in the end of the release cord.  Of course all slingers should try out both ways and report their results.  Maybe others has different experiences.  We should apply science here

Been slinging using a wrist anchor lately. I've also gone back to using a shorter sling. From the middle of the pouch to the end of the wrist loop is 32". From the center of the pouch to there I fold and grip the release cord is 25".

This woven sling seem to throw anything I put into it. I wove it tight so it's stiff in the pouch but hasn't been a problem.

Today I was fooling around with some bark strips, from willow or sallow or whatever.  I made some cordage by reverse twisting and braiding it.  Suddenly I thought; SLING!.  So I harvested some more bark, braided a suitable lenght, and made a simple Appu/sheepshank sling.  Which worked very well with stones.  So well I even made a little YT clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUxqoRh26o4

Great shooting, timann!