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Woven paracord sling tutorial (Read 61158 times)
Cliff
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Woven paracord sling tutorial
Nov 25th, 2007 at 4:37pm
 
This is my build-along for a simple sling with a woven pouch, as shown below:

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Mine is Para-cord, and 60 cm (2 ft) long from mid-pouch to the release knot.  The pouch is 15 cm (6 in.) long, and the split in it is 9 cm (3.5 in.)

Materials and Tools

Cord -   About 4 meters (13 feet).  This length is approximate, it can vary depending on your cord and how tightly you weave it.  I used para-cord for this tutorial.  Para-cord does wear slightly when used with rocks, so if that is a concern, some other cord of similar thickness would be fine, and resist fraying better.

Sharp scissors or knife - to cut the cord.  You will need to trim the cord very close in some spots.

Pen - to mark the cords.

Flame source - to melt the ends of the cord, and prevent fraying.


Instructions

First cut your cord.  You will need four pieces: two  will be about 15 cm (6 inches) long, and two will be about 2 m  (6 1/2 feet) long.  Melt all the ends into large globs of plastic.

Tie a finger loop on the end of one of the long pieces, and a release knot on the end of the other.

Mark 2 feet from the knot/loop on each cord with a pen or twist ties or something, and 6 inches later, make another mark.  These are the beginning and end of the pouch.  Align the two cords at the marks with their knots facing different directions.

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Take one of the long “tail” ends, and wrap it around the other cord, at the mark, as shown

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Continue the wrapping, weaving the long tail end (I'll call the portion of the tail end that's doing the wrapping the weft) around and around the other two cords, which should remain straight (I'll call these the warp) until there are 3 wraps on each side, as shown.  You will be doing a lot of weaving like this, it is important to keep an even tightness for every wrap, or the sling will be slightly uneven and lumpy looking.

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Here’s where the two short pieces come in:  lay them on top of the sling thus far as shown.  They should be between the two cords that make up the warp, so that one of the short straight pieces and one warp cord will be partnered up on each side, acting as a single warp cord.

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Continue to wrap the weft around, pairing up the short and long pieces as stated above.

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Again, stop after three wraps on each side have been done since the short cords were introduced.  Around here I like to tug on the loose ends of each of the short cords to get them close to flush where they are first joined in to the pouch.  You can see I waited a while before I remembered to do this.

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Here’s where we start the pouch, and this is where I always mess up: On the last wrap (so there will be three wraps on each side since the short cords were introduced), instead of bringing it past two cords and then bringing it up (between the two sets of two cords) as I accidentally did in the picture above, bring it past the first three cords, and then bring it up.  The picture should make this clearer.
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Continue weaving  around the long and short cord on that side, so that each one serves as an independent warp.  Continue this for about 9 cm (3.5 in.)

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Now, just repeat the process, but with the other tail.

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It is sort of hard to get all the cords correctly positioned, one side of the pouch may be longer than the other, or it may be deformed/pursed, so you might need to adjust it by tightening / pulling some of the warp cords. Needle nose pliers are a big help.

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Trim and melt all the danglies.  You can see in this picture, how the warp cords aren't properly tightened, as described in the step above.  This is causing the pouch to purse funny.  I had to go and tighten it again.

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And here it is, completed:

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One thing I learned is that large globs of molten plastic on the ends of the cords are key, it will prevent them from pulling through, and save you a lot of time.

I was able to make one, including measuring, cutting, adjusting, trimming, and melting, in less than 45 minutes.  It’s easier than it looks, although it can be a little tricky in some parts.

Criticisms questions and comments are always welcome.  If you notice any mistakes / misused terms, or anyone has suggestions to make my tutorial better, clearer, or more consistent, please post them, and I will go back and edit it.

Sorry that this is late, stuff came up, as it tends to do.
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« Last Edit: Dec 2nd, 2007 at 6:53pm by Cliff »  

paracord sling tutorial thread: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1196026630
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #1 - Nov 25th, 2007 at 4:44pm
 
that's a very neat sling, and the instructions are easy to follow. well done.

SV
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #2 - Nov 25th, 2007 at 5:03pm
 
Nice tutorial! I'm going to have to try it out when/if I can get my hands on some paracord...
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #3 - Nov 25th, 2007 at 6:11pm
 
I have seen your sling un a previous post and wondered how you got it so seemless, now I know. I like it a lot very clean looking. Is it for tennis balls only? How would it hold up to the ware of stones. I think I will try it with some jute.
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #4 - Nov 25th, 2007 at 11:14pm
 
very nice!

Thanks, Cliff.
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #5 - Nov 26th, 2007 at 10:58am
 
You should put this on instructables.com. This would definately be a good project for me.
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #6 - Nov 26th, 2007 at 10:09pm
 
That looks... Way Cool.  I don't have any paracord handy, but I do have plenty of nylon 505 cord, which is almost the same thing.  And members of my tribe have most certainly mastered the 'melting things into large gobs of plastic' part of the operation.  I'll have to give this one a go!  Thanks for posting it!
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #7 - Nov 27th, 2007 at 10:22pm
 
I cycled out to Walmart to buy some paracord today, so I finally was able to try it out. Here's the result:
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P1010031.JPG (389 KB | )
P1010031.JPG

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Altay
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #8 - Nov 27th, 2007 at 10:25pm
 
I couldn't figure out how to attach two images to a single post, so here's a closeup of the pouch. It curved a whole lot more than the one in the instructions, but I think that it was mainly because I pulled it so tight. I like it better curved anyway, so I didn't bother to try to change it. The pouch was much stiffer than I expected (but that's probably also because I pulled it so tight). Overall it's a wonderful sling. I've only slung one tennis ball with it so far, but I already love it.
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pouch.png (1017 KB | )
pouch.png

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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #9 - Nov 29th, 2007 at 8:43pm
 
this would be great to put in the articles section
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #10 - Nov 29th, 2007 at 8:48pm
 
nice.
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Cliff
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #11 - Dec 2nd, 2007 at 5:55pm
 
Thank you all for your comments.  You will notice that I've revised my instructions a little.

Dork, it is not for tennis balls only, although the dimensions for this one are intended for tennis balls.  I have made them sized for rocks, and they held up fine, but they did show a (very) small bit of wear after maybe 100 or so throws.  Honestly though, for rocks I prefer a simple leather pouch with para-cord cords.

Altay, thanks for trying this out.  Did you have any trouble when you got to the beginning of the split in the pouch?  I accidentally had a mistake on that step in my instructions, which i fixed.  The original (wrong) step is here:

Here’s where we start the pouch, and this is where I always mess up: begin another wrap, but instead of bringing it all the way around both cords on one side, only bring it fully around the longer cord, then bring it up between the two, as shown

...

If I remember correctly, I've tried it both ways, but my revised way is easier to make, and better, because it helps to keep the pouch from spreading too widely.

Sorry about that!

Also, as Siguy suggested, I was thinking of having someone put this in the articles, but I thought I'd leave that decision up to others, if they thought this was good/useful enough.
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paracord sling tutorial thread: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1196026630
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #12 - Dec 4th, 2007 at 12:53am
 
Cliff wrote on Dec 2nd, 2007 at 5:55pm:
Altay, thanks for trying this out.  Did you have any trouble when you got to the beginning of the split in the pouch?  I accidentally had a mistake on that step in my instructions, which i fixed.

I think I see the difference, but I don't think it would change anything dramatically. I looked at my sling carefully for about a minute to see if I could tell which way I wove it at that point, and I'm not entirely sure. The only part that gave me trouble was starting out when my weave was extremely loose and hideous. I almost undid the weave so that I could go back and redo it tighter, but then I got the hang of pulling it tight after weaving.

EDIT: I should probably rephrase that last sentence, because I realized that it doesn't sound the way I meant it to. I wove as tightly as a could, but the string remained "loose" in that it would pass across the perpendicular strings sinusoidally rather than pretty much straight. I tried pulling it tight as a worked, but it didn't really help. When I arrived at the point where the pouch splits I decided I would have to tighten it or restart. I pulled on it as best I could, and the weaving sort of collapsed in a way that made it look the way it should. I don't know how well I explained that, but hopefully it gives you an idea.
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #13 - Dec 15th, 2007 at 8:37am
 
Here is mine! Thanks Cliff. 
...
Sorry bad quality.
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Re: Woven paracord sling tutorial
Reply #14 - Jan 8th, 2008 at 9:41pm
 
Nallekarkki, it looks good, thanks for trying this out.
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paracord sling tutorial thread: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1196026630
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