I've been working on this one, on and off for about a week now- maybe longer.  I followed the netted sling tutorial on this site: http://slinging.org/index.php?page=netted-sling-instructions---matthias-borstad

I've never done a 6 strand flat braid before, netted, or a 4 strand round braid...so it was a bit of a challenge at first, but I think it turned out pretty good.

I went w/ Jute, since I happened to have some on hand and the only variation I did was use the aforementioned 4 strand (four groups of three individual cords) round braid instead if the normal three strand braid.  Another added challenge was going with Jute instead of something nice like that fishing line in the tutorial.  It's really inconsistent rough material but even with it's imperfections, I'm extremely happy with the results.  I started with six strands somewhere around 18' long to make a finished sling of about 33" long, with a 7" pouch.  I wanted this one to hold a tennis ball well...  I'll have to wait and see how that works.  It's a miserably windy day today, but I went out anyway and gave it a whirl-  the feel is great.  As much as I love paracord for its millions of household uses, jute just seems to be a much better "fit" with this stone age tool...  

Thanks for the great instructions!  

I'll post some pics as soon as I can- no camera here w/ me right now...

BM

Well, here it is-

It's a touch on the sloppy side, and when I do another one I'll pay closer attention to getting the netting more even where it bunches at the cords...

I'm a bit wary of the jute and jagged rocks.  The main cords are more than strong enough, I'm sure, but the netting is just 1 strand and I'm afraid it'll wear out...  Aside from that, the netting does a great job holding onto larger projectiles.  Tennis balls should be no problem in this.  The pouch on my paracord sling won't hold on to anything much larger than a golf ball.

I really like the natural feel of using a natural fiber like jute.  I've made little short sections of cordage from some local Agave plants, and have joked with my wife that my next step will be to make all my cordage from scratch...  Lets see- that's 6 strands of cord, each 18 feet long = a darned lot of cordage, and a good portion of my life twisting it up...

I dunno, I've seen some really impressive hand made Agave cordage on the internet.

(I don't seem to know how to attach more than one picture at a time...don't have a photobucket account or anything like that right now)

Oh, and I tapered the release cord.  I braided all 12 strands for about half way, then left one strand out, braided a few inches, left another out, etc., so I had 8 strands left at the end...  I like the look...
BM

try the rockman design. great with jute. my fav sling.

That's a shame, b.m..  I thought it was a pretty snazzy looking sling.

Yep,you might apply some leather on it.That would be probably the fastest,best method to save that nice sling.

Rat Man wrote on Feb 19^th, 2011 at 2:03am:


what he said 

That design looks like it would work well with nylon or a nylon like fiber