Making a new sling I took some pictures to share my method of braiding a strong finger loop.

The problem with the slings that you start braiding from the finger loop is, that you usually take X strings, start braiding from the middle of them, then after some inches you fold the braid to a loop and continue braiding with now 2X strings. So you get a finger loop that is only half as strong as the main cord.

I like my finger loops quite thick, cause of the strength and especially for the comfort (they don`t cut your fingers like thinner loops). So normally I make the finger loop like shown on the following pictures (here shown with a 4-strand braided cord).

Step 2

Clip the strings together on one side in the position shown here.
Instead of a clip you can use an additional piece of cord and bend it around the strings.

Step 4

Fold the braid to bring the end part over the part where you started from and group the cords together as shown. Always take a short string and a long string from the opposite ends of the loop together.

Step 6

Drop the 2 longer short strands and continue braiding.

Step 8
Use the dropped strands from step 6 for a short west country whipping.

At the end trim the remaining ends of and add a drop of super glue on the knot.

Untwist the upper ( = longer) ends of the dropped strings.

...and the lower pair for a longer whipping downwards ( = away from the loop).

There`s another alternative way to make a strong lake-slinging fingerloop:

I don`t have a Photo for this but it`s easy to follow.

Take X strings for your main cord as mentioned in the beginning of this tutorial,

mark the middle,

add X short strings (the middle of them aligned with the middle of the main strings),
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start braiding some inches from one end of the additional strings over the middle until you have the desired loop-length, then fold the braid to a loop and continue as described in step 5 above.

Hope you enjoy trying this method.
Have a nice Xmas and please write some feedback. I´d be glad about opinions of other slingers.