Arcane Tinker
Funditor
Offline
Slinging everything 'cept b.s.
Posts: 738
Western Wisconsin
Gender:
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I'd be more than glad to do a comprehensive review of the chainmaille sling.
Raw specs: Material: Titanium grade 5 Ti AL6-V4. It has a high temper and is comparible to spring stainless steel. Weight: 295g. Length: 53cm/106cm overall.
I learned how to weave chainmaille about 11 years ago and spent almost 5 years doing it obsessively. Then for reasons forgotten to me, I stopped. In the time since, I discarded or gave away most of my work, I am even guilty of taking a 55 pound copper tunic to the scrap recyclers. After my last move I found a box in my crafting supplies that contained a small cache of titanium already rolled and cut. It amounted to about $50 worth of metal, I couldn't throw it out but I couldn't think of anything else to do with it...besides a chainmaille project. The pouch just a pattern called European 6 in 1. Every ring within the weave has 6 others woven through it. When 14 gauge(2mm)rings are made with a 10mm inside diameter are used in this pattern, a very dense weave is created, a fine bamboo skewer can't get through. The cordage is known as full Persian 6 in 1 and is very solid and stable yet flexible enough to be used as a sling cord. The weave transitions into half Persian 3 in 1 for the retention loop and is integrated back into itself as seamless as possible. A perfect transition back cannot be done because of how the rings pack within themselves. There are several ways to do this, one requiring thinner rings at the joint to reduce bulk, which I didn't have(working with scrap.) Transitions from pouch to cords are made with two mobius balls per pouch end. The pouch is tapered by one ring per side and then 6 jump rings are fed through the weave to lock the pattern edge and then divided into the centers of the mobius balls. The release is made out of a mobius ball as well. I've wanted to make a fireproof sling for tossing red hot projectiles, several of us have, there was even a thread about it...well this one will do that no problem, and it will only get prettier by doing just that. Titanium takes on a whole rainbow of colors depending on the temperatures it is subjected to. Ammo pouches nicely, the weave I chose for the pouch has a tendency to shift and expands where it needs to and bunch up as dense as it can when folded. Chainmaille is incredibly form fitting, it behaves very much like one of those "chinese finger trap toys". The weight is more than I am used to, and the first time I released it...I'll be honest, I was a little scared of the free end.
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