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advantages of different materials for sling-making (Read 3537 times)
squirrelslinger
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advantages of different materials for sling-making
Dec 3rd, 2013 at 9:21pm
 
What benefits do certian materials have over others? synthetics are not welcome in this discussion with the exception of polyester yarn, instead of wool cause its almost the same, except 1/2 the cost.

so... what benefits does a braided sling get by being made from jute instead of sisal?
why do we make slings from wool when we have easier-to-work and stronger, and faster, sisal available cheaper?
what benefits do a super-complex braid give you? Other than prettiness.
what is considered the ultimate sling? king tut? a balaric with leather covering?

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“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #1 - Dec 3rd, 2013 at 11:11pm
 
speaking about sisal, I do not believe that a complex braid is necessarily important, but rather the amount of material/ strands you have in the sling. especially in the retention cord. My sling is made of sisal 24 strands on the retention cord split to 12 for the belly, then reduced quickly down to 6 on the release end.(all done in fishtail braid) after 3+ months of heavy use it has broken several of the cords throughout the sling. This has not affected performance in the slightest. I have replaced the material on the release end, about 10-15inches, twice. the broken strands on the retention cord were just cut flush and left alone, and they have not pulled through.   

As for wool, I will not use a sling made of it mainly due to the fact that wool looses much of its strength when wet. I wear a lot of wool clothing but do not find it even close to comparable to vegetable fibers, for performance in a sling. That being said I see it as a good option for stitching in a sling.

Jute vs sisal.
If you want to treat your sling with mineral oil,beeswax etc... I would recommend sisal or any leaf fiber, as these will naturally absorb the treatment more readily. Bast fibers have a tendency to resist treatment.(slightly Hydrophobic)

But...
bast fibers can have a higher tensile strength(depending on the species)

I think it comes down to personal preference within vegetable fibers.

What sling is the best?
Best for what?...Long distance throwing? Accurate mid range throwing? Most indestructible??????????

Best all around, In my opinion would be a sling made of natural fiber, braided, with a split pouch, of 2,3,4 branches for the pouch(personal preference again.) From what I have seen on the internet, and experienced myself, the best results have come from this sling type. Smiley            
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Masiakasaurus
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #2 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 12:21am
 
In my experience using commercial twine:

Sisal and coir are very abrasion resistant. Jute and hemp are not.

Jute, hemp, and flax are easy to braids. Sisal and coir are not, and wool takes special braids.

Sisal and flax fibers have good tensile strength. Jute does not.

Wool ages well. Jute, hemp, and flax do not.

My favorite material is flax with sisal and hemp tied for a close second.
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Pikåru wrote on Nov 19th, 2013 at 6:59pm:
Massi - WTF? It's called a sling. You use it to throw rocks farther and faster than you could otherwise. That's all. 
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lakeslinger
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #3 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 3:46am
 
Masiakasaurus wrote on Dec 4th, 2013 at 12:21am:
In my experience using commercial twine:

Sisal and coir are very abrasion resistant. Jute and hemp are not.

Jute, hemp, and flax are easy to braids. Sisal and coir are not, and wool takes special braids.

Sisal and flax fibers have good tensile strength. Jute does not.

Wool ages well. Jute, hemp, and flax do not.

My favorite material is flax with sisal and hemp tied for a close second.


Very good overview! I mostly use jute cause it´s easy to work with, cheap and can be softened with water after braiding. The problem of hemp and flax is the smell, otherwise I´d make more flax slings.
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squirrelslinger
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #4 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 6:24am
 
what about cotton? I know it stretches like rubber... but it is cheap and easy to get.
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“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #5 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 7:27am
 
If i'm correct,and i had cotton twine..it's stretchy...i will never ever make a sling out of it.

Hemp twine tends to blow up just below the release cord, rather quickly. At least for thin 3 plait braids ,and with crappy rocks, for me.

Horse hair did the same as hemp. Same, thin cord. But it was much more abrasion resistant.

Sinew is my top natural material for slings. Very abrasion resistant. A little stretch..and just taking WAAY more abuse than any natural material before breaking.

Paracord has got to be the best synthetic , from a variety i tried. It's as good or possibly better than sinew.
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #6 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 2:30pm
 
Personally I try out almost any material IF I got free or cheap access to it Wink
I would not go out of my way to find something "exotic" or special.  An important lesson I got is that the name of the stuff do not tell a lot of how it work for sling use.  One store (Biltema, here in Norway) sold good and cheap hemp, it was my favorite material for several years.  Suddenly it was ... different.  Same marking and price, but stiff, full of glue(?) and really useless.  Later it has changed again, now it is okay, good but not as good as it once was.  If I first had come across it on it`s worst I would have thought that hemp was the worst material imaginable for slings.
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #7 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 3:28pm
 
I'm evaluating the individual fibers after I washed and dried the cord.
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Pikåru wrote on Nov 19th, 2013 at 6:59pm:
Massi - WTF? It's called a sling. You use it to throw rocks farther and faster than you could otherwise. That's all. 
~Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily avialable, they will create their own problems.~
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #8 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 3:29pm
 
In my opinion the materials only give tendencies, like tensile strength, abrasion resistance ... Which you can legitimately compare as Masiakasaurus did. However I think that the quality, as timann said, plays also a big role. I'm currently entering the flax business and I already have 4 different qualities of flax fibers available. Average length of the fibers, way of treatment... And none of this fibers is comparable to the flax string I can buy!

And last, the most important point, the way you work and how much experience you have with it. What works for wool will not work for sisal and vice versa. If you can braid with high tension, an elastic material will become stiff. Every material has its points and techniques. A proficient worker can make a good sling out of nearly any material.

Use what you have, get to know it and make something nice Wink.
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #9 - Dec 30th, 2021 at 3:15pm
 
A very big advantage of sisal for me is that I can use a smooth release cord on thin cords because its very grippy.  My favorite all time cords are 4 mm round braided sisal cords made from free fibres. I prefer it even over dyneema and any other material I have ever tried.

The smooth release cord I feel gives me a cleaner release then a knot while allowing more grip with the full fist. And the sisal cords, because they are not super perfect surface like synthetics, don't have that awful swish sound.

I have made a few hemp slings, but it's still too weak for me with serious use. It would require frequent waxing and maintenance to last. It is not as grippy as sisal so I still need a release knot on hemp slings. Release knots I find are not durable as durable as smooth release end.
And when it has to be replaced, it is an easy job because the cord itself is made of free fibres so it can be repaired with spair fibres. And if the release cord is worn out at the base then I can simply loop through a new cord because my preferred slings are all modular

Sisal does react to the environment, in terms of humidity and such, but because my sling cords are thin and light it doesn't bother me.

The only reason I still use synthetic cords sometimes is because of how readily available they are, out of lazyness. The swish sound however is not desirable for me. I have been doing more demonstrations for people and then my traditional sisal sling is absolutely the best for showing off because it doesn't swish and has a nice crack, so it's a better representation of how a historical sling would have looked and sounded like. 
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #10 - Dec 30th, 2021 at 5:23pm
 
Meine Erfahrungen sind andere.
Wolle ist sehr gut geeignet für eine Sling. Viele Arten von wolle enthalten natürliche Fette.
Sisal kann man zwar waxen, aber es ist keine gute Idee. Es wird noch schneller brechen. Wirklich gutes sisal gibt es kaum noch im Handel. Dazu reagiert sisal sehr stark auf Luftfeuchtigkeit. Ich hasse das wirklich. Jute und sisal werden bei Feuchtigkeit fest. Nach dem trocknen sind sie mir persönlich zu weich. Wie Tost Brot. Hanf bekommt man in guter Qualität. Hat aber seinen Preis. Hanf und Leinen nehmen wax sehr gut auf. Sie sind danach unempfindlich für Feuchtigkeit. Leinen und Hanf sind ähnlich in ihren Eigenschaften. Hanf ist etwas schwerer. Die bekanntesten historischen slings sind aus Leinen. Lahun, tut ench amun und auch cordaillot. Mit einem Nachbau der cordaillot Sling habe ich über zehntausend Schuss absolviert. Und sie funktioniert immer noch. Eine Hanf sling balearic schieße ich seit zwölf Jahren. Und sie hat kein Leder am Brief. Na sowas.
Ein ebenfalls gutes Material ist esparto. Es reagiert nicht auf Feuchtigkeit. Ist aber schwer zu beschaffen.
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #11 - Dec 30th, 2021 at 5:25pm
 
Achja. Seide hatten wir noch nicht. Ebenfalls gut geeignet und sehr leicht. Perfekte für lange Distanzen.
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #12 - Dec 30th, 2021 at 5:47pm
 
Jaegoor, I've tried esparto that I got from Luis, but I found the material to be quite brittle and weak. I'm wondering if it was processed incorrectly? Otherwise, I would really like the material.
Also, have you tried waxing wool? I tried it a long time ago and thought the two worked well together.
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #13 - Dec 30th, 2021 at 7:08pm
 
Da hast du Recht. Die Balearen verarbeiten es als rohes Gras. Verarbeiten sie es weiter wie Flachs. Dann können sie es spinnen. Sehr aufwendig.
https://youtu.be/HNN6U5Z63bs
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Re: advantages of different materials for sling-making
Reply #14 - Dec 31st, 2021 at 5:52am
 
Wait a minute. I have a sling from Luis. isn't that Esparto? or is it a different fiber?  It responds very strongly to humidity, partly because it has so much mass. 
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