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How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling? (Read 6065 times)
SerKraus
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How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
May 24th, 2020 at 8:04pm
 
I seriously don’t understand. I can understand taking three hours max for an awfully intricate sling but 15? 30! How? What do you spend all of that time doing? Are my braids just too simple? Am I doing something wrong?
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Archaic Arms
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #1 - May 24th, 2020 at 8:16pm
 
Making Balearic slings can take a long time, as they can be 5 or 7 strand, and when you braid with loose fibre you have to splice fibre in regularly. Processing the fibre also soaks up time, as well as sewing leather onto the sling afterwards. I heard an expert sling maker say that it takes him 10 hours from the raw materials to completion (for a good one).
It's easy to spend a lot of time making something if you thing the end result is worth it.
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SerKraus
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #2 - May 24th, 2020 at 8:23pm
 
Archaic Arms wrote on May 24th, 2020 at 8:16pm:
Making Balearic slings can take a long time, as they can be 5 or 7 strand, and when you braid with loose fibre you have to splice fibre in regularly. Processing the fibre also soaks up time, as well as sewing leather onto the sling afterwards. I heard an expert sling maker say that it takes him 10 hours from the raw materials to completion (for a good one).
It's easy to spend a lot of time making something if you thing the end result is worth it.

I just can’t fathom a braid being so time-consuming. What kind of braids require that much time? How do I learn them?
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No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. -Socrates
 
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Mersa
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #3 - May 24th, 2020 at 8:30pm
 
There are lots of intricate braids , some of the sling makers are pure artists
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SerKraus
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #4 - May 24th, 2020 at 8:42pm
 
Mersa wrote on May 24th, 2020 at 8:30pm:
There are lots of intricate braids , some of the sling makers are pure artists


So you’re saying that these slings take so long to braid because they’re purely artistic? After searching up Andean slings, I can definitely see a sling taking hours and hours to braid. But for practicality, is anything more than an hour really necessary?
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No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. -Socrates
 
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #5 - May 24th, 2020 at 9:22pm
 
For practicality, one can make a sling in 5 minutes. But usually they don't perform as nicely as a nicely braided/woven sling. I have quite a few that I made quickly and they just don't function as well as my braided/woven slings.

I was in Maui and didn't have a sling with me, but after a trip to the local grocery store and about 30 minutes, I was lobbing egg sized stones into the ocean. I still have that sling at home, but I don't use it, because I'm just not as consistent with it as my other slings.

That is my practical opinion.

Aesthetically, a pretty sling is just great to look at. Making a sling that is as pretty as some of the ones you see on the "Pictures of slings" thread is just very satisfying. But I doubt that the makers of those slings use them for everyday slinging because slings do wear. One typically has a workhorse sling or two that take a beating, and some nice slings that are just an accomplishment in and of themselves to have finished making.
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #6 - May 24th, 2020 at 9:39pm
 
My personal design the “Mersa” sling takes less than a hour and is about the most functional sling in my collection. But I also have some pretty ones that other forum members put hours into.

There is no perfect sling there will always be trade offs
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #7 - May 24th, 2020 at 9:40pm
 
Some of the braids are quite intricate as was mentioned. A 4 strand braid sling vs a 32 strand with lots of core changes and weaving are two entirely different beasts. For me the longest or at least the most tedious process is setting up all the strands.
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #8 - May 24th, 2020 at 11:26pm
 
lets don't forget splicing, dropping and tapering
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #9 - May 25th, 2020 at 12:39am
 
The "making" is where a large part of the enjoyment comes from.  Like any other craft, if someone doesn't like braiding (or whatever technique is being used), they're not going to do it.  And that's completely fine.  I have multiple 20-minute leather pouch and paracord slings (and love them).  But I also enjoy braiding.

The braid I regularly use is an 8-strand herringbone.  I like it because it's pretty simple, yet versatile.  I generally don't rush braided slings because I like the process.  I'll spend a little time here and there, and stretch the process out over weeks.  Sometimes I feel as though I don't want to get to the end.  There have also been multiple times that I completed a sling, and immediately started measuring out cordage for the next one, so it would be ready at any moment if I felt like braiding.

How do people spend hours making a sling?  The same way people spend hours on any hobby.
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #10 - May 25th, 2020 at 5:12am
 
Ich mag Balearic slings. Meine sehen aus wie eine Balearic sling, ist aber verschieden im Aufbau. Ich arbeite mit zwölf Strängen. Man braucht sehr viel Kraft für die Herstellung. Aber es lohnt. Ich schieße sie viele Jahre. Eine grobe Schätzung ergab mehr als 300000  Schuß. Ich habe vier große Siege damit errungen. 😁. Vierzehn Stunden ist also nicht zu viel.
Dann mag ich die Ästhetik und das Handwerk.
Ich untersuchte eine sehr alte sling in der Schweiz. Ich bin immer noch fasziniert wieviel Wissen und können verwendet wurde. Sie selbst zu fertigen, lässt mich an Gedanken älter Meister teilhaben.
Nehmen Sie sich Zeit. Es wird sie verändern. 😁


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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #11 - May 25th, 2020 at 7:41am
 
Assuming you are making braided there are several points:

It depends a lot on the thickness of the cord you use and the type of braid. Doing a 3-strand with fairly thick cords and no tapering or splicing is very fast. A fine braid might have 10x as much actual braids per a given length of sling and so take 10x as long to braid. Working with fibre adds a lot of time too. It requires a lot more care and nearly constant splicing of material into the braid (and cleaning/cutting loose strands off)- Not to mention you have to usually deconstruct and soak/dry rope or twine to make the fibre which in itself can take a lot of time. Even if you are using twine but untwisting/twisting together as you go it can add a lot of time. In fact splicing and tapering braided cord in general is IMO essential to a nice braided sling (unless it's fairly thin) and adds time and difficulty.

Add onto that the little odds and ends that make a nice sling really nice, synthetic material spliced into the end of the sling for durability, a woven pouch, or one with leather sewed on perhaps, a woven or leather lined fingerloop, a woven tab, a 'knee' transition to split, whipping around weakpoints perhaps...

Basically braiding can be simple and fast but to make the nicest and best performing slings it requires much more finesse and time.
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #12 - May 25th, 2020 at 7:52am
 
Basically, that's how you built magical items: you put all your love and craft in it.

All bow before the sacred sling of unlimited fun!


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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #13 - May 25th, 2020 at 8:04am
 
my twisted cord-woven pouch jute slings took about 3-4 hours to complete, but that's working in front of the telly.

The thing that takes most time is weaving the pouch as tight as possible.

I have made braided slings in the past they are pretty subpar in comparison to properly braided ones.
At 3 hours is right about where my patience ends.
Twisting the strands is more amateur friendly and you still get a nice traditional sling.
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Re: How the hell do so many of you spend hours making a sling?
Reply #14 - Nov 1st, 2020 at 12:35am
 
The sling my daughter made following some tutorial was a lot of work, 24 strands of wool or something like that. I don't have a picture of the whole thing, but it's pretty cool for a 13yr olds first attempt, the braid comes out very tight and square, not round.
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