Howdy do,

First time poster, long time admirer.

As a kid on the farm and in the bush I used to sling a bit. Not really knowing anything about it, I made it up, and did it enough to be able to hit a tree stump about 2 ft diameter at about 100 ft.

Years passed and skills declined, and now decades later I find myself drawn to it again. I teach bowmaking, which includes string making. So playing around with threads and fibers is not especially new, but braiding rather than reverse-twisting certainly is.

Recently I've made a very short (very short) Balearic sling from jute, a couple from paracord for the kids, and a slightly better one from bowstring thread to replace one of the kids' ones.

The Balearic is so short because I had no idea how much shorter the final product would be than the strands I cut. I thought that surely 6 ft strands would be enough for a short but not comical sling...nope, was mistaken. I have learnt from experience that the strands should be 2.5 to 3x the length of the desired sling.

It's also messy, so, hmm. 

Aside from bowmaking, I make all sorts of things with wood, metal and my 3d printer. I have all sorts of ideas for jigs and items for use in slinging and the making of things for slinging.

This is a pretty good forum - glad I finally took the plunge!

Welcome from France.
It's a coincidence but I was going to write a new topic on the oldest evidence of arrowheads during prehistory in France.

Welcome! Where are you from? I'm from Sydney and have started getting into bowmaking myself, after already having been slinging for a while now.

Welcome aboard from New Jersey, USA!

What timber are you using? What bow design?

If you run into problems shoot me a PM or email.

I see.

Well, I have no experience at all with fig. Never heard of it being used. But that's not to say it isn't usable.

Meranti and Tas Oak though: stay away. Meranti is too brittle and fickle. Tas Oak is a trade name for up to a dozen different species all lumped together, so you never know what you're actually getting.

Far better would be:
Apple
Plum (any stone fruit)
European ash
Elm
Maple
Ironbark
Spotted gum

May or may not be terribly helpful. But, there are a few specially timber merchants around Sydney who routinely stock at least a few of those species. Or, you might have access to some non-fig fruit trees that need a judicious prune.

I also recommend that your first bows are around about as tall as you, if you can source a piece of wood that long.

Welcome from Melbourne, fellow Aussie!