I'm off to the tropics in a few weeks and intend to dedicate a day of my trip to buggering off into the jungle and coming out with a sling made from whatever I could gather using only a pocket knife.

I thought this could be a cool challenge/competition here and it'd certainly be interesting to see what different slingers around world come up with. Perhaps a nice way to return to the origins of slinging too.

Suggested rules:
- 24 Hour time limit to make a functioning sling
- Only 1 tool (knife or shears) allowed
- Only natural materials gathered from your local environment may be used.
- Photo or video of sling & the sling in action to be submitted

I'm not sure if something like this has been done before, but if you guys are interested we can come up with name for it and give it go

That's a cool idea. My only concern is the time limit, it includes processing the raw material right? No idea how fresh fibers of a plant hold up

Easy - find a cotton handkerchief or bandana that someone littered  technically natural, and functional as a sling.

All jokes aside though, I'm interested in having a go at it. My videoing skills stink though  Nettle fiber can still twist up nice and tight while still wet, and has a lot of its strength. It's not as strong as when dry, but quite adequate for throwing a few stones. But where I'm at, if the fiber is hung on a fence or on a branch in full sun, it'll dry really quick

This one time I made a Balearic style sling from the terrible awful foxtail grass that grows so abundantly where I'm at. Was about this time of year, made it in one day, and it lasted for a few stone throws. That was back when I started braiding slings though, so the braid was really loose, and it was a three-strand braid.

Darn! Those farmers. My family wants to get rid of all the nettle on this property. I say keep it if it's not in the way. Makes good tinder when dry, the leaves taste quite nice, and the fiber is ridiculously strong. I've made a Balearic sling from nettle before - I braided it super thick so it came out at... 165g if memory serves right (including a few coats of BLO, and a bit of beeswax).. also didn't taper the belly well so it snags on projectiles pretty bad - should've done AA's 4 inch belly until the release cord is as thick as the retention, and taper the cord evenly from there. Oh well.

You should try it though! It takes a bit of time to harvest the fiber (at least when the stalks are dry - wetter is faster), but the result is a very pleasant fiber - very soft, feels almost like wool even without heckling, carding, spinning, and all that.

It's a coconut. I think you can make almost a dozen good slingshots from one coconut, but it will take a lot of time))

Robinson is a great name. I had the name "Mowgli" as an idea, but Robinson more fully reflects the meaning of the challenge.

This challenge is a fantastic idea.  I don't think I could pull it off myself, having only ever worked with premade cordage.  At least at the moment.  I do have a yucca plant in my yard.  I've been wanting to harvest some fibers from it and try making a sling.  If I could find something that didn't need as much processing I might be able to do it.

I like the idea of naming the challenge after Robinson Crusoe.  I tend to think about the harvesting aspect though.  I'd probably go with the 'Sling Harvester Challenge' or '24-Hour Sling Harvester Challenge'.

I just learned that irises (the stems, stripped of the green bits) were a source of fiber for cordage by Native Americans in Northern California. I want to try it.