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- Materials
-
Cord: I use 5mm nylon, but it can be anything else
suitable, wether natural or synthetic. 5 mm
makes a decent pouch. Thinner cord will make a slim
pouch thus a bit more difficult to load.
-
Paper Clamp: or something to hold cord in place
at the beginning, i.e. a clothespin.
- Thread
and Needle: Use a strong thread (i.e.gütermann
M1003 100% polyester)
- Knife:
or cutter or scissors whatever you're comfort with
- Lighter:
to melt the nylon/plastic fibers when trimming the
cords of the release cord.
Some
of the materials used:
Detail
of the nylon cord I used:
2 - Starting
We
need 3 pieces of cord. Depending on the material used,
thickness, stiffness and length of the sling we want,
pieces will be shorter or longer. With the cord I'm
using, you'll need about 3x6.5m for a sling of
a 112cm or 3x2.6m for a sling of 46cms. (the one in
the pics)
Place the 3 pieces of cord paralel each other with ends
aligned towards yourself. Find the middle of the length
of cords, and place the paper clamp.
3
- Starting to braid the finger ring.
Once
you've braided the desired length (nylon braid
gets tight with use, so be gentle) detatch the paperclamp
and make a loop joining the free cords.
4 - Now start to braid the retention cord (3 strand
braid of 2 cords each strand) to the desired length.
5
- Now we are going to braid the split pouch. We separate
3 cords each side...
...
and we braid 2 separate braids...
Once the split pouch is at the desired length, we join
again the 6 free cords...
6
- ...and start to braid the release cord.
While
we are braiding, we need to trim one of the cords (one
of the central strands of the two cords) to make the
release cord thinner, like a whip (latigo), and we melt
the cut zone with the lighter so the fibers don't get
loose.
We
continue braiding for some length (There are three strands;
braid two of the strands as a couple and one strand
as a single) and trim one of the central strands of
the two cords.
we continue braiding (two of the strands are single
and one is a double) and we trim the last double strand.
We continue braiding the three left cords to the desired
length of the sling.
Note the trim points in the central strand along the
release cord of the sling:
and
a closer view of the trim points:
7 - Now here comes the sewing
part...
First,
we sew the end of the release cord and we leave some
free cord for the fluffy tail.
and
now we sew the trimmed points to his strand fellow...
so it won't unbraid when slinging:
here are the completed stiches:
8 - And now the fluffy tail...
We
seperate the fibers at the end of the sling release
cord...
Then we trim some of the fibers to give it a flame form,
and here is the completed sling:
This is a short sling (46 cms) intended for increased
accuracy at short/middle ranges. This is about the length
I've seen some shepards using here in the Sierranevada
Mountains.
-
Victor Escobar
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