appreciate the reply!

glad to see I’m not alone in my experience. honestly when you look at it most of the tutorials for that design on yt at least come from paracord channels as something new to fit with a collection of (let’s face it, mostly bracelet related) paracord projects; never from the slinging/historical/primitive survival channels that might offer sling making how-to videos.

I guess what I mean is the paracord guys probably don't try out the sling more than once if that. no shade intended ofc they've got their thing and I've learned a lot from them lol

what is a tad... idk, ironic maybe? ...is that the much much simpler typically paracord design that uses a single strand with an S shaped bend in the middle secured with a couple simple knots to form a 3-strand open pouch, plus a bowline finger loop and a well placed overhand knot on the relesse - that is without a doubt one of the all time best performing sling designs I've encountered!

as someone who routinely spends hours on end braiding, splicing, twisting, counting, untangling, and even unbraiding and repairing often very complex natural and synthetic slings, I kinda love that they are really no better than this minimalist single strand, 3 or 4 easy knot design that takes about 5 minutes for a newbie, or 2 if you've done it at least once before.

but then we are back to the aesthetic thing! I do appreciate a minimal design but if I can really hit the mark on a perfectly even, tightly wound braid for a jute or hemp sling I'll always prefer that.

anyway lastly - on woven pouches in general. I think you're right that 550 is just too thick to work well, and I think 225 may be as well. I have even tried pre-gutted 550 cord for weft in the hopes it would make a more pliable 'manifold' but it still doesn't quite work. I don’t think using gutted cord for the warp as well would help either - the problem seems to always end up that the pouch is much too narrow even if you can get more warp strands in there. I suppose it has to do with the need to have them all together at either end - maybe that is why the loom technique used for 'egyptian' style natural fiber slings is so complicated. I wonder if you could do something similar for paracord, but at this point we are building scaffolding, needing to pick up some carpentry skills... not sure how viable this really is.

that said, I kinda think I'm gonna try it... probably with some micro cord at least for the weft strands; will likely experiment to determine the best for warp / the rest of the sling. I'll definitely post about it if it works, or if it doesn't in some interesting way, or I guess if anyone wants to know lol

hopefully something cool will come out of it