Simple Carry Sling

As I was YouTubing with friends in search of some camping materials we came along one that made me laugh.

It's called the Cinch-N-Clinch, and it's actually a very handy thing. And when you're so bad with knots that you're not even able to tie your own shoelaces I might even advice you to buy these gadgets.

But I (normally) have no problem with my shoelaces and even know a couple of alternative knots so when I saw this product I thought "I can do that. And I've got all the materials".

So I have this box labelled: "Strings Too Long To Throw Away, But Too Short To Actually Use", and this time some of those loose ends will be handy. The other thing you need is some heat shrink tubing.

As tools you need a good knife or scissors and a heat source to shrink the tubing.

Step 1: The "True Lovers Knot"

The basic of this gizmo is an old knot known under a myriad of names. In The Ashley Book Of Knots you find: Waterman's knot, English knot, Fisherman's or Angler's knot, and in Dutch: Twee Zoete Liefjes or True Lovers Knot.

Actually it are just two half hitches overlapping each other. When you need a bit more friction you can double them. You pull them apart to widen the opening and you pull on the long end to fix it around the object you want to carry.

But before you tie the knot(s) first slip two pieces heat shrink tubing over the cord. The diameter of the tubing should be such that you snugly can get it over the knot.

Now you can tie the two knots.

Step 2:

After tying the knots you might want to cut of the frayed ends, just to clean things up.

Then slip the heat shrink tubing over the knots and apply gentle heat in order to shrink them and fix the knots.

Done!