Without using any of Java's built-in sorting functions, I was able to implement a Java sorting algorithm from scratch. The custom sort implementation uses a similar implementation to the Bubble Sort algorithm (common sorting algorithm). 

Bubble Sort works by repeatedly swapping adjacent elements if they are in the wrong order, until the entire list is sorted. While this algorithm is not as efficient as Quicksort or Mergesort, Bubble Sort is a simple algorithm that demonstrated the core concepts of sorting for my Java implementation. 

Generics in Java: 

To make our sort implementation generic, I've used Java's generics feature.  Our JavaSort class takes a generic type T that implements the Comparable interface. This allows our sort to work with any data type that can be compared, without needing to know the specific type at compile-time. This is one of the benefits of Generics in Java. Java does not offer templates like the C language does, however it does offer generics that can provide flexibility for programs to operate with different object types.