Messing with paracord

grease-man

grease-man

Joined
Apr 9, 2006
Messages
1,499
There's probably about a hundred different ways to carry paracord, but today I was messing with some and remembered that I had an empty chew tin from my super mini kit. There's about 12 feet of it wound up in there. I made my daughter a bracelet out of it, which didn't turn out half bad. Next I'm gonna attempt to make a paracord hat band for my truck tarp hat. Can't have too much paracord! :D

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Nice idea, The hatband would be awesome on the tarp hat, post pics when you finish!
 
Consider stashing a mini ferro rod in any paracord hatband that you make. You can always use an extra ferro rod.
 
tonym said:
Nice idea, The hatband would be awesome on the tarp hat, post pics when you finish!
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Will do Tony. I just hope I can make one that looks decent. I'm pretty rope/knot impaired! :grumpy:
Sharp Eye said:
Consider stashing a mini ferro rod in any paracord hatband that you make. You can always use an extra ferro rod.
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Just so happens I have a couple of extras...thanks for the tip! :thumbup: -Matt-
 
What a coincidence, I'm thinking of making a nice neon orange paracord hatband for my new hat once I get it! Great minds think alike. ;)
 
That didn't take quite as long as I thought!

Kyp Degal said:
What a coincidence, I'm thinking of making a nice neon orange paracord hatband for my new hat once I get it! Great minds think alike. ;)
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Ha! I guess so! :cool: I hope you are better at this than me! Although it wasn't too bad for a first attempt.

Tony, be warned, if you make one, the paracord is a bit slippery against the canvas material, so I'm not sure how to secure the band to the hat. If I don't it will slide off pretty easy. Safety pin from the inside maybe? A nail through my skull? I feel very "not smart" sometimes when I take on these projects!:o

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That last pic has the firesteel blank shoved through the knot. Time for me to get some sleep! -Matt-
 
Hey, that looks great! What knot/braid is that?

To secure it, I'm thinking a cloth loop sewn onto a small piece of Velcro that goes over the hatband, and attaches to a piece of Velcro beneath it. One on each side. Of course, that's a bit over-engineered. A safety pin would be a lot quicker and easier, though I'm not sure how comfortable it would be. Actually, since the knot is at the back, maybe sew a small loop of fabric for the band to go through on each side, and skip the Velcro. Heck, make the loops paracord, too! If you used an awl to punch a small hole, ran a short piece of paracord though, and tied a stopper knot, it shouldn't let any water through.

I'm just brainstorming as I type here, so... :D
 
I would just take some of the same colour thread and a needle and 'tack' it in a couple of places. You wouldn't see it, it would keep it on the hat, and if you needed the cordage, it would be easy enough to clip the 'tacks'.

Doc
 
That looks great bro! I will definately try something like that! Thanks for the tip.
 
Thanks for the kind words and suggestions guys! I'd love to see your hatbands when you get them done! :thumbup:

Kyp, that is called a "chain sinnet", real easy to do, but I'm gonna have to work on finishing it off. It's embarassing to admit, but as far as knot tying and rope work as a survival skill..I suck! :o -Matt-
 
Darn cool ideas, especially the hatcord, and tacking the cord on a bit is a good one too:)

Mark
 
DOC-CANADA said:
I would just take some of the same colour thread and a needle and 'tack' it in a couple of places. You wouldn't see it, it would keep it on the hat, and if you needed the cordage, it would be easy enough to clip the 'tacks'.

Doc
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pretty much what I was gonne write, but you could make it usable by tacking (NOT TOO TIGHTLY) with a matching heavy carpet or button thread you can tie it off and it becomes usable length for a repair. Pop a needle in there somewhere, and yer set.
 
grease-man said:
Thanks for the kind words and suggestions guys! I'd love to see your hatbands when you get them done! :thumbup:

Kyp, that is called a "chain sinnet", real easy to do, but I'm gonna have to work on finishing it off. It's embarassing to admit, but as far as knot tying and rope work as a survival skill..I suck! :o -Matt-
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Ah, okay, cool! I've got two 100 foot hanks of neon orange 550 on the way from Supply Captain, so I'll get to practicing when it gets here. :cool:

Hey, it's not too hard to learn knot tying skills. And that chain sinnet looks darn good! :thumbup: It's like they say, though: practice makes perfect. I like too make lanyards and fobs for my knives in my spare time, and just mess around with cording. I actually need to put up some pics of the net I made to carry my Swiss army canteen in yesterday. I was heading out for a 5.6 mile hike with a friend/neighbor and realized I had no way to carry my canteen, and remembered seeing something on Stormdrane's site.
 
Kyp, I can't wait to see what you come up with! Pics of that bottle net are now mandatory since you brought it up!:D
Now that it's slowing down here a bit at work, I'm gonna bring in my paracord and my SAS book and practice some of the knots in there and visit some places online for more knowledge. Stormdrane's site is very cool, I've got to spend more time on there checking it out in depth as well!:thumbup: -Matt-
 
Well, here it is! I had made it in a hurry while eating a bowl of cereal at the same time yesterday morning, and kinda did a rush job on it at the time, so I went ahead and re-did it before I took pictures. I came up with a much better carrying handle this way. :D Yesterday I toted it by the too-long leftover paracord tied around the neck, with a figure eight knot to stop it from slipping out of my hand. Needless to say, not the best option. Plus unscrewing the top was a pain. This way is much better, I think.

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As you may or may not can see from the crappy pictures (I didn't feel like breaking out the light tent tonight), I have a split ring at the bottom, with four pieces of paracord roughly two feet long looped through. I'd used the recommended four feet yesterday, and had way too much left over. This is almost dead on. Through the top four knots I ran a single strand (actually two strands, I had two shorter pieces I didn't want to waste so I tied them together with a simple overhand knot), pulled it tight like a drawstring, then made a loop from a single-strand braid for comfort, and tied it back on itself with a slipknot around the knot tying the two pieces together. The end result seems to bear up well.

This is a really easy carrying net to make, it only took me about 5-10 minutes in all. Here's the link to the tutorial: Paracord Water Bottle Holder Tutorial on KnifeForums

Oh, and the canteen is a Swiss Army surplus canteen with cup that I picked up at a flea market for $2. :thumbup:
 
Kyp, that turned out great! Thanks for the link too! :thumbup: That split ring on the bottom is a great idea...kinda helps form the bottom out a bit. It looks like you gutted the paracord. Does it work out better flat vs. round? -Matt-
 
grease-man said:
Kyp, that turned out great! Thanks for the link too! :thumbup: That split ring on the bottom is a great idea...kinda helps form the bottom out a bit. It looks like you gutted the paracord. Does it work out better flat vs. round? -Matt-
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Thanks! Aye, wish I could take credit for the split ring, it was Stormdrane's idea; his site is where I found the link to the tutorial. It really helps it stand up on a flat surface.

The black paracord is gutted, the green is not. I don't think it really made that much difference, honestly, except you can use maybe a couple inches less because it's less bulky in the knots.

~Josh
 
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