Paracording - My new Hobby
Hey fellow Steemians!
Today I want to show you my new Hobby: Making paracord bracelets!
What is Paracord? - A brief History
Parachute cord (also known as "paracord") is a lightweight nylon kernmantle rope. Before World War II, parachutes were made from silk, something that was in very short supply due to the natural method of its production – the humble silkworm.
Picture by inhabitat.com
Shortly before World War II, a guy named Wallace Carothers of DuPont invented a new “synthetic silk”, all of you may know: Nylon.
This new, synthetic silk made it possible to mass produce parachutes and its companion product, parachute cord.
Parachute-Troopers needed functional, reliable, versatile and lightweight tools. Once on the ground, troopers often cut the paracord from their parachute and took it with them. They had been trained on ways that parachute cord or “paracord” could be used in both survival situations and for making improvised repairs.
550 Paracord - Military Camouflage
Paracord was being used for everything from dummy cord to keep track of random equipment to really helpful Lifesafer, in addition to tying down pretty much anything. The inner strands of the cord, for example, could be removed to be used in sewing applications or as fishing line. Once the cord was split open the fibers were also frequently used to stitch torn garments and the gutted Paracord was used as boot or shoe laces.
Following Paracord’s WWII genesis, Paracord swiftly became popular in the civilian world among outdoorsman. But Paracord really did get popular in the US when the NASA brought it to the nation’s attention.
In 1997, during the Space Shuttle Discovery’s 22nd flight, Paracord was used in congruence with Teflon coated copper wire and Velcro to fix tears in the Hubble telescope’s insulation material.
If nothing else did, the NASA’s incredible use of Paracord verified the cord’s powers and established it as a great survival gear.
Picture by spacetelescope.org
Sadly I have not been able to find who came up with the idea of Paracord Bracelets, but people are creative and someone found that weaving the paracord into a bracelet was a great way to carry a large amount of cord that could be used later If needed. Survival experts as well as outdoor sports enthusiests began to carry the cord.
A typical "Cobra" Paracord Survival-Bracelet
Today, there are many colors and types of Paracord and a lot of creative people creating their own knots and patterns.
Making Paracord Bracelets
I always found these Bracelets great, and thought about buying one. But I never did. But I found my love to making paracord bracelets myself about a month ago, when I was laying in bed with a very bad cold.
Coincidentally I found Websites like swiss-paracord.ch and BoredParacord with great tutorials, from Beginner to Pro.
After watching a few of the tutorials, I instantly asked my wife to bring some Paracord from a local Office-Supply Shop near us.
And you bet, she did. ;)
My first Paracord Bracelet - Cobra Style
I tried a few weaves, and fell in love with this craft!
Now I´m paracording almost on a daily basis, and already have a "not so small" collection of selfmade Bracelets.
Now I´d like to showcase some of my work!
Cobra defense - Ocean Camouflage and Black
Shark jawbone - Blue/Neongreen Camo
Olympic Cobra - Black and Glow in the dark white
Trailblazer - Black and Glow in the dark white
Cobra defense - Undead and acid purple
Modified Solomon - Undead, Acid purple and Glow in the dark green
I even did some watchbands for my Fenix 5:
King Cobra - Black and Blue
**Trilobite with turquoise stitching **
Thats just a small excerpt of the Bracelets I´ve done in the last weeks.
I love doing this craft, because its relaxing yet mind challenging and you can even do it besides watching your favourite tv-series - like i did when I was sick at home. :)
Are you interessed in this craft, or even doing it for yourself?
Just tell me your opinion in the comments.
I´m thinking of doing some picture-tutorials here on steemit, but I dont know if there is any audience, who would enjoy smthng like that. - We will see :)
Hope you liked this post! - If so, I would be happy about an upvote/resteem!
If u have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. :)
Have a nice day and steem on!
Cheers,
@w0olf
Duude amazing job! They look stunning and definitely wouldn't mind wearing it, combined with a watch really looks gorgeous. Very nice color combination as well, keep up the good work buddy, keep doing what you love, definitely earns a resteem, Thank you for sharing, Steem on!
Aww man, thank you so much 😄
Nice dude!
What would you say the average length of paracord in one bracelet is?
Just curious. :)
Depends on the weave, but most knots use about 1 foot of paracord for each 1 Inch of the length of the knotted bracelet. 😁
This was one of my questions, especially since you mentioned the survival aspect of carrying around extra paracord on your wrist! So a regular para-bracelet has about 5 to 6 feet of paracord? But is it all together or are you using bits of different colors?
Hey @ecoinstant!
I´m really happy about your interest on the bracelets :D
Yeah, the "Standard knots" (like the simple cobra knot) use about 5-6 feet of Paracord- But there are a punch of knots using a whole lot more of Paracord ( up to 25 feet per Color - or even more) :)
In my future tutorials, I´ll try to give exact measurements for each weave.
If the Bracelet is multicolor, there are always bits of different colored Strands (sometimes fused by heat -> will show the technique in a tutorial).
When it´s fused, it´s not as reliable as it would be when its a single strand weave.
But most (if not all) single-color bracelets are made out of one strand of paracord.
So for the survival aspect I would recommend single-colored wide para-bracelets, because they have the most paracord in it and are
loadable because they´re seamless.
But just for the look I personally prefer the multicolored :)
Cheers!
I totally agree, you have some very exciting color combinations here! Thank you for the informative reply, with these things I always imagine I am Tom Hanks talking to a volleyball and trying to survive with my homemade bracelet.
I'd love to see your tutorials!! And I know many others who will enjoy them if they are as well done as this post! Thanks so much.
Aww thanks. Good to hear. I will do my best 😁
Great post. I am curious about how the bracelets are 'locked'. The kind of 'bag' lock shown in the images seems a bit uncomfortable to wear. I remember creating bracelets like this while at summer camp, sailing. The cord was probably thinner than. The ends were heated together. It meant you could not remove the bracelet unless you cut it, but made it more comfortable to wear. Actually I still have a small scar from trying this at home by myself :) The hot chord touched my skin, bummer.
We used white or black cord, what I really like about yours is the different colors. They look great. I can see how this becomes an addictive hobby quickly. Looking forward to see a tutorial post.
This is very cool! But the survivalist in me now wants a woven vest that could actually have enough paracord to do something really important, like swing between buildings or something.
And yes, do some tutorials! Lock that info into our blockchain friend! Steem on!
Haha I think that would be possible too! ^^
But maybe a Paracord-Belt would be something for you ;)
by Swiss-Paracord
That has muuuch Paracord in it! (~65 feet per color) :D
OOOOHHH! I want this belt! You are making me re-consider my own style!
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Thanks 😄
Really nice work :) !
I like the Trailblazer glowing in the dark ^^ good idea.
Uh thanks @oreille-pointue :D Happy you like it!
You got a plankton sized upvote from @worksinsane because your post appeared in the We Curate quality post search tool. It is a web art thingy thing that searches posts which fulfill predetermined rules. Upvoting isn't automated, @worksinsane reads posts before upvoting.
For more information read the latest post: https://steemit.com/wecurate/@worksinsane/we-curate-6
Thanks :)
Hello @w0olf, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!