Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Paracord For Survival

From Survivalblog:

"I am a newly dedicated reader and have had an interest in your contests since day one. I have a few skills I’ve learned in life (hunting, fishing, marksmanship, tracking and writing) but the newest one is macramé. This is the art of weaving knots to make beautiful and often decorative pieces and is just a craft some folks use to entertain themselves. I’ve combined both of these and applied one more purpose for the art: rope-making, belt-making and strap-making.

All three of these have occupied my time overseas for almost a year now. I’ve made straps that can tow a truck out of nylon material purchased from military surplus sites.

Parachute cord can be found in many different colors, but for the purpose of this article, I use military grade 550 cord. It has a minimum bursting strength of 550 pounds. Its weight makes it a no-brainer for survivalists, campers and many other outdoor uses. For every 260 feet, the cord weighs a mere one pound. That is a benefit all to itself.



Next stop were watch bands. Decorative, interesting and yet simple to make. Again, more than 12 feet of cord to be used at a moment’s notice with this item. It’s simple enough that once you’ve learned you can pass the information on to members of your group or teach your children how to occupy their time in a post-TEOTWAWKI situation.

Other devices that I learned to make were belts and straps. These are time consuming, resource heavy and take patience to make. But, with time comes patience, so the resources are the only thing to worry about. What I thought would be an expensive hobby turned out to be an easy way to make money. Teach a few folks a new trade, or keep it a secret, it’s up to the individual."
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good ideas. Len McDougall wrote instructions on how to make a paracord rifle sling, a great way to keep paracord handy.