How To Use A Paracord Bracelet

E'er see one of those hardcore weald folks or prepper fanatics sporting a woven cobra bracelet? Chances are, it's non just a mode choice: information technology'southward a don't-exit-dwelling-without-it survival tool called a paracord bracelet. Whether the task calls for finesse or heavy-duty gruntwork, they come in mighty handy.

And speaking of handy, there's no more than convenient way to lug around a useful length of 550 cord than every bit a bracelet. Slip it on your wrist for your next camping ground trip, and y'all'll quickly forget it'due south in that location—until you actually demand information technology for something, in which case you'll be glad you included this unassuming-looking accompaniment in your backcountry outfit survival gear. So, want to dive in and learn more than? Here we go!

What Is A Paracord Bracelet?

Red paracord bracelet on table.

Paradigm by Biea from Pixabay

Also known equally "survival bracelets," "550 cord bracelets'' or "parachute string bracelets," paracord bracelets consist of nylon woven cords twisted together to handle heavy loads. Minor but mighty, they're a multi-tool of choice by campers, climbers, hikers, survivalists, military soldiers and outdoor enthusiasts due to their extreme handiness and versatility in emergency situations. Nosotros'll talk much more about their purpose and why they're so pop throughout the residual of this article, only know that their survival uses are simply about countless.

Comparison Paracord Types

Your paracord survival bracelet could conceivably exist made of several unlike kinds of paracord. Learning the basics of telling apart this cordage isn't getting too down in the weeds: it'south essential for making certain you've got paracord that'll reliably serve your needs, whether it'southward but as a one time-in-a-blueish-moon survival backup tool or a regular part of your prepping practise or bushcraft.

Hither's a quick breakup of the principal kinds and categories of paracord and some of their important attributes:

Blazon I Paracord: Boasts a minimum breaking forcefulness of 95 pounds and a unmarried cadre yarn. Comparatively cheap.
Type II Paracord: Uncommon. Minimum breaking strength of 400 pounds, and four to vii yarns inside.
Blazon Iii Paracord: The go-to paracord for most outdoor users and survivalists, for good reason: strong, versatile, and affordable. Minimum breaking strength of 550 pounds—the derivation of the mutual shorthand name of "550 paracord." Seven to nine core yarns.
Type Four Paracord: Exceptionally strong cordage, with a minimum breaking strength of 750 pounds and xi core yarns. Significantly pricier than 550 paracord, and for the most office not necessary for the average outdoor recreationist or prepper.

"Armed forces-spec" vs "Commercial-spec" 550 Paracord

It'southward also worth talking briefly about "war machine-spec" vs "commercial-spec" 550 paracord.

Authentic military-spec paracord should be made entirely of nylon, with seven three-ply yarns.

Commercial-spec paracord may have the aforementioned limerick, but they too may exist unmarried- or double-ply, and the inner strands may be polyester instead of nylon. Depending on your needs, commercial-spec paracord may be perfectly adequate. Keep in mind, however, that polyester threads won't bond with nylon, and so commercial-spec paracord that incorporates both those plastic materials has less all-around utility than a 100% nylon (or, less desirably, a 100% polyester) length of cord.

What'southward in Paracord?

Paracord consists of an outer sheath that contains several inner yarns, each composed in plow of up to three strands. Nylon is the traditional material employed in paracord, just as we've already mentioned polyester is also used.

Does Paracord Stretch?

Loftier-quality paracord, such as military-spec cordage, should be able to stretch by a minimum of 30 percent. Go along in heed that a strand of paracord under a sustained load will eventually be subject to "creep," or permanent stretching; this can be combated by doubling or tripling upwards the cordage.

How Long Is A Paracord Bracelet?

You can never actually take as well much paracord, just given your power to fashion a longer piece of rope or string by knotting or cook-fusing individual strands the meaty braided survival bracelet is a convenient, infinite-efficient mode to have a useful corporeality at the ready. Such a bracelet by and large includes twenty or more anxiety of paracord.

Why Practise Soldiers Use Paracord Bracelets?

Paracord gets its name from "parachute cord," which suggests its widespread historical use (particularly during the 2nd World War) by the armed forces as suspension lines for parachutes. But soldiers quickly constitute many different ways to use this versatile cordage, including for boot laces, rigging items to pack exteriors, erecting emergency shelters, and securing loads. Paracord remains popular in the military for the aforementioned reasons it's beloved past survivalists and outdoorspeople: the possibilities of using it for practical and emergency purposes out in the field are just nearly countless.

Can I Shower With My Paracord Bracelet?

You can indeed shower with your paracord bracelet. Paracord will compress a niggling the start time it gets wet, and then stabilizes. Before working with paracord, including braiding it into a bracelet, it's not a bad idea to "pre-shrink" it by soaking information technology briefly in hot water and then assuasive it to thoroughly dry out.

What Are Paracord Bracelets Used For?

Orange paracord bracelet on wrist.

Image by M Westward from Pixabay

It wouldn't exist difficult to rack upwards a list of dozens of paracord uses, just let'southward take a expect at merely ten that actually showcase how utilitarian and versatile a survival bracelet can be for whatever outdoors person or prepper. Each of the following will be explained in subsequent sections, just hither's the quick list:

Wilderness offset aid
Take hold of a fish
Make a survival snare
Build a survival shelter
Make repairs
Enhance a bear bag
Fashion a lanyard
Start a burn down
Suspension lines & tripwires
Boating Uses

1. Wilderness First Aid

Amid the chief survival bracelet uses is equally first-aid material. For instance, yous can use paracord to fashion a sling in order to stabilize an injured shoulder, arm, or collarbone, or to utilize a splint to a fractured, dislocated, or otherwise banged-up limb. If you need to transport a wounded or sick person, meanwhile, yous tin can as well use paracord to create a readymade stretcher by stringing it in a web pattern between a pair of straight and sturdy branches. Here's a handy list of typical uses:

Paracord Uses for Start Aid

Tourniquet: In last-resort situations, you can apply paracord every bit an emergency tourniquet past knotting it higher up a wound and tightening it until haemorrhage stops.
Splint: Stabilize an injured limb or joint using soft padding and a rigid object such as a length of pole or a stout branch, all secured with paracord.
Sling: Yous can also readily create a makeshift sling by looping paracord around the back of the neck and tying it to the wrist and elbow—simply make sure to use some padding between the string and the injured person's neck to prevent chafing.
Stretcher: Transport an injured person by tying paracord lengths between two poles, or, if those aren't bachelor, by creating a stretcher entirely made of cord using a webbing structure.

two. Catch a Fish

Unsheath the paracord's inner kerf strands, and y'all've got a go-to fishing line: all you need is a claw, some suitable bait, and no small-scale amount of patience.

Conversely, y'all could as well fashion a gillnet to snare a finned meal. Utilise two ropes of paracord for the acme and bottom lines—the floatline and the leadline, respectively—and cord some of the inner yarn between to form a mesh. The gaps need to be large plenty for a fish's head to enter, simply too narrow for the body to laissez passer through. You lot tin utilize chunks of woods as floats and stones as anchors for the leadline; more paracord comes in handy for securing these to the gillnet. Proceed in mind we're talking about a survival situation here: obviously you otherwise should be abiding by any and all angling regulations.

3. Brand a Survival Snare

The same applies here: past no ways are we advocating going off and snaring woodland creatures willy-nilly. If yous're staring downward a SHTF blazon of state of affairs, even so, and y'all've run out of Mountain House meals , you lot might attempt your manus at building a survival snare for squirrels, rabbits, and other small quarry using paracord'southward inner yarn.

4. Build a Survival Shelter

Among the many other things to do with paracord? Put a roof over your head in a survival situation. Whether you're rigging a mainline for a tarp or lashing together branches or boughs to make a lean-to, the string—wielded with a house knowledge of basic knots, of course—helps you chop-chop construct an emergency shelter if the weather turns grim or if yous need a safe, secure spot to tend to an injured fellow member of your party.

five. Brand Repairs

The inner yarn of a piece of paracord makes the perfect in-a-pinch thread for sewing up rips in garments, backpacks, and other equipment.

6. Raise a Bear Bag

If you're camping ground in bear state—and given the American black acquit's re-expanding range, that applies to much of North America—it's vital that you secure your foodstuffs, trash, and toiletries from the shaggy bruins. That means either packing along a bear-proof canister (required in more and more than national parks, particularly those with grizzlies, and essential if you're camping ground above timberline or anywhere else suitably tall trees are few and far betwixt) or using that paracord bracelet of yours to hoist a bear purse off the ground.

This can actually exist more complicated than it sounds: y'all demand to cord the bag such that it's at to the lowest degree 12 feet off the ground and 6 feet or more away from the closest tree trunk or bough. That means finding a tall-plenty tree with a long-plenty branch, or two trees close enough together to string a line between merely clear of intervening branches. And make sure you hang the purse 100 feet or more from your army camp, just in example its odors attract a snuffling (and ultimately frustrated) bear.

vii. Fashion a Lanyard

Perhaps you're traversing a specially confusing stretch of state, or you're lost and attempting to sentinel your environs along exact bearings so you're able to return to your original location if need exist. If y'all desire your compass close at paw for such tricky navigation work, utilise a length of paracord to tie it around your cervix for piece of cake admission.

8. Kickoff a Fire

You can use paracord in a few different ways to get an emergency fire going. Divide out the inner strands and apply these as tinder, for case. Some paracord companies really include especially flammable strands equally role of the core.

Alternatively, you lot can utilize paracord to work a bow-drill-way burn down starter (just be patient).

ix. Suspension Lines & Tripwires

Non just for parachutes—you lot can use paracord for pause lines in whatsoever number of bushcraft contexts. If you feel the need to secure your army camp from intruders (perhaps in ane of those hypothetical large-time SHTF scenarios) you lot tin also rig up some perimeter tripwire by tying paracord at shin-elevation between trees. You could even comprise some bells, metal utensils, or other noisemaking items to the tripwire to set up a rough-and-set up alarm system.

10. Boating Uses

Paracord'south a handy rope to have in your watercraft, and not only to create some fishing line in a pinch! Yous tin also use it for temporary mooring, to tow an object, or to throw a floundering person a literal lifeline.

Quick Tip: How to Untie Paracord Bracelets

More than a few survival-bracelet wearers take been a little flummoxed on the all-time way to actually unbraid 1. Some bracelets have a quick-release knot, while others are a bit more than complicated: y'all may need to use a knife blade, a pair of pliers or pair of scissors, or some other tool to wedge out the melted rope ends.

Stay At Home Idea: DIY Paracord Projects

The myriad uses of paracord extend to DIY craft projects that join together fun and practicality. Yous can, for example, test your paracord braiding skills to brand your ain survival bracelet, lanyard, or belt.

Another at-abode paracord project with real value is fashioning a self-defense keychain that incorporates a so-called "monkey fist." Also colorfully known as a "Celtic slammer," this involves a steel ball, round stone, or other heavy object wrapped tightly in a paracord ball and wielded with a sufficient length of cord to protect oneself from an assailant.

A Little Paracord Bracelet History

Red & blue paracord bracelet.

Image by Paracordstyle from Pixabay

Nosotros already talked near the origins of paracord as a war machine-grade parachute cord during Globe War II—and the many secondary uses soldiers institute for the cordage, including snug, rugged boot laces.

But paracord's save-the-day uses oasis't only been restricted to Planet Earth itself. In 1997, astronauts upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope discovered breaches in the unit of measurement's protective insulation. Forced to improvise with some input from Mission Control, they patched the holes using paracord along with wire, plastic ties, and other tools on hand. Not bad!

Paracord: A Camper'southward Best Friend

Pink & purple paracord bracelet.

Prototype past Paracordstyle from Pixabay

Every bit we alluded to at the start of this piece, we've only sketched out a few of the many possible survival bracelet uses. Keep an center out for a future weblog mail going into more detail on paracord and its multiple functions out in the woods! For at present, bank check out some great emergency survival foods to stock upwardly on.