Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Paracord belt, shoulder strap, gun sling, dog collar, etc...

This is a paracord belt I've started working on. I haven't finished it yet.
It's started with 4 strands of paracord, find the middle of each cord and loop them onto whatever type of attachment point/buckle you'll be using so that now you have 8 strands of cord to work with.
 Make two cobra stitches with the outer 4 strands, then one cobra stitch in the center(I have all mine the same, not alternated-seen as the center olive drab stitches). Just continue knotting the two outer, then one center, two outer, one center...
Aside from a belt, this might also work for a wide paracord bracelet, guitar strap, shoulder strap for a bag, or a wide dog collar for the big dawgs out there, and I'm sure others will have other ideas for uses, one someone mentioned as a gun sling.
I'm not sure how I'll finish it yet. Sometimes I spend hours trying things out and end up taking them apart and trying other ideas. This might end up like that, but I like the idea. I was going to try a "Slatt's Rescue Belt", but got frustrated with it and tried this instead.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

hello,

can you please show me how to star making a belt with paracord.

my e-mail is jorge6602@hotmail.com.

thanks,

jorge

Stormdrane said...

You take four lengths of paracord, find the center of each, and loop them onto a buckle. Now you have eight strands to work with. Thinking of them from left to right, make a cobra stitch(also called a solomon bar or portuguese sinnet) with the four strands on the left, then make another with the four strands on the right. You now have two cobra stitches side by side, now made another with the four center cords so tha t you have two cobra stitches above the one centered below. Then you continue making two side by side stitches, then one center, side by side, one center until you have the desired length. For the six foot long guitar strap I made, I started with four 50 foot long strands, and used 140 feet of cord and cut off the excess. You'll have to figure out how much you need depending on the final length. It's better to have to much than not enough. Good luck with it.

Neocold said...

Hello,

Thanks for running this site. I have a question about this belt. I have made your paracord bracelet and have found that it takes about a foot of cord for every "braided" inch. Is this about the same, more, less? I would like to make a belt; while I don't mind wasting a little cord, I prefer not to waste too much cord if possible.

Thank You for your help.

Neocold at hotmail.com
Justin (Long Distance Day Hiker)

Stormdrane said...

This tying method uses a lot of cord. For the 6ft long guitar strap I made, it used 140ft of paracord. I haven't broken that down into feet/inch of cord, but it's considerably more than the bracelet.

Anonymous said...

nice dog collars. i like the designs. ;)

-andrei
no bark collars-4less.com

Neocold said...

Hello again, I am finished with the long part of making the belt, now I need to attach the second part of the buckle. I have tried a few ways of attaching it but they all seem very messy and bulky. Did you ever finish this as a belt? (I am using the same clips as used for the bracelet only larger). Any suggestions? If not I will keep at it and let you know if I do find a way.

Thank You.
Neocold at hotmail.com
Justin (Long Distance Day Hiker)

Stormdrane said...

Justin, I emailed you a couple of photos on how I finished it...

Anonymous said...

I have used a number of your blog's to do some projects to make it easier to carry 550 cord (I used my bracelet finished with a loop and chinese button as a drag rope for my 8 pointer in November). I have experimented and plan on using this strap as a gun sling using some swivel's but I can't seem to figure out the finish...any ideas?

Stormdrane said...

Trying to figure out how to finish with eight strands is a tough one. You might try something similar to what I did with the guitar strap. I trimmed/melted the ends and sewd a piece of leather to the end, then attach that leather piece to the swivel in some way.

Anonymous said...

I figured out how to finish the gun sling, I made it about 5 inches longer than I needed, then cut and melted the outside leftover rope, loobed the strap through the sling-swivel (the metal part), brought it back on itself and used the 4 inner ropes to weave into the stap. This way I can adjust the length too.

Prometheus said...

Amazing blog:) Was just searching around for a paracord belt when I stumbled across the site. Lots of nice stuff in here! Thanks for the tips:)

Anonymous said...

I've been looking for a rifle sling that looks more comfortable than just a single cobra knot. Funny thing is I ordered 200 feet of Black and OD Green para cord to make it, then I found this. I really like the looks of it! Just a few questions. How wide is the strap? Have you ever thought about cam buckles for lockable adjustable straps? I'm planning on adding 2 quick disconnect swivels and a cam buckle to mine. I think I know how I can make it act like a 2 point and a one point sling. Thanks for the info, great site!

Stormdrane said...

The width is about 1.5" inches. The thickness is about 3/8" inches, so any sliding cams/buckles for an adjustable feature would need to fit that or larger. I haven't looked for any, but you might find something usable to make it adjustable.

I just used a couple of pieces of cord to tie one section to the other at the preferred adjustment length, for the guitar strap I made for a friend.

Erin, Eric, Declan and Soren said...

I was wondering if you had any step by step photos of the beginning because i am kinda confused as to how you connected the cobras together. YOu probable explained it but i dont understand. Thanks alot I love your work!!! Eric

Stormdrane said...

I don't have any process photos, but you can look at a similar example diagram on this Dutch website. This particular diagram shows 6 strands(12 working ends). Disregard the last 2 strands(4 working ends) of the diagram.

The belt/strap I made has 4 strands of paracord with the center of each looped onto the buckle, making 8 working ends. If you think of the strands as numbered from left to right, the #2 and #7 strands are core strands only, meaning they aren't used to make the knots like the rest of the strands(1,3,4,5,6, & 8).

I hope that helps.

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for posting that Dutch website with the diagrams on how to build the belt/strap. Its exactly what I have been looking for because I have been looking at info for making a Paracord belt and thats just what I needed!

Unknown said...

I'm making this as a rifle sling for my husband and trying to figure out how to attach it to the unfinished end. How did you finish yours? Great ideas on here!!! Love the site.

Stormdrane said...

For the unfinished end, run the cords around the sling attachment, then use those ends to knot back around the cords to secure it. The leftover ends can be tucked into the knotwork and trimmed to finish.