This flat braided paracord watchband/strap was made with three 36 inch gutted strands of paracord.
One strand is centered and cow hitched around the buckle/pin, and the other two strands centered and put over the pin within the first strand's cow hitch. There are then 6 strands to do the braiding, using the same method I did with the flat braided paracord belt.
Once I had the length I wanted, I turned the end strands back and tucked them in place, ran a needle and thread through to secure them, and trimmed off the excess.
I used the rubber strap keeper loop from the Swiss Army Renegade watch, that I've had for about 17 years, but I'll probably make a couple of keepers with the paracord to replace the borrowed one.
Awesome. As always.
ReplyDeleteI want to make a new strap for my Timex Expedition watch (slightly different to yours; mine has a plastic face rather than metal), but I noticed that in an earlier post you commented that the woven strap was a snug fit when attaching it to the watch face. Does this braided method make for a slimmer strap profile that would potentially work better than the woven style?
ReplyDeleteAlso, is there an easy way to remove the core from the paracord or should I just buy it ready-made? Apologies if it's been covered before but I only just found your blog.
Your blog is an amazing resource; as an Explorer Scout leader I'll definitely be making use of some of your ideas and projects to teach my Unit!
With the paracord gutted/flattened, the braided and woven watchband/straps are very close to the same thickness, so either should fit under the pins against the watch.
ReplyDeleteOnce you cut the lengths of paracord, the inner strands are easily pulled from the outer sheath. If you have a longer length, you just have to inchworm it out, pull some, slide the sheath down, pull some more...
Thanks for replying! I prefer the look of the braided strap so I'll give that one a go.
ReplyDeleteWhile looking for Paracord supplies I just recently came across your Instructable on the paracord bracelet, which led me to your blog and I LOVE it!! It's so cool.
ReplyDeleteI really like this watch band, and I've got to ask, did you already have the metal buckle piece for the watch or did you have to buy it? Do you happen to know of a resource where they can be bought? I haven't been able to find any that didn't already have a band on them and would really like to make these bands. I found CDWplus because of your blog and love them. Thank you in advance! And keep up the awesome posts!
All the buckles I've used, for the adjustable paracord watchbands, came from old watchbands that I've had laying around. You can buy them from watch parts suppliers(google), but they're not cheap. I thinks it's cheaper to just buy a replacement watchband that has a buckle you like and scavenge it off of that.
ReplyDeleteCould you explain how you started the cord on the buckle a little more? Awesome stuff, as always.
ReplyDeleteYou need 6 working ends, so with three strands of paracord, you center the three cords on the buckle, making 6 strands to work with.
ReplyDeleteI cow hitched the first strand, so that it straddled the pin of the buckle, keeping that cord centered, but you don't have to do that. If you just pulled the strands over the buckle to their centers, you'd have two strands on one side of the pin and one on the other.
Or you could cow hitch all three strands, the point being the center of the strands go around the buckle and then you start braiding.
You could use 6 separate strands, each end wrapped around the buckle and sewn to itself...
do you have a video of how to do this weave. I have some extra cord and want to do some bracelets for my friends and one of them specifically requested this weave pattern...and i cant figure it out...or at least a slideshow, however i do like the video better, easier for me to follow i would greatly appreciate this!!
ReplyDelete@B4G Ace, I've not done a video, but there are other instructions for the 6 strand flat braid that come up with googling, like these two examples:
ReplyDeletesix strand flat braid
sling braid Method #1
Wow, I am late to this party! I've got a watch and a replacement band to rob for parts. Did you do anything to flatten the gutted paracord such as ironing (with low heat)? Thank you for the inspiration! @terminusvox
ReplyDeleteI just ran the gutted paracord between my fingers to flatten it out. I haven't tried the iron on low heat method, but have heard that others have done so. Some vendors/distributors actually sell paracord without inner strands, skipping that step in production by the manufacturer, so it comes already flattened out.
ReplyDelete