Zigzag Spooling Paracord...

I finally got around to putting up a video showing how I zigzag spooled the paracord for my Carabiner Paracord Spool project.

Pocket Organizer spare paracord carry, Pocket Grappling Hook, Tube-A-Ton, & Industrial Strength Survival Food Grade Tin...

The straps on the back of my County Comm Pocket Organizer have snaps on them, allowing easy on/off with a belt/PALS/MOLLE webbing attachments. I had a 10 ft length of paracord and just tied onto one strap with a simple loop/overhand knot, and did a figure 8 storage method with the cord, weaving around the straps, finishing with another loop/overhand to secure it.

For quick removal and use of the paracord, you just unsnap the straps and pull the cord right off the straps. You can easily store double that amount, maybe more, by doubling up the cord around the straps, I just used what I had handy to try it out...

Blackhawk and Spec-Ops have made similar pocket organizers, links going to short reviews I made on EDC Forums in 2006, but the straps on the those two were sewn in place, so this wouldn't work with those unless you modified them by adding your own button snaps. At the time I reviewed them, I ended keeping the County Comm pouch for myself, giving the Blackhawk(I think) to my dad, and selling the other.

*Added a photo of the contents of my Pocket Organizer, some items listed in the 'Comments' section. Not shown are a handkerchief, that's usually kept tucked into the front mesh pocket of the organizer, spare paracord, micro screwdriver pen, and a book of postage stamps. I'd add more, like spare AA, AAA, and coin cell batteries for flashlights that I carry, but there's just no more room in this one.


The XL EOD Utility Bag has four similar button/snap straps on one side and those could be utilized in a similar manner with storing cord/rope...

Without a strap setup, you could still rig up some cord or spare nylon webbing to figure 8 around, and still attach it to PALS/MOLLE webbing, or have a clip/carabiner to hang it onto other gear, or a point to deploy the cord from. The ends would just need to be able to come apart/separate so the cord can be pulled off. Lots of possibilities there...


The Pocket Grappling Hook pegs the needle on the cool meter. They're not made for scaling walls or buildings, but have lots of other uses described on the County Comm link along with a video.

The Tube-A-Ton has several grooves along it's length for grip, and I added some 3 lead 11 bight turks head knots with 0.9mm nylon cord. I may color the white cord with blue and orange Sharpies for Auburn team colors. I've already put a spare AA battery for my flashlight in one end of the tube and some toothpicks in the other.

The Industrial Strength Survival Food Grade Tin will be used to make a small survival kit. A lot of folks have used old Altoid tins to make survival kits and this one is about the same size only built much sturdier.

Another 'Stitched Solomon Bar' bracelet...

With football season starting up it's time to show the team colors. I made a smaller/thinner version of the 'Stitched Solomon Bar' with orange 3/32" tether cord from County Comm for the core strands, attached to a 3/8" side release buckle, and went over that with 2mm blue braided nylon cord from ebay. War Eagle!

The finished size is about half the thickness/width of the paracord bracelet version.

And a 'Stitched Solomon Bar' paracord watchband...

Some new stuff to play around with...

UPS dropped off a package from County Comm the other day. They carry some neat and unique gadgets, gear, and gizmos. I still use the Pocket Organizer that I bought from them five or six years ago.

I have more photos of my County Comm stuff stored on Xanga.

I used a small stainless steel Gate Clip on one end of a 'Stitched Solomon Bar' paracord key chain lanyard, with a large Yacht Clip on the other end. I know someone will ask what my vehicle key is attached to, it's an Amflo Coupler key ring.

The Improved (XL) Sat-Com Bag makes a great day-pack, even has a velcro space for name-tapes(1800nametape.com) or patches to personalize it, along with MOLLE/PALS webbing all around and on the padded shoulder strap too, for hanging some carabiners or an ITW Tac Link.


I got some polished stainless steel skulls/beads, that are different than the pewter, brass, and acrylic type that I've used with knot work before. There's the 'Yorick', the 'Ponderer', and the larger hefty 'Goliath'.

The Goliath skull is a larger than average sized bead, being around one and a half inches at it's widest, and the weight is just over 3 ounces. Instead of a horizontal or vertical drilled hole, like other beads, the Goliath has cord attachment points/holes along the jaw of the skull.

I tied a black and olive drab paracord crown sinnet and wall knot for the lanyard, with a 1.5" split ring on the opposite end. I imagine a swing with this thing at someone's noggin' would crack a real skull. It's a nice alternative to a weighted monkey's fist on the end of a lanyard.

I tied up a couple of the Yorick skulls with paracord to use as zipper pulls, and used some of County Comm's orange tether cord with the Ponderer for a key fob. Each of the skulls looks good for modding with some glow-in-the-dark epoxy in the eye sockets too...

The GT3 'Gear Ties' are great alternatives to simple twist ties and rubber bands for keeping a grip on bundled cords and wires.

The Blazer Gas Burner is like a Zippo on steroids for hands free use when melting cord ends. I think the Spyderco Ladybug is the perfect sized key chain knife, and the H1 steel means it ain't never gonna rust.

Items with my new XL EOD Utility Bag are:

~A couple of Titanium Widgy Pry Bars with kydex sheaths
~Pocket Straight Razor Survival Tool
~Titanium Embassy Pen
~Titanium Peanut Ligher
~AA Tactical Maratac Flashlight
~A&P Cable Key Ring
~Premium EMT/Combat Shears
~And an EOD Robotics Breacher Bar with kydex sheath and Tek Lok
~YouTube video of a custom modified EOD Breacher Bar, very cool, & a Cutlerylover review.
~Spectra Thread
~Micro Fiber Cloth
~Tube Vault
~Tan Spyderco Ladybug Salt H1

The twisted paracord wrap/grip used on the Ti Widgy Bars and EOD Breacher Bar were done with gutted paracord. I'd seen Swissbianco use the method on some of his neck knives at the Blade Show back in June, and wanted to give it a try.

The ACU SO-LED lights have a multiple position clip that makes them great for clipping to gear, MOLLE/PALS webbing, a car/truck sun visor, or the brim of a cap or boonie hat.

The Traveler RFID Wallet comes with a black cord zipper pull. The Tether Tip that came on the pull can be opened up, so I reused it when I replaced the black cord with some of County Comm's orange tether cord, then went over that with some 0.9mm braided nylon cord in a cobra stitch/Solomon bar/Portuguese sinnet. The smaller cord I used was actually white, but a blue Sharpie helped with making the zipper pull into Auburn University colors. War Eagle!

The Mini Utility Scissors have worked out great for trimming paracord, fishing line, and thread.

Paracord Carabiner Spool Part II...

Digging through the closet, I found an empty spool, that previously held 50 feet of Wellington 1/8" Braided Poly-Pro Sportsman's Cord, along with a partially used spool of orange cord and unopened black. The label on them even says, 'Reusable Spool'. I believe I bought them at Walmart, several years ago, and don't know if they even still carry it, after a quick search on Google didn't bring anything up.

I cut the empty spool down one side with a utility knife and was able to work it onto a Blackhawk carabiner. I just used some package tape to cover up the cut along the spool, since I had it right in front of me, but will go back and use gaffer's/duct tape later. Even though the spool is shorter in length than the PVC pipe, that I used in the previous blog post project, I still managed to put 40 feet of paracord onto the this spool, wrapping it in the common side-to-side method.

The hole through the center of the spool is a few millimeters larger than the carabiner diameter, so it does rattle around a little bit, but I think tucking a short piece of scrap paracord in between the spool and the carabiner will quiet it down and keep it from moving until needed...

In case someone wants to search for the Wellington cord spools, the part number on the label is: 11120 and the UPC code is: 79085 11120. Or just keep an eye out for similar sized plastic spools with cordage to re-purpose the spools after the cord is removed. I think solder and wire may come on the same shape/size type spools. I'll have to remember to look for them the next time I get to a craft or hardware store.

*Note that the other spools, that still have cord on them, turned out to be made of a different plastic than the first. I had to cut the stiffer material spool all the way in half, then tape it back together around the carabiner, after which it worked like the first.

Paracord Carabiner Spool

This was a project I'd tried a couple of years ago that wasn't working like I wanted at the time, so it's been on the unfinished 'to do' list too long. This time I ended up with a much better working model. The paracord is zigzag spooled(like you may find with cordage you buy from store that comes on a spool) onto the PVC pipe over the carabiner. With the carabiner held in hand or secured to gear, the cord can be pulled off and quickly deployed from the free spinning spool. If the ends of the spool were flared/capped, keeping the cord from spilling off the spool, it would be easier to coil cord onto the spool...

The biner I used is an Omega Locking D Carabiner that I've had for almost 20 years, that has a tubular formed body compared to some that have odd shaped cross sections. The oval and D shaped carabiners will have the most room for carrying more paracord, so that's what I used. The diameter of the carabiner tubing was slightly smaller than the interior spool diameter, that I intended to put over it, which is just what you need to measure for.

I had some leftover 1/2" diameter PVC pipe, to use for the spool, stored in the garage from a light tent project several years ago. I used a hacksaw to cut a 3" long length to fit the carabiner. Of course you can't just slide the PVC onto the carabiner, so I cut it again down the center of the length of the pipe, making two halves.

I fit the two parts around the carabiner and used gaffer/duct tape to wrap around them and secure them back together. The pipe then spins freely around the carabiner. I wrapped as much paracord on the spool as I could, which was about 40 feet worth, and still be able to open the carabiner gate just enough to slip it over nylon webbing/PALS/MOLLE attachment points on a bag, backpack, strap, or vest.

The PVC pipe makes for a firm spool where my previous tries with softer rubber and plastic tubing would give/warp too much when adding the paracord, creating too much friction and the spool wouldn't freely spin around the carabiner. I may eventually add a short tutorial for making this project later.

A similar product, that might could be used/converted to dispense paracord, is a cave reel /diver's spool. They come loaded with string, but it may be possible to put some paracord on them instead, although I don't know how much would fit...






Earlier in the year, a friend made me some smaller bead sized metal tubular spools with flared ends. I'd tried finding similar and making my own but was unsuccessful. My intended purpose was to add thread, fishing line, or some 0.9mm braided nylon line onto the smaller bead spools and them add them to a survival type paracord lanyard. My photo shows the beads next to a penny for scale, and the paracord lanyard is a 'Bug Belly Bar' tied by Manny, who also made the beads.