I continued with tying with the
SurvivorCord that
Titan sent me, shown in yesterday's
blog post, around my
Nalgene bottle.
I tied alternating 3 lead 8 bight Turk's head knots, doubled, and a few coiled wraps between each with a 50 foot section of the cord that I started with. I would have first wrapped the bottle with a bit of
extreme tape if I had any, but the wrap does feel secure as it's currently tied, and offers a good grip for my fingers with the slightly raised knots and coiled grooves between them.
There was a lot of time spent continually untwisting the cord and pushing the slack of the outer sheath over the core strands down towards the working end, even though the knots are simple and chosen for not having a lot of sharper angles to keep from kinking the cord up, which happened anyway with all the twists I had to deal with. Even on a simple looking project like this one my hands did bug me a bit and I had to stop a few times with finger cramps, nothing to do when they lock up but say, 'Ow!' (think charlie horse in your hand), lol.
Although I like the feel and grip of this particular pattern, I'd suggest just doing a simple
common whipping around a Nalgene or other type water bottle for faster deployment if the cord is needed when the zombie apocalypse starts, and you'll end up having fewer kinks in the copper strand, very thin piece that it is, as well as fewer twists/coiling in the fishing line too, when the you need to catch some crappie, bass, or catfish to fry up in a campfire for dinner.
You can stuff a lot of survival gear inside a sturdy protective paracord wrapped Nalgene water bottle, including
fishing tackle, medication,
multitool,
sewing kit,
magnifier, map,
pen/
notepad,
pocket knife,
flashlight,
emergency blanket,
whistle,
bandana,
first aid supplies,
poncho/garbage bag,
water purification tablets, lighter/
flint rod, cell phone, spare batteries, etc., so forth, and so on, toss it in an
edc backpack, glove box, hidden/
buried supply/geocache spot, for yourself or fix one up for a gift to friends/family that like to 'Be Prepared'.
I did have a noticeable stretching of the outer sheath over the core strands, so much so that by the time I got to where I finished the bottle wrap, using a little over 41 of the 50 foot strand, there was a couple of feet more of outer sheath than core strands left in the trimmed scrap end, 6.5 feet of core inside 8.5 feet of kernmantle/outer sheath.
There were also a couple of sections in the Turk's head knots where there is more slack, like a bubble that develops when tightening the knots up, which can happen sometimes no matter the brand of
paracord when the outer sheath is a bit loose around the core strands. You can untie and try to work out the problem area or leave it like I did as a reminder that nothing's perfect, it happens, this one is mine, not made for someone else where I sometimes find myself tying/untying a project several times to get it just right, hehehe.
I do like the
SurvivorCord with the extras inside for potential survival uses, but I'd stick with simpler bottle/knife/tool handle wraps/grips that do not get too complicated with lots of twists and bends which may affect the copper strand and fishing line elements inside. At least one of the other reviews I've seen on the cord also mention how thin the copper strand is, which may need braiding up first to make it larger for making
snares. I was thinking of doing some Turk's head knots around some zipper pull sections or lanyards, but the copper strand is tiny(30 gauge) almost thread like, and I did try wrapping it around a crown sinnet like thread on a spool, but didn't care for the outcome on that. So, I may instead try using the waxed jute, which is slightly thicker, for something like that...
As mentioned, I may try some other things with the remaining cord that I have, maybe a quick deploy
hatband, braided wallet/keychain lanyard and whatnot. Hardcore survivalist, campers, backpackers, and others that have the know how/knowledge to use the extra components of the cord could certainly appreciate having it available even with the more than double cost compared to commercial paracord, but for regular outdoorsmen, hobbyist and crafters, the cheaper
stuff will do, and you end up with more
color options too.
The particular hank of
SurvivorCord that I received had a bit of a cosmetic issue with one of the 32? some odd strands of the braided outer sheath being turned/twisted at an odd angle compared with the rest of the strands during production, so that it looks like there are random 'pulls' throughout the cord, but it's just the way the light catches those strands and not I think any problem with its strength/durability to affect performance. The photo in the previous blog post of the hank of paracord straight out of the package and on the digital scale for weighing shows those strands which look like specks in the
picture. Doesn't bother me, but I know there are those out there that would complain, like a certain color of paracord they ordered doesn't exactly match their socks, so they'll take issue with it and send it back, lol...
I still had some of the SurvivorCord that Titan had sent me left over, shown in a previous blog post, so I added a 22 foot length to an edc boonie hat, tied in a fast deploy chain sinnet.
The overhand knot at the end of the cord for the hatband is used simply for the reason that it's quick to untie should the cord be needed in a hurry and removed from the boonie, and being tucked out of sight, a more decorative knot would be wasted.
