OK I just thought of something that maybe useful to the people on this fourm . I took 25 feet of para cord cut it into 8 equal lenghts and braided them together. All I have to do now it melt the two end, and put on a belt buckle. What do you guy think?

*** NOTE *** Link is down currently.

Try this -> http://www.slatts.freeserve.co.uk/slatts-knot.htm

BTW, welcome to the ETS forums!

--Chris

is that the right URL... its a dead link

Dang it! Yep it's the right link, but appears to be down. It's been working for some time until now.

Oh well, I'll edit my post, and check it again next week. Maybe the server is down.

--Chris

Yep, the link is dead since a few weeks, at least.
His design was a good idea.


Another "place" where, using Slatt's braid design, you can keep some length of paracord, is around your hat, if you have one.


Alain

If the paracord is for use for survival situation, I think that it is better not to braid it as it requires a lot of strength to unbraid it.

The Slatt's knot was basically a loop chain held together at the end with a bolt/pin. Once the pin is pulled, the rope would unravel easily. I thought I had a copy of the instructions somewhere, but I haven'y found it yet. I'll share it if I find it.

Damned !

I too was sure I had saved Slatt's page somewhere, on one of my PCs, either at home or at the office, but I'm unable to find it again .......
I will post it if I can find it ....


Alain

Try this new site:

Slatts Belt

Neal

Thanks a bunch. Now I can update my bookmark.

--Chris

Thanks!

It looks like he aslo upgraded is phots. I don't recall the green cord belt.

I hope that it doesn't take a lot of energy to unbraid the belt to use the paracord.

It's really not a braid but a loop chain. Once the pin/bolt at the end is removed, the whole thing is supposed to simply unravel. However, I have not knotted this belt so I cannot vouch for hiw quickly it does unravel. Anyone try this? (I suspect one would be hard pressed to un-do it once he or she has spent the time to knot it <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />)

Many thanks....

Now, I will save these pages........ somewhere where I will find them again ... <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />


Alain

I began a belt with 10m of 3mm cord - I didn't come close to finishing a belt before I ran out of cord <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />. you can really get a lot of cord into a belt.

As far as unraveling the belt goes, once the pin is out, you nedd very little force to unravel the "chain". you will have a whole lot of cord in only a few seconds if you decide you need to destroy your little masterpiece <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

What length of belt did 10m of cord produce?

I can't remember exactly. I have 32 inch waist, and the belt got about 2 thirds of the way around. remember that this is 3mm cord as opposed to 550lb (5 mm) paracord.

BTW, the wooden hook tool he fashioned reminds me of an extra large crochet hook I saw at Micheal's, a art * crafts supply store.

OK I admit is was cooler then mine. I had to cut my rope, if one kintted there belt, it would be on length. now that is a good idea. thanks for the link

So is there a 5mm cord that is stronger the paracord?

Many 5m cords are stronger thatn paracord. Paracord is popular because, unlike other, possibly stronger cords, the inner strands can be used for a variety of puposes when a smaller diameter cord is needed.

what do you mean? What else can you use the inner fibers for?

also I found this cord. its 5mm and holds 5000lbs (holy crap)
http://www.neropes.com/climbing/tech_cord_specs.htm

<<Parachute cord (550 lb. test strength or better) is one of the most useful components in a kit. The more you have, the better. Be sure to buy mil. spec. para-cord with internal strands. The civilian version isn't as strong, generally only about 300 lb. test, and it does not have a multi-strand core which is so useful for so many things. To check, cut it open. The civilian cord has a core of "fuzzy" material. The mil. spec. cord has seven identifiable twisted strands in the core (each about 35 lb. test). Each inner strand is itself comprised of three strands (each about 11 lb. test). The sheath is rated at about 300 lb. test by itself.>> (From the ETS website)

Cord in general is just so usefull to have. paracord, because it can be broken down into smaller diameter lengths, is even more versatile than other cord. I really feel like a fool, because i can't think of any examples at the moment <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />!!!!

Anybody want to help me out? Doug? Chris?

How wide was the belt? Would it have been suitable for dress pants, or was it more of a military web belt width?

The narrower the belt, the less cord it will hold. I just bought 15 m (50 feet) of mil spec para cord (white) and I also recently bought the same length of cheapo orange cord. I would like to make a couple of belts; I don't have a problem cutting the orange rope short to make a dress belt, but I don't want to cut the para cord.

Slatts's web page is great and it's an ingenious belt, but there's no indication of what the width of the belt is or how much cord is needed (that I could say, anyway). Assuming the green cord is 4 mm, then it appears he is using a 2" wide buckle (this would appear to be corroborated by the metal "eraser cap" on the pencil being approx. 1/3 the width of the buckle).

I just attempted to make one. It's quite easy once you pick up the knack. I had 25ft of paracord and started to make a belt about 2 1/2 " wide. I only managed to make it about 6" long! This sure holds a lot of cord. I don't think that if I made a belt, I would use it. I had the idea of making a wallet sized section of this braid to carry in my back pocket. This way you would be able to carry a lot of cordage in a compact package and it would be easy to unravel without it getting tangled up. However I can think of what I could use as end pieces. In the end I thought I could just use another, short bit of paracord in a loop throught the end loops to stop it from unraveling. However I can't manage to make the sinnet anymore. i'm trying to make it on a pencil but it keep slipping off and getting twisted. Any ideas?

Thanks for the response.

In answer to your question, if you're going to make it on a pencil, I'd try a couple of elastic bands wrapped around the pencil as stoppers to prevent it from slipping off; also, I'd try lashing the pencil to something or maybe supporting it between the uprights of a wooden chair back if you have access to one. I'd think it was like making a fishing net - very difficult to do if it's not supported at the top end.

I will try to make a narrower belt using my new para cord. If it works, I will report back with more info.

Thanks again.

I guess it was about 2 or 2 1/2 inches. i can't really remember. I don't have belt loops on many of my outdoor pants, so I was more concerned about getting a lot of cord (and slipping a sheath for a fixed blade and wave) on it than for use as something to keep my pants. IMO, the 5mm paracord is too thick to make a comfortable dress-belt.

I'm considering making a strat for my office BOB instead of a belt.

Let's see. 10 foot of paracord in a survival situation.....

start by pullling out the inner strands. Un-ravel one of the 1 inner strands and splice - 30 foot fishing line. Use another cut to 2 foot lengths on a squirrel pole as 5 snares - dinner for a fortnight. Use the other 5 inner strands to hold the shelter together 10 foot of outer sheathing cord can be used to hold the ends of a canoe together so you can fish the center of the lake. Heck, now youve got shelter, food and water who needs rescue! Settle in and enjoy your freedom from urban blight!

The wonderfull uses an 'old hand' has for paracord!

I got my techcord it is not supple enought to make a belt out of back to my paracord belt.

Well, I just finished braiding a "Slatts Monkey-chain" belt from 50 feet of white paracord from Seals Action Gear in Calgary ( www.sealsactiongear.com ) and an old Karrimor belt clip that I had lying around. Haven't finished the belt off yet, but here are a couple of observations:

1. 50 feet of (3 mm?) paracord, with three loops in each row, came to almost exactly 1 yard.

2. I didn't need any special tools, but I found it's like splicing a rope - you've got to keep track of where you are. When I quit each night, I made sure to stop at the same point and I wrapped the single loop I had left in a clove hitch around a small piece of broom handle. And I never put the belt down until it was at that point in the construction.

3. As I was pulling it through, I found that it very quickly got twisted; this resulted in the rope "kinking" when I pulled it tight. After the first five "rows" I found that I could fix this as I went by gently rolling the cord clockwise between my fingers as I pulled it through.

The belt right now is about the width of a standard men's dress belt, and fits around my 36" waist almost exactly. This means I can't tighten it up as Slattery-Sinnett recommended, by adding a short length of webbing. But I think it will look quite acceptable if I wear it to work with my dress pants. Maybe I'll just have to break down and get a set of suspenders. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

How about "paracord suspenders" in Slatts Monkey-chain <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

You're a sadist, you know that <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Here is a picture of a length of the monkey chain sinnet that I made to carry paracord in my pocket. It is about the same size as my wallet and holds 25 ft.

Well, you could turn it into an educational lesson for the kids or local scout troop. just tell them what a valuble skill it is to learn to tie a Slatts monkey-chain, and that the only way to learn is to practice, practice, practice!

Oh, and then YOU get to keep the belt/suspenders! <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I finally got mine done, 1.5" wide and for my 38 inch waist my belt holds about 80 feet of 3mm paracord

Thanks for the follow up.

You could loop the paracord inside two pieces of leather belting of any color and stich the pieces together into a belt. If the day of emergency use came to be, you simpliy separate one side of the stiching, unravel the paracord and you still have a functional belt.

What are the advantages of paracord over normal nylon cord? The working strength seems to be similar, 26 lbs. for paracord, 28 lbs for nylon of the same diameter. If the working strengths are similar, the break strengths are probably very close.

Bountyhunter

Where do you get 26 lbs for paracord? Mil Spec paracord is rated at 550 lbs; even if that's the breaking strength (which I didn't think it was) then the SWL would be 55 lbs, I think.

Other advantages, as others on this forum have pointed out, are that the mil spec paracord can be separated into smaller strands; the small inner strands can be used for fishing line, while the outer sheath is still strong enough to use for building a lean-to shelter.

Personally, I don't see the advantage to carrying "concealed" paracord - the belt I made just looks like macrame to anyone who doesn't know the secret, and encasing it in leather would make it harder to unravel, which kind of defeats the purpose. True, if I had to use the paracord in my belt I would end up without a belt, but if I needed one to keep my pants up, I suppose I could just cut a 40" length of paracord and use that. (In fact, I probably would just clip two of my beltloops together with a carabiner.)

Not that I want to discourage innovation; if the "concealed" issue is relevant to you, it seems like it would work. But I'm kinda proud of my "macrame" belt and wouldn't mind showing it off. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hi I thought I would add my idea for a belt.
I use something called a doublechain knot.

here's how I tie it
1. make 2 counterclockwise overhand loops,the second on top of the first
2. pull a bight up through both loops
3. pull a second bight up through the second loop and the first bight
4. pull a third bight up through the first two bights
5. keep repeating that for as long as you need, tightening as you go
6. at the end of the cord pull the end all the way through the last bight to secure it
7. to undo the chain pull the end back through and keep pulling on it

I did this yesterday and used two 10 meter pieces of cord side by side and got about 1.1 meters of chain, plenty to fit around my waist, i just use a carabiner as the buckle

The "concealed" aspect has to do with cordinating your clothes ensemble. Unless you walk around in kaki or camofluge all day, sometimes you have to have a brown, black, grey, or whatever color belt that compliments your wardrobe that day.

I do not think of emergency use as being able to rip the paracord off of your body and throw a saving lifeline to someone. That being the case, removing paracord for its intended use that has been laid up between two pieces of leather is easier than having to undo a macrame or weave pattern of any type.

I got the 26 lbs working strength of paracord from a building supply stores tech specs. as well as the 1/8" nylons 28 lbs working strength.

I am well aware of mil. spec. 550 for paracord, but unless you are buying confirmed military surplus, I wouldn't trust commercial grade paracord to meet mil. specs.

As for fishing line, I would rather have a rayon fishing line in my kit or a bobbin of dental floss than to sit down and try to pull XX number of feet of core line out of the paracord.

Bountyhunter

The whole point of the slatts rescue belt is that it unravels in seconds when you pull the end, no unpicking the weave.

ditchfield:

Didn't know that about the slatts rescue belt. Thanks for the input.

Does anyone know what the elongation properties of paracord are compared to 1/8" nylon?

Also, is there a supplier you can trust to sell you "mil. spec. paracord" instead of some cheapen commercial cord designed to look the same?

Like your real name ditchfield.

Bountyhunter (Pete)

>>The "concealed" aspect has to do with cordinating your clothes ensemble.

Okay, fair enough. Mind you, I'm a software engineer type; I think wearing dress shoes with blue jeans and a Dilbert T-shirt is colour-coordinated enough for everyday wear <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

>>Unless you walk around in kaki or camofluge all day,

The place where I bought my paracord advertises that they have it in white, black, and OD. They didn't have any black or OD when I went there, but I did get 50' of it in white. I'd prefer to get it in black because IMO a black belt goes with pretty much every suit I own. <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

>>I do not think of emergency use as being able to rip the paracord off of your body and throw a saving lifeline to someone.

Actually, that was precisely the inventor's motivation for developing the Slatts belt.

>>...unless you are buying confirmed military surplus, I wouldn't trust commercial grade paracord to meet mil. specs.

LOL Of course not, I presume that's why they call it "mil spec". <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> And it's also why reputable sources for mil spec paracord are discussed at length in this forum.

>>... I would rather have a rayon fishing line in my kit or a bobbin of dental floss than to sit down and try to pull XX number of feet of core line out of the paracord.

True; I suspect most of us would - if only to save us having to destroy our beloved paracord <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> But part of the game is redundancy, and if you can achieve that with no increase in weight, why not?

aardwolf:

Thanks for the feedback.

Myself, I am an HVAC technician by trade, a computer hobbyist by choice. My day to day clothes could be described as "Early Grunge", or Salvation Army rejects. However, every once in a while, I like to "put on the dog" or I have to go to a wedding or funeral (Yes, there is a difference between the two.) so I do my best to squeeze into shoes that make my feet come to a point and I do have decent clothes that I blow the dust off of before I wear them.

As far as saving weight goes, the best place I personally could use that is on my own body. If a heavier pack makes me work a little harder, I could probably lose as much as the pack weighs in a week.

Bountyhunter

LOL that's just extra rations <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Try here:
http://www.drop-zone.com/