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="" />