A newbie wondering: You know those brown/yellow laces that come with a lot of work & hunting boots? Taslon or something like that? Considering how compact they are, would a pair of those in 60" or 72" in a hunting vest pocket make for decent emergency cordage? I mean, heck, it's nice to have spare laces, anyway. And they seem tough enough to hold up to other duty in a pinch. Or am I missing something?

Sure, but I would probably go to a climbing store and buy some 3-4 mm spectra cord. Its very compact and you know how strong it is because it has to be rated for strength on the roll in both working load and breaking strength. Or you could just carry 550 cord like everyone else its cheap and comes in lengths long enough to be useful.

For about the last month I've been using 4' lengths of 550# paracord as shoelaces. I find myself stopping to tie my shoes about twice an hour. It's driving me crazy. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> I'm going back to wallet carry for my cordage.

Regards, Vince

I have heard from a lot of people in the past about reaplacing their boot laces with 550 cord. Seems like a great idea to me. For compact cordage in general I like 100# Firewire which can be found any place with deep sea fishing equipment. For anything having more than 100# of strength, I haven't yet found anything with a better compactness/usefullness ratio than true 7 strand 550 paracord.

If you tie them with a square knot with bows not a granny knot with bows they will hold a lot better!

Paracord as shoelaces and a backup reserve is a great idea- until you do it. Then you are walking around like a little child in daddie's boots. You can remove the very usefull 7 inner strands in the field and finally have proper flat laces. Or, weave the paracord belt and hope gravity doesn't humiliate you in front of that mythic GRIZZ everybody has nightmares about. Personally, I carry enough of the stuff in my rucksack to tie off to a tree at journey's start and just reel myself in if lost. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have paracord on a pair of my hiking boots because I needed to replace both laces while camping and just have never replaced them. They work OK, but are difficult to tighten properly or keep tied. If not tied with double knots you might asa well not bother tieing them at all.

Like Chris said I have gutted paracord on my wildland boots which works very well indeed.

If that's what you're comfortable with... personally, 10 or 12 ft. of 550 cord doesn't take up much more room, and it's a WHOLE lot more versatile.

Troy

While a Paramedic, I always used 550 cord on my duty boots. I didn't have a problem with them staying tied, but I believe I used kind of a surgeon's knot.

I used 550 cord on my snowboard boots this winter. Just had to make sure to double-knot them, which I did anyways. I couldn't find a pair of laces I liked in any of the ski shops, so I just grabbed some paracord.