Paracord pros and cons?

What have you experienced as positive and negative things about including paracord in your survival gear?

50 feet of 550 paracord gives you aprox 400 feet of usable cordage.

Lee

Invaluable. So many uses, whether together or as seperate strands! Being creative and finding used for it while it awaits use (a la Kevin G) is a valuable art!

As per personal carry,There are No cons for Paracord!

Well, I love 550 as much as anyone but I will stir the pot here and post some sacrilege.

1) "550 can be opened up to yield a bazillion feet of cordage" - yeah, but if I need a 3 foot piece of thin cord, do I really want to open up & destroy a full piece of 550 to get it? Sometimes I think we'd be better off with a larger stash of something like Kelty TripTease plus a wad of mason's line.

2) "550 is considered useful by military survival doctrine" - yeah, that's because it's what a downed pilot has oodles of laying around after parachuting down. If it was 330 cord or 128.482 cord instead, that's what they'd be using for their shelters and fish nets, and that's what the masses would find in the surplus stores and in Uncle Hank's army box in the attic.

There are always outliers, but IMO about 94.55% of the time 550 is overkill. It is heavy and bulky for most of the jobs we use it for. When you have to carry your gear on your back and fit it in a limited space I think there are better options.

Excuse me while I put on my fire resistant internet suit...

Pro: it is thick and soft enough to act as decent padding for handles.

Con: it tends to stay wet once it gets wet.

No suit needed. I have been phasing out, or at least supplementing, paracord with both woven mason's line and trip tease, both of which are lighter, less bulky, and function quite as well for many purposes.

Any marine supply store will offer many alternative small lines which also give you some nice options. The thing about paracord and other nylon lines is that they are elastic, which is good or bad, depending upon the application. Paracord is not optimum for use as a halyard, for example, where some of the stuff from a marine store would be much better.

The biggest drawback to paracord is the proliferation of cheap, substandard varieties. It also isn't available in hues that color coordinate with the rest of my outfit.. so tacky!!!

Yes it is handy, and I carry several lengths of it, daisy chained for ease of deployment without tangling. I have some short and some long. I refrain from cutting unless absolutely necessary, but I have the shorter lengths for the smaller jobs. It is very susceptible to melting, so you can't use it around fire (suspending a pot to boil water). It is not the best cordage available, but it does work. When I am traveling for business I actually carry unwaxed dental floss. You can carry a hundred yards of it in a very small package and it is pretty strong. 550 cord raises eyebrows when in a business suit going through airport security.

positive as others have said; negative - perhaps weight when compared to thin mason line or other twine.

I prefer mason line although it doesnt hold knots well due to its slickness from my experience.

Pros - ditto what everyone else has said - versatile, extra cordage from the multiple inner strands

Cons - What others have already mentioned. Also, someone mentioned it melts easily and is flexible, making it unsuitable for use in making a fire bow drill, yes?

Best use -- Parachutes!! :-)

Worst use -- Lifeline (parachutes use lots of redundant shroud lines).

I carry mason line for most of the uses I would use paracord for, and light deema or other lifeline for a lifeline (about the same weight, 4k lb+ breaking strength).

Paracord is good for wrapping things like handles or making stuff you use anyway, ie braclets, belts, hatbands, etc. (like kevingg's beautiful stuff) which makes it available and maximizes its versatility.

YMMV

Respectfully,

Jerry

One of the cons I notice is it stretches a little. Not always a big deal, but when I use it for a bear bag, I've got to take that into account when I tie off the bag (I'm a tie-er, not a second-bagger).

Speaking of colors, there are stores that sell numerous colors. I know CountyComm has a good variety in the earth tone/camo department, as well as day-glo orange and some darker non-tactical colors (http://countycomm.com/550cord.htm). I know there's some places to buy other colors, but I can't attest to their authenticity.

I've got some mason line and fishing line in my BOB. Also have some ?spectra in my backpack - it's lightweight nylong line, looks similar to a single thread from the 550 cord. Not sure what it is - found a huge spool in the car from someone that I house-sat for - but it works great for little projects.

I don't see the benefit in an urban situation. When I take public transportation, all I have is what I can fit in my bag and pockets. The benefit-to-space ratio seems lacking in this situation.

Also, experience is a good teacher. Probably everything I EDC is the result of experience. I add and make modifications based on experience. Other than securing the trunk when closing it is not an option, I can't think of any situation where paracord may come in handy.

Jeanette Isabelle

I can think of a few:

Replace a broken shoelace
Tie open a door
Tie shut a door
Expedient lanyard
Replace handle of broken luggage/suitcase/purse
Fix/replace broken bra strap (I have 3 daughters)
Replace broken draw string in pants
With paperclip or safety pin, fish out keys/etc. from grate

Pete

Have you looked at angler's knots? If they work with monofilament (SP?), then they should work with mason line.




Off pavement: Invaluable. I've used it to hold together delaminating boots, for tent lines, hanging food, strap gear to packs, etc.

On pavement: Limited use. A flat pack of good duct tape and carpet thread is more usefull for urban situations. Go with an extra pack of shoelaces if you must carry cord.

IMO the best thing about paracord is that it is a good general use line.

In use it is fairly unremarkable by modern standards for synthetic lines. Biggest things to remember is that 550 pounds is the minimum breaking strength. Safe working load is a fraction of that. A common rule of thumb for calculating safe working load from minimum break strength is to divide by five. So figure safe working load on mil-spec 550 cord is 110 pounds.

It also has to be noted that paracord loses about 15% strength when wet. So figure 93.5 pounds safe working load when wet.

It also has to be noted that this only hold true for new line tested in a laboratory mounted with care to make sure the kernmantle sleeve works with the inner strands. Less careful use makes it less effective. Also older, worn, UV damaged paracord, like stuff that has been macramed into a bracelet and worn for a year or two, will have proportionally less strength remaining. Safe working load may be 50 pounds or less.

IMO the worse thing is that it has become a material, actually a quite unremarkable material, that has become a cult object. This has its roots in WW2 when it was primarily used for parachute suspension lines and airborne troops had easiest access to the stuff. It developed a cache of being new and special. In 1945 it kind of was high-tech and special.

This was reinforced during Korea and after when survival was emphasized for fliers and the working assumption was that they would come down in their chute and have a goodly amount of paracord to work with. Associated with airborne training and survival it was a natural for elite units. So paracord became the standard for reliable light line in the late 40s and early 50s, when much or the military, and most civilians, were still using natural fiber ropes for utility use.

Sixty years later paracord, even the genuine mil-spec Type III stuff, real 550 cord, is not all that remarkable. It is still reliable light line. It still caries a lot of cache, pull out a length of paracord and you summon up pictures of paratroopers sweating out rides in C-47s over Normandy and SF cadre patrolling triple-canopy jungle in Vietnam, but time has moved on. Nylon is no longer seen as a miracle material and kernmantle construction is old hat for climbers and boatmen.

Personally I've found that common quarter-inch triple-strand nylon, safe working load 182 pounds (ABYC), can do most of what paracord does and does some things better. You can pull the core strands out of 550 but triple-strand can be entirely unlaid, all the way down to thread.

The nautical phrase 'spinning yarns' came from the practice of sailors, lacking anything better to do, sitting in a circle and telling tales as they took worn or unused lengths of hawser and unwinding them to produce 'small stuff', anything less than 1" circumference (about 5/16" diameter), and yarns, the smallest twisted strands. Sailing ships seldom actually bought anything less than 2" circumference line, about 5/8 diameter, because manufacturing their own from heavier lines was cheaper.

Of course nylon isn't the only material now. Polyester, Dacron, is about as strong and costly as nylon but it doesn't pay a penalty for being wet, doesn't degrade as fast in sunlight (UV), and it doesn't stretch so much.

More modern materials, Spectra, Dyneema, Kevlar are much stronger than either of those but they are also much pricier and all have their own special issues. Many, particularly Dyneema, are so slippery that tying a reliable knot in them is a challenge. Kevlar wears out quickly if bent too tightly. Some compounds, if they aren't coated or treated, can suffer catastrophic UV damage in a few days in the tropical sun.

Where do you get the cord? Kevin's not the only knot-head in here and I can burn through paracord at an alarming (expensive) rate. I've been using this stuff because it's so cheap, but it's too stiff for a decent knot.

http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hardware-...catalogId=10053

Any cord would do for those.

Also, most of them could be achieved with a bandanna, folded into a triangle and rolled so you get the diagonal length. A bandanna is even more versatile (especially if you are willing to cut it into squares or strips), and will go flat in a pocket.

The facts that paracord is soft and bulky are probably the key to its virtues, however limited you conclude they may be.

Soft and bulky works because it is easy to see and easy on the hands and whatever other part of your anatomy to which it comes in contact. So: lashed-on handles / covers; replacement seat bottoms; haul lines within its weight limits; highly visible lines where that is good; knot / braiding / weaving / macrame / knitting / net learning; apparel add-ons or replacements; strap / retainer replacement; etcetera.

However, because it is not incredibly strong, abrasion-resistant, water-shedding, UV-resistant, etcetera, paracord is probably best for temporary, improvised uses. Which happens to be why most carry some around!

The con is it doesn't float.

I prefer to use twine in the woods, because its biodegradable, thinner and cheaper.

In the mountains i'm all about 5 and 6mm prussik cord, because it can take body weight and in the climbing world they are pretty much to most versatile piece of equipment you can get.

For DIYing just any proper cord. Depending on what kind of application some smooth or rougher cord. (paracord can be a slippery).