paracord critique

[Aaron]

I apologise Gary, I cant seem to take much seriously these days, least alone my myself. Anyway, does not the Bible say:

Mockers may stir up a city, but a wise man will turn away his anger (Proverbs 29:8).

Have a look if you get a minute - it would make a change from all that rape and pillage I'm sure.

 

[Tadpole]

I apologise Gary, I cant seem to take much seriously these days, least alone my myself. Anyway, does not the Bible say:

Mockers may stir up a city, but a wise man will turn away his anger (Proverbs 29:8).

Have a look if you get a minute - it would make a change from all that rape and pillage I'm sure.

I'm sure that you'd not want to fall into your own trap of mockery.
Proverbs 28 10 He who leads the upright along an evil path, will fall into his own trap, but the blameless will receive a good inheritance.

 

[Aaron]

Ooh, you saucy monkey! But how's about

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult (Proverbs 12:16).

 

[Tadpole]

Ooh, you saucy monkey! But how's about

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult (Proverbs 12:16).

A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel (Proverbs 15:18).
here endeth the lesson

 

[Mesquite]

Folks, Can we please stop with the religious sniping. This was a sensible thread about paracord which I for one was finding interesting.

If you want to try and score points off of each other regarding your bible knowledge go and do it somewhere else that doesn't involve hijacking a thread and everyone on the forum.

Thank you.

 

[gilly0802]

well said Mesquite

back onto topic, the only reason i have for getting the american 550 stuff is the fact that you can get the differant colours, as i usually use it to make lanyards, and other things, and so like to have differant colours to play around with as OD gets a little boring after a while lol

but when in the field i dont want to use any (relativly expensive) paracord, so i tent to use green gardeners string, strong enough for my basha, and can get loadz of it on a couple of rolls in my bergan/webbing

 

[Tadpole]

do it somewhere else that doesn't involve hijacking a thread and everyone on the forum.

Thank you.

A tad rich coming from you.

 

[Wayland]

The moon must be full or something......

Has anyone tried breaking strain tests on any of these products?

 

[Toddy]

I love the stirring it smilie

I'd like to know the snaggability of the cordage too, lose or tight weave on the outers.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Mesquite]

The moon must be full or something......

Has anyone tried breaking strain tests on any of these products?

LOL... actually Gary, the moon is currently waxing gibbous. Which in plain english means it's 75% off of full so a few more days before the full moon

Phases of the moon

With regards your query no, but I'd be interested to know if 550 paracord actually does have a breaking strain of 550lbs

I'd like to know the snaggability of the cordage too, lose or tight weave on the outers.

cheers,
Toddy

How would we go about devising that test though Toddy?

 

[Wayland]

Give it to Toddy?

 

[Tadpole]

LOL... actually Gary, the moon is currently waxing gibbous. Which in plain english means it's 75% off of full so a few more days before the full moon

Phases of the moon

With regards your query no, but I'd be interested to know if 550 paracord actually does have a breaking strain of 550lbs



How would we go about devising that test though Toddy?

MIL-C-5040H type III does indeed have a static load breaking strength of 550lb
MIL-C-5040H type IV has a static load breaking strength of 750lb

Safe Working Loads are generally thought to be 10 -to- 20% of static load breaking strength, less if you're using block and tackle, or knots, Tying knots in cord reduce the static load strength by 75% depending on where and how you tie the knot and what type of knot you use, how old the cord is, the temp and light exposure the cord has been kept at, will also affectthe load strength, the USA military accept that prolonged exposure to light will reduce the strenght of the cord by 15% the washing laundering effect of wetting and dying the cord can also reduce its strength 15% .

 

[Toddy]

Try wrapping a length around an Alder or Pine tree and see if it pulls around without catching and shredding it's surface. The abominable stuff I got was a mess before I had it tied off.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Celt_Ginger]

I had some 550 paracord tied around a pine tree this past weekend. It did catch a bit, but I was happy it did, as the tree was too big for me to reach round it to grab the loose end. Because it stuck there, I was able to walk round and retrieve it. It didn't really snag much on the pine bark when pulling it accross the surface and it didn't gather too much debris from the forrest floor. Now, this isn't a scientific study, just an opinion, so please, don't someone go telling me that the diameter of the nylon, coupled with the centrefugal force of the earth spinning and the atmospheric pressure divided by the fact that it was saturday will undoubtedly add a magnetic effect to the cord where it will attract drunken teenagers so therefore will snag on Pine bark.
I thank you.

 

[spamel]

I find the purlon and paracord I posted a picture of to be quite durable. The paracord seems to be quite slippy, it works great on bow drill don't get me wrong, but I haven't had it snag unless I've left the ends raw from the cut, not sealed with heat, and the frayed ends snag up then. Purlon may snag, but not sure. I'm gonna go out shooting in a bit, so cannot perform any tests, but I have some brambles at the end of the garden so will take some, throw one end in and retrieve by pulling from my end. It should give a fair idea. I may do ot tomorrow or possibly Weds.

 

[Gailainne]

I bought 550 paracord from the supplycaptain in the states last year, but mostly to try the various weaves that were going around at the time, some of you may remember I had the bright yellow stuff on my tarp, and I also used it in Sweden to extend my tape length on my hammock last summer.

Since then I've made a "few" changes, I dont have paracord of any description on my setup.

I removed the crap tapes from my DD and replaced them with 9mm static rope, breaking strain around 2 tonnes.

I bought 2 reels of reflective bungee, dont know the rating, and also a 50m reel of hi-vis reflective cord from here as well as the glow in the dark lineloks, (dont use them anymore tho).

For my tarp ridge line (and a lot of other uses) I bought 20m of 3mm racing dyneema which has a breaking load of 463KG !

The bungee I made a bunch of loops using 300mm lengths and used a larksfoot to connect them to all my tieouts on my tarp (Kathmandu), connected to them I used mini figure nines, and connected to them were the luminesent guys, and the pegs ? luminesent fibreglass, idea courtesy of Wayland. (anybody who was at "Scots corner" will attest to the light the whole setup gave off).

Both the hammock lines and the ridge line were tensioned using a gadget I bought from the States, unfortunately I havent been able to find a link so far, anyway its a mix between a cleat and a pulley system but in one solid piece, it works really well and I didnt have to re-tension it at all during the 4 days of the Moot.

People may have guessed by now I dont like knots, or rather I forget them so have looked at a simple effective way of overcoming them.

Its very quick to put up, and only the 20m dyneema is a pain to take down, it has a quirk of twisting which is a pain, however I want to keep it at its full 20m in case its ever needed.

Not a full breakdown of my setup by any means, but you'll get the gist, next time I have it setup I'll take a few photos.

Stephen

 

[Squidders]

Gailainne: If you cut the webbing to a few feet and tie loops in the end the racing dyneema won't shred the tree mate.

Aaron: man who walk through airport door sideways is going to Bangkok - Joe 21:48

Wayland: why the desire to know the exact breaking weight of the cord? it's not like you're going to weigh 550lbs of "something" out in the wilderness to see if the cord will take it. Such seriousness from a man in fancy dress

 

[Stuart]

Here's a quick shot, bottom to top:

Comms cord, small purlon, medium purlon, large purlon, paracord.

The stuff on the bottom of that image certainly isnt the US Spec 550 paracord! I've never had any get that manky, unless its been thrashed to within an inch of its life with repeated bowdrill use, is your image of the British issue stuff?

Its not the inner strands with make me choose 550, I've used many types of cord popular with the rock climbing community (one of my other loves) and have yet to find any cord which I felt betters MIL-C-5040H type III, many were better in some specific areas (breaking strain etc) but lacked the overall positive qualities of the 550. 550 for example seems to have just enough stretch for knots that require stretch to hold, but not too much, its not too stiff yet the weave is tight, it doesn’t rot or break down with UV exposure or go mouldy in the jungle, its abrasion resistance is superb, etc etc etc

Its an all round performer, which makes it a perfect all round general purpose cord.

 

[tomtom]

Knock off the bickering folks or this thread gets locked. There's no need for it in a discussion about old rope.

 

[steve a]

''The stuff on the bottom of that image certainly isnt the US Spec 550 paracord! I've never had any get that manky, unless its been thrashed to within an inch of its life with repeated bowdrill use, is your image of the British issue stuff?''

I thought the same thing, then read the post again and realised the list was from the bottom up, so that is comm cord and the paracord is at the top of the picture.