survival bracelet

[bowhunt1]

I found a survival bracelet on ebay and was curious if anyone knew the real name of this braid? If anyone knows how I can learn to tie this I would be forever grateful to learn how. The link below will get you to the ebay page. if not then just go to ebay and type survival bracelet into ebay's search. Thank you for your help.
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38.l1313&_nkw=survival+bracelet&_sacat=See-All-Categories

[Znex]

Mr. Stormdrane can help you along in your journey... "The knot used for the bracelet has a few different names, cobra stitch, Solomon bar, and Portuguese sinnet."
http://www.instructables.com/id/Paracord-bracelet-with-a-side-release-buckle/

[Dan_Lehman]

Interesting that a few of the bracelets have a single strand around the shackle pin,
though most have three!?  (Red,White,&Blue, Red & Black, & one other have one).

 

[PatDucey]

I thought the purpose of a survival bracelet is to have a nice long piece of cord to have for emergency use.  I would think that the whole thing would be made from the same piece of cord for maximum length?  This wold imply that a survival bracelet should be all the same color, and like the Stormdrane example.  I have one comment on the Stormdrane example about melting the ends; don't get too carried away melting the ends to the surrounding line.  The purpose of the bracelet is to have a usable length of cord that would be relatively easy to deploy.  If it takes a knife to untie the knot, and the ends start fraying, it will get shorter every time you use the line.

I have a better idea.  Just keep a nice length of paracord in your pocket with the ends already finished.  Easy to use, easy to store, and always handy when you want to want to tie knots.

Pat

[Dan_Lehman]

I thought the purpose of a survival bracelet is to have a nice long piece of cord to have for emergency use.

I had a similar thought.
On the other hand, what's the likelihood of needing a full length--and one unknottedly so long--
vs. needing more than a single piece?  How long is this, anyway?  I'm coming around to thinking
that more pieces to use is much more likely valuable than one long length.  Of course, if a knife
is a fundamental survival element, one long length readily becomes the number needed!

Just keep a nice length of paracord in your pocket with the ends already finished.  Easy to use, easy to store, and always handy when you want to want to tie knots.

Better, have a survival belt  vs. a mere bracelet!

 

[PatDucey]

That's true about having a nice long piece of line vs short lengths.  I remember when I was a volunteer firefighter responding to an oil spill on a lake.  We were deploying oil booms at the spillway, and we needed some small line.  I had some of my nice hard twist cotton in my pocket, and I was agast to see my buddies cutting it, and not taping off the ends, to secure the oil booms.  Ever since then I kept some hardware store mason line with my gear.  I'm not a volunteer firefighter any more, but I still keep a nice hank of line that I wouldn't mind using for oil booms in my disaster kit.

[Mike]

When tying one per link in post  #2, how do you easily untie it when it is needed for emergency.  The only other method I have found thats easy to untie is this one, but I'm not sure it can be done with the buckles.

[Mike]

OK, I don't know what I'm doing wrong here.   When I try to untie this thing, as in an emergency, all i get is a bunch of square knots that I have to untie individually.  I thought the idea of this thing was to pull it apart easily and have onle long length of cord without all the knots?

[sharky]

Hello Mike,

What you should have is a separate cord inside of the square knots, or sennit if you will. You can pull the second cord from inside the sennit and that will give you a long enough cord to use for first aid, tie something down, or maybe tie something together. If you need additional cordage, you can untie the bracelet itself and tie it to the cord you removed from the sennit. Does any of this make sense to you? For my dock lines, I use 3/4 inch 3 strand rope tied in a bowline on a bight. This forms two loops that I can attach to the dock cleat. For chafing protection, I have tied this sennit over both of the double loops with 3mm braided nylon fishing line. The only thing that has square knots is the 3mm fishing line. The double loops are inside the sennit. Dang...Hope I didn't confuse you with all of that.

[Mike]

I think I understand it.   I was just under the impression that you could just pull the bracelet apart with one motion and have one long piece.  I didn't realize that you have to unite all the knots.  I must be thinking of another tying method, like the chain sinnet.

[sharky]

That's just it, you don't untie the sennit part unless you need it. In all fairness though, there are several different methods out there and they all use the term "Survival Bracelet". Most of them are a plain old Solomon Bar Sennit, but you can pack in as much cord as you feel comfortable with, and then tie the sennit over the removable cord. This will give you the quick line you are looking for, and some additional line from the sennit itself if needed. If you make the bracelet with the chain sennit, you can pull it out very quicky, but then you lack the advantage of any additional cord. Imagination is the limit on this one.

[Son of Liberty]

Hey Mike,

I had the same thought when I started making Solomon Bars, but I quickly found out they didn't work quite like I expected.  I did put together something else that could be unraveled much more quickly though.  (Of course, I?m sure others thought of it before me  )

I don't have my ABOK with me, so I don't know the exact name of the macram? I'm thinking of, but it's something along the lines of a Banister Bar, but using only one strand of rope.  You can tie half hitches down a line, resulting in a spiral, or, if you want it to sit better on your wrist, you can force the half-hitches to line up in a straight line or alternate them, so they look like half of a Solomon Bar.  This way, you can pull the whole thing apart at one time, (of course, I personally prefer the look of the Solomon Bar, but this one is much quicker to untie.)  My camera's out of juice, but I'll pick up some batteries tonight so I can show you what I'm talking about.

PS. JD of TIAT has an awesome video about tying a Slat's Rescue Belt that can be untied all at once too.

Thanks,

Son of Liberty

[Mike]

Thanks for the replies. 

Where can I find some good instructions on making some nice looking wrapping around a pole for a walking stick?

[skyout]

Here's a nice one for inspiration from Don W:
http://www.khww.net/photogallery.php?album_id=60&rowstart=96
The grid I just put up would look nice, hint, hint. LOL
http://khww.net/articles.php?article_id=145

[sharky]

Cockscombing is the way to go for walking sticks. Skyout has provided some excellent links, but any instructions you can find on cockscombing will be useful.