Paracord

Last week Eli and I had a joint double post about building a cold smoker.  In the first part we used a length of paracord to measure a 4" diameter circle.  I carry an approximately four foot length of paracord with me pretty much every day.  I know this may seem a bit weird, but I have some reasons (even if you think my reasons are still weird).  The first is that paracord is incredible cool stuff.  It is sometimes called 550 cord because it can hold up 550 pounds of static load before breaking.  Additionally, it consists of 7 internal strands each being able to take approximately 80 pounds.  The second is knot tying.  It is amazing how useful knowing some decent knots can be, although I didn't stop at just a a few.  I sat down and taught myself a rather large number of climbing knots and am now working on fishing knots.  Having a short length of rope to practice with is rather helpful, as well as a thing to do when I am bored.  The third reason is probably the most out there and it is survival.  I watch a lot of survival shows (real survival shows, not survivor) and one thing that is always useful is cordage.  Now to be clear I do not expect to find myself in a survival situation in central NJ but it never hurts to be prepared.  I wont sit here giving you all the reasons for why rope is useful stuff, but I will finish with one final reason.  I have made a modification to the paracord I carry.  I have added marks to it, one every inch.  So I know basically have a flexible measuring tool with me at all times, sure the precision isn't high but I can still measure better than I would be able to without it.

 I use the carabiner as both something to tie my knots to and also as a convenient way to secure it to a belt loop.

 This particular knot I have tied at the moment is a double figure eight knot.

Here you can see the one inch marks on the paracord.