I wanted to lash a carabiner onto Tobie’s new leash this morning, so I pulled the stuffing out of some old 550 cord I’ve had laying around for – well, decades. And the tiny nylon cords I pulled out seemed wrong to me.
So out of curiosity I cut a little piece off that big spool of 550 MM gave me four years ago, to use as a comparison.
I’m not sure which of these is superior but I’ll make a strong guess that it’s the one on the right. Regularity of construction and a tendency to keep your shape and size when the pressure is removed is generally a sign of material quality.
And I’m reminded of a spool of (what appeared to be) real 550 cord I bought off a hardware store shelf many years ago in a big hurry, to do a job that needed strong cord – and the expensive disaster that resulted therefrom. And I say – make sure of your materials.
Speaking of that…
Here’s Tobie’s new walkie leash. I … may have overreacted. A bit.
Whenever I used nylon cord in the past I would melt the ends. Even if I wasn’t going to use it right away.
Good 550 cord should be plenty strong enough, but that doesn’t look as stout as what you did for Little Bear. I guess Tobie is either not that strong, or just more obedient.
Can’t say I know either, but the stuff on the left looks a lot like climbing rope core while the stuff on the right looks more like line I could buy separately for light jobs. At least in it’s climbing rope form the fluffy white stuff is super strong. No need to compromise on a formulation that provides both strength and shape-holding when you’ve got the mantle for the latter.
But I’ll bet you can also get low quality stuff that resembles either one…
Oh great, now instead of the leash breaking he can yank out your arm 😉
😀 He tried that this evening. But that’s part of what the carabiner is for. It attaches to my very stout belt.
“It attaches to my very stout belt.“. Que the mental image of Joel being dragged through the desert…by his “very stout belt”.
Real paracord will be seven-strand on the inside and each strand is then comprised of 2-strand. The stuff on the right is legit.