So Tobie chewed up a strap on his harness the other day. At first I thought it would be a simple fix because I have lots of strapping among my repair stuff, but I had foolishly used up or never acquired my supply of 1 1/2″ slide fittings. Which meant I was screwed.
Yesterday I visited the only two local stores even conceivably likely to carry web fittings. I found 1 1/2″ webbing at one of them but no fittings at all. So I fell back on the one thing that would definitely work, and that I definitely have lots of…
Good old 550 cord. If I had to run away naked in the snow and could only take a single thing with me … it would be a pair of boots. But a hank of 550 cord will always make anybody’s short list of things you oughta have with you.
Alas I’ve never been skilled in what I always considered the frivolous contrivance of fancy knots. There’s definitely a macrame knot that would have worked great for this, and I don’t know how to do it.
Doesn’t matter: Tobie’s tender torso has stretched so far from front to rear that he wears this otherwise-great harness on his neck anyway, and I have ordered a longer and more substantial one. So this is a temporary fix.
Daughter looked at some you-tube videos and has done some rather interesting things with paracord. Looks like Paracord Planet would be a good place to start.
It’s not too bad for a temp fix.
FYI, since you already have the 1.5 inch webbing, you could pop rivet some of that webbing together like this.
1. Cut a length of webbing and melt the ends to prevent fraying
2. Scrounge some metal strips and cut them the width of the webbing. You are going to need 4.
3. Drill 2 holes in the metal strips, one per end a quarter of an inch from the edge.
4. Heat a nail and, using a strip of pre-drilled metal as a template, fold the webbing and melt 2 holes, one near each side of the webbing
5. Feed the webbing through the ring and buckle and fold it back so the holes align
6. Put a metal strip on the top of the web and another on the underside of the web, align the holes and pop rivet them together.
7. Last, sand down the edge of the pop rivets so they don’t cut Tobie.
I know it looks convoluted but it will give you the option to use the harness far longer than you would otherwise.
I’m probably missing something…
Why not just sew on the replacement strap? A heavy duty needle, some upholstery or leather working thread, maybe an awl – and 15-20 minutes later you’ve a new strap attached.
My experience sewing repairs on nylon webbing have not worked out very strong. Doing something wrong, no doubt, but I have more faith in Tobie’s ability to destroy than in my own ability to repair through sewing straps.
Thanks, I was just curious. I’m far from any kind of expert on stitching – but I’ve done repairs on leather, webbing, and canvas for a long time now and generally have reasonable success. I’d probably use about the same pattern the manufacturer used when sewing the webbing to the harness body – spreading the stress points.
All that said – few things are gonna’ withstand Tobie. Maybe chain mail? That’d be a hell of a fashion statement!