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Paracord Survival bracelet
So I first saw one of these on a some guys wrist on a youtube video of some sort, and thought "what a tosser", and gave it no more thought, then I saw another and had the same thought, I started to notice more and more, even on some of the people that I think are OK on youtube and so I decided to look into them to see what was going on.
A bit of googling helped, and I learnt something:
Paracord or 550 lb cord is the stuff that is or used to be used to tie parachutes onto your jump pack thingy, it tested to break at above 550 pounds or 250 kilograms, in other words its pretty strong stuff. It has an outer sheath and seven inner strands, each strand is also very strong but light so can be used for fishing line, or tying a structure together, or anything else that needs tying. It does not rot in the wet, and burns well so can be used to help start a fire. Its good stuff.
So why would you wrap it round your wrist? Well I assume the idea is that if you have it on you then you can have it if need be, now my wrist is not very big, but what these people do is tie it in a complex pattern so that you get around three to four metres of the stuff, which does make it useful for tying stuff, especially if you break it down into the inner strands.
But it goes farther than that, a few companies have decided to add bits to it, for instance Ken Onion, throughout CRKT, sells one that has a pretty good wire saw inside of it, CRKT also sells stuff that clips onto them, like a little compass/firestarter/striker/torch combo (I have had a look at it and its crap - the clip thing, the saw is actually pretty good).
Fair enough I was prepared to forgive people for wearing them once I understood their function - I just was not prepared to wear one myself until I stumbled upon Wazoo. Wazoo is a little company out of Texas that make and sell these things, their tagline is that it will save your Wazoo, and they have taken this to an extreme, I was intrigued and so got one myself, an Adventure model, which is their top of the line one.
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First and foremost, it looks nice, its called goldenrod (which sounds a bit rude) and grey, with a black buckle, its woven and has around 3 metres of paracord, its comfortable to wear, does not rub, its bit stiff but not annoyingly so. In the middle is a good (very good actually liquid filled compass, with a cover, the inside bit has a luminescent paint on it, expose it to light during the day and you will have light, not a lot and decreasing in intensity over time but enough to read a map or help you light a fire for up to twelve hours, that kept closed with a ranger band - there are three ranger bands in total on this thing.
The clip has a whistle built in and one of the prongs has been replaced with a small ferrocerium rod, there is also a ceramic striker/blade under there and a highly polished reflective piece of metal (covered in a clear film that you can peel off) to use as a signalling device, or a mirror. There is also two cotton bulbs, that are covered in an antiseptic solution to use as band aids, and which also happen to be flammable so you can use them as tinder.
Wrapped through the weave are two pieces of surgical tubing, that could be used as a tourniquet, slingshot, drinking straw, or to tie stuff with.
Inside the weave is a sealed plastic pack, cut the ends off and you have another straw, bit it also holds about to metres of fishing line, a couple of hooks, sinkers and safety pins.
Under the compass is a space where you can get the optional (I declined - you pay extra), hand cuff key...
All in all its a useful small piece of kit, it weighs about as much as my watch, maybe a tad more and I have no doubt would be useful in an emergency, its a redundancy thing for me, lives next to my Randall 18 and Aurora Firestarter in its HGD pouch, ready to serve if and as needed, and I no longer sneer at people wearing them on youtube.
Shelley
