I started making survival bracelets shortly after getting out of the Army, where they're extremely popular. The idea behind survival bracelets is that they are made from 550 cord, commonly known as paracord. The Army calls it 550 cord because it can hold up to 550 lbs, which gives you a fair idea of how versatile and valuable this simple cord is! Survival bracelets are a way to wear this necessary resource in a small, easy to contain, easy to reach manner. If you're in danger or an emergency, you unknot the cord, which is surprisingly easy. The knot is a fairly simple knot, and perfect for someone as OCD as I am. This fascination began when I looked on a popular survival bracelet site, where a lot of my platoon sergeants had ordered theirs. They guarantee that if you ever use it, you can send in your story and they'll either reweave it, or replace it! They had ones with dog tags on it, which I thought would be great since I can't seem to part with my dog tags for very long yet, but they wanted so much! What's more, I was looking at ones they'd made into collars, and the price was twice, maybe three times as much as the bracelets! Well I thought that was just ridiculous, and I sure wasn't paying tons of money for a collar someone else made when I was good at figuring things out for myself. I'm stubborn that way. So I went on youtube, the holy grail for all those that like to self-teach, and found out that the knot is called a cobra knot, or cobra stitch as I sometimes incorrectly call it. That's fantastic! I was ready to go, but the guy in the video wasn't done. What could the other half of the video be, exactly? It was something called a KING cobra knot, which was basically going over it again with the knot a second time. I thought to myself, well that looks even better! So I took one of the cheaply made copies I'd bought at a store called Five Below, that had fallen apart in probably about a week, and took it all the way apart. Wow, easier than I thought. I then started practicing. In the meantime, I went onto ebay (of course) after exhausting my search for PINK paracord at every place I could think of, including the ANG base, and coming up with only black, grey, and brown. Ebay, however, was a gold mine. Cheap prices and more colors than I could choose from. When they came in, I made probably three bracelets before my fingers were sore and starting to make blisters, so I'd obviously found something I liked. As I looked at them, though, then to my dog's old, worn, but still cute collar, I could feel the lightbulb pop on in my head. Click. Why would I pay all that money, when I could make my own? Wasn't that the question that started me searching in the first place? So, with the hot pink I'd bought tons of, I made my first collar, but firstly, the single knot wasn't big enough, to me, so I tried the King Cobra knot. Well, there were several things wrong with the first collar I made, though most weren't noticeable except to me. There was too small of a clasp on it, that didn't stay together if she were to yank on the leash. Granted, it's good that it can release if she tugs hard on it, in case she's in danger or stuck, but not so good if it comes apart with a little soft tug! Second, I did each layer of knots separate. The ends have to be burned, so that means there were four pieces of the 550 cord, which is a complete waste! There were a few other minor, OCD things that I wanted to correct, but the two previously mentioned were definitely the main problems. So, I wanted to remake it. I made it out of one solid set of cords, two colors burned at the ends and stuck together, and then fixed the minor problem of a crooked D ring (which by the way is the hardest part about making the collar, getting the D ring into the knotted weave), finally adding a nice latch instead of the cheap one made for the single knot bracelets. I'm much happier with this one, and plan on doing a larger one for the other dog (which is what the white cord has been started for pictured in the center). I've received several compliments already on it, especially now that it doesn't have a bad latch! Princess decided she wanted to model it instead of just laying it on the black background. The idea of making a collar out of this is for two reasons. One, it just looks great, and is fun to make, but secondly, Princess goes hiking with me, so if I'm in danger or in an emergency situation, her collar can act as a backup for any paracord I may have, or possibly had forgotten at home. It ensures I'll always have that lifeline (literally) there for whatever happens. These are fantastic for the outdoors, active type of dogs, and they're unique!
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