Hi this is Megan with Beadaholique.com and today I'm going to show you
How to Make a Basic Cobra Paracord Bracelet
with a plastic buckle
and
it's going to be just a
very simple basic
version. There's a lot of different ways to do this. I'm just going to show you
the most basic simple one
So a few things
you'll need
a basic disposable lighter. Don't use a micro torch for this. It'll burn
right through. It'll burn up your
nylon cord
you do want to use your basic disposable cheap lighter
you can also
it's really handy. You can use the side of the lighter where it's smooth to smooth out
the ends when you're
finishing off
the bracelet
which will
get the lighter kinda funky so use the cheap
little disposables
and then you'll need
your parachute cord
or paracord
this is a two colored
project like this one
so I'm using
two lengths
one of each color
and then you're gonna need these little plastic
buckles
and this is the .6 inch
so .6 inch is the size and this is the
perfect size for
doing a
basically the two strand core with the two strands on the outsides. So you're
super basic one is going to fit perfectly
on the .6
You need something pretty strong to cut through the paracord. I'm using flush cutters
because I found that my
little scissors where a little wimpy. If you have stronger bigger scissors that
work fine
when you are cutting
your paracord you're going to want
to cut about a foot of paracord for each inch
of knotting that you want
and
as far as how much knotting you'll want
your clasp, this buckle will add about two inches when it's closed
from here to here
and then you also because it's thicker you wanna add about an inch
to your desired measurements
for what your wrist measurement is
so my wrist is about six inches. I wanted my bracelet to be seven inches which
means I only want five inches
of knotting from clasp to clasp
because plus the two for the clasps
gives me seven inches
nice and snug
I went ahead and cut
six-foot lengths
of my paracord
just to get myself a little more of my paracord
so
one thing that you'll need to know how to do
is how to join
two the cords together
first thing
what you're going to do is take
your buckle
separate it
these will go through
the top of edge
the male
half of your buckle
take
one of your
short cords, center cords. Pull it a little longer
you're going to give yourself a little bit of a tail
bring it through
the female end of the buckle. Don't pull it all the way out
and tie a lark head's knot by
pulling the ends through the loop
pull the other buckle on the other
string and everything
all the way through
Pull that tight to attach it
you take
you cords
we want to attach
this end of this cord to this tail on this one so that we have one piece so
you get the two color
cord piece going up the middle
now there a couple of different ways to attach
your cords to fuse them together
you can just trim both ends heat them with a lighter and try to smoosh them together
I like to kind of make a
male and female fit together kind of a joint
trim down
this tail here. We want this joint to be close to the buckle
and it is gonna take a little bit of it
to do the joint and you do you want to join to be high up enough inside
the knotting
that it is encased in the knotting to make it strong so
give yourself about an inch and a half or so
inch and a quarter
trim that down
so you're gonna pull down
the outside of your cord and have the core threads
exposed
and cut off about
three quarters of an inch
and then you pull
your cord backup
and now you want the end
that's going in there to be
a clean end
and it helps if you have it already
fused a little too itself. So you just
hold it
in the flame
and you'll see it get dark and you can see it melt
you can
push it against the side of the lighter. Be careful when you have it
melted because that will burn you if you touch it. It's very hot so make sure you
let it cool off before you touch it
and now you have this piece here and it's hard so will be easier to settle it
in
so you can see that the top here is hollow because we cut out the core threads
take this
piece
and twist it and shove it into the top here
if these ends get frayed that's fine
when you fuse it, it would just give it more
to fuse onto
take that joint
be careful not to get stray cords in front of the flame when you're doing this
it will get
melty
get ruined
just
turn the joint
fuse it together
and don't
melt it to the point that you're
going to melt right through it
get a good solid fuse on it so that those are really
solidly connected
so next you're going to
decide the length
this way
so as I said you want
your bracelet to be an inch longer than your wrist measurement and your clasp adds
two inches
I'm going to use this one as a guide
I already did that one. I know it fits me
from my seven-inch bracelet
and now I want
the middle from the end to the end
from where the plastics starts where the plastic stops to be a
about about five inches
now
that basic knot
in the
super basic
paracord bracelet is a macrame square knot
it's also in paracord is called a cobra knot
it's the same thing as a macrame square knot. So I
have showed you how to do that in video before
I'm going to go over again here
I'm going to
take your cord
it's a little tricky to work with six inch pieces. Have to get used to it
so you're going to take your left
strand
bring it over the center strands
take your right strand
bring it over
the tail of the left hand
and then bring it behind and up through the loop
pull both sides
Then you're going to
do
the opposite so you're going to take the left and go under
the center
take the right stand under the left
and then bring it over into the loop
again it's going to be
left over
right over
under through
left under
right under
over and through
and I always like to think that it's just over
over under through
and then
under
under over through
if you make sure that you alternate them you will get a nice
flat piece if you don t alternate them they will twist. So if you see it's going to
twist
and you don't have the same color
down the sides you're forgetting to alternate
so again it's over
over
under through
under
under over through
you're going to repeat that
until you get to the end here
when you get all the way down
to your other clasp
you're done
you can see that it depends a lot on how tight you're doing your knotting and everything
you will have
extra cord
you can do smaller projects like key chains and stuff with your scraps but
as you work you will get
more of a feel for how long
You need
to cut your cords
per how many inches so
as you can see
I did six-feet
if I did five inches
I'd still have a couple feet left over
so it's kind of a
guessing game because a lot of it has to do with the tension
if you use
a looser
then you will
use less cord. If you do you're knotting tighter you will use more cord
so pull your last knot really nice and tight
then you're going to cut off
the extra
why you want that knot tight
leave yourself
just a little bit
of cord
maybe
an 1/8 of an inch there
or just slightly longer
the way finished this is the same way that you fuse it. You're going to melt it.
and this is when you use the side of your lighter
you're gonna
light the lighter
and you're gonna hold it
to the end
of your cord
and you're gonna let it melt
until the whole extra tip
looks like it's
melty
and then really quickly you're going to squish it
at the edge of the lighter
you can see what this does, it's going to expand
the end
it's going fuse to the edges around here
the idea being
it's only secure if it doesn't pop back through that knot right there
so by making it bigger and by fusing it to the edges around here it's going to
keep it secure and keep it from popping through it
and like I said you will get
goop
on your lighter. Wait that you let it cool off right away and you can scratch some of it off
but that's why you don't use
grandpa's zipper from WWII
Once more
hold it on there
let it get all melty
smooth it out
if you don't get it all nice and smooth the first time you can reheat it
and go back and smooth it out
just be careful if you've had the lighter
lit for a little bit
then the part that you pushed to light it, it does get very hot
you might need to let it cool off. Don't let it cool off
So once you have it
all nice and sealed and it's not going anywhere
then that
is you're finished bracelet
It's really simple and once you get it down it is really quick too.