How to make a Rosary out of Paracord

The Rosary is a method of prayer used primarily by Catholics.  It utilizes beads on a string or chain that are used to keep track of which prayer you are saying while you are meditating on the mysteries of the Gospels.  To learn more about the rosary check out www.rosaryarmy.com/.  I learned how to make rosaries out of twine a couple of years ago from these folks, and when I deployed I decided to try and make one out of paracord.  Some of my fellow soldiers really liked the idea of a Rosary that was a little more masculine than the traditional Rosary.  This makes a great gift for service members or to donate to a nearby military installation.

For your first attempt you will need about 40 feet of paracord.  As you get better you will need less because your knots will be tighter.  You will also need scissors or a knife, and a lighter.  A crucifix or cross can be attached if you like but I will show you how to make a cross from the paracord.

Step 1 Layout

If you are familiar with the Rosary and its layout you can skip this step.  The Rosary consists of a tail and a loop of five sets of ten beads/knots called a decade.  The ten knots of the decade are for praying the Hail Mary, between each decade is a knot for praying the Our Father.  The tail consists of a knot to join the loop together, an Our Father knot, three Hail Mary's, another Our Father and finally a cross or crucifix.  We will start in the middle of the loop and work our way down to the crucifix/cross.

Comments

[amayes2]

no offense or anything, but can someone do this but with an upside down cross, and basically this, but everything is reversed. like backwards hail mary, and a back wards father. again, i honestly do not mean to insult any one, but its a free country in which we practice free religion, and i practice satanism. if someone finds a link, or makes instructions, please contact me by my facebook. i really like how this is, but just want one suited for my religion. thanks. may your form of "God" bless :)

[raindog951]

I'd recommend doing it yourself, using the Satanic number system if it has one. The knots for making an upside down cross would be the same but reversed, which should be easy to work out.
If you think up a sequence of prayers to suit your religion, and have a knot to represent each one, it should be good for any prayer or meditation.

[amayes2]

ok thank you :)

[raindog951]

No problem! And good luck on your path.

[fidgety2]

hello i am doing this for my local parish and am trying to help a bunch of (no offense) elderly people make these do you have any suggestions

thanks,
fidgety

P.S. nice ible' by the way and God bless

[papaiii]

Nice Ible, if you want a smaller knot/rosary you might try taking out the inards from the paracord. I'm at Bagram AB Afghanistan right now and will try this on my time off. God bless!

[Grazelda]

Nice... :~)

[lipsydos]

great instructable...thanks much...

[amstewart]

This is truly amazing. As a prior soldier and proud owner of a LOT of 550 cord, I will be making one of these very soon. Thank you so much for this instructable!

[arthur.nudge]

Thank you for this! I've finally finished my first rosary. I'm not sold on the cord cross though, the arms on mine are all wonky. I might have to break down and put a wooden cross or crucifix on instead. And @looker1995: good luck and God bless.

[looker1995]

Thanks for the support from both of you. It helps all of us to know that we have support back here.

[beta1072]

I'm glad it helped, I hope your fingers aren't too sore. The cord cross is a good expedient, but it is tough to get just right. If you do get a wooden cross/crucifix I would like to see how it turns out.

[arthur.nudge]

Oops, I gave the rosary away without taking a photo. My local Catholic store didn't have any wooden crucifixes that were quite the right size, so I bought a chrome one approximately 3.5 inches tall, which looked pretty good on the finished product. I found the 550 cord easy to tie, but the finished rosary is kind of enormous. Smaller twine was touchy as all get out (the paternoster knots really drove me up the wall), but the finished rosary was a more convenient size. I've still got enough paracord to make another, so I'll try to take pictures of the next one and add it to the comments.

[looker1995]

Your instructable led me to look up the Rosary Army. I tied one of their standard rosaries with some mason's twine that I have, then tied one of yours. I was interested because I am headed to Afghanistan this year. I find yours, out of 550 cord, is much easier to tie. I also really like the hand tied cross. Thanks for the instructable, I will be making more of these for my friends.

[beta1072]

I tried the mason's twine first as well. It is not very forgiving on the fingers. Stay safe in Afghanistan, we'll be praying for you.

[grut125]

two thumbs up, god bless you.