Woven paracord bracelet/watchband

Step 7 Finishing up

To finish up, you'll take the working strand around one of the outer cord, so it's coming thru the under side of the bracelet/watchband.

*Check for a good fit on your wrist at this point. If it's too loose or too tight, untie, adjust your starting measurement longer or shorter to correct, and try again. I have to do this myself sometimes. ;)

Take your hemostats and work them thru about three of the center weaves, towards the buckle end. Grasp the working strand and pull it back thru the center weaves.

Trim the end with your scissors, quick melt the end to prevent the cord from fraying, and tuck it under the weave.

Now do the same with the shorter end of cord and you're done.

If you measure again, you'll see that the finished length is about 1 inch longer than the starting measurement. This will vary depending on your tightening of the weave as you go, but should make for a loose/comfortable fit.

Enjoy!

*Anyone that's worn a nylon/paracord bracelet/watchband knows it can get dirty and smell funky after a while of use. I use an old soft bristle toothbrush to scrub with soap/water in the sink to clean it(while it's on the watch(hopefully yours is water resistant/waterproof), and let it air dry overnight.

*A note on paracord shrinkage:

Ubraidit.com mentions that paracord may shrink as much as 10%-12%(especially black and kelly green), so they recommend soaking the cord first. They note that it's the inner strands that shrink, not the outer sheath. I believe they use 450 or 650 grade paracord, which I think, has a few loose fibrous polyester filler cords instead of the usual 7 twisted nylon strands, found in 'Type III 550 mil-spec paracord which isn't supposed to shrink up. I've mostly used the mil-spec type paracord, so if it's shrunk on me, it's not noticeable. YMMV ;)

Comments

[ArtByNancy]

I have an odd question. I have been braiding cobra weave horse reins. I have lobster snaps on each end. I carefully measure, as the reins must be exactly 8 feet from the tip of one snap to the tip of the other. I clip each end to a stationary object, stretched across a room. As I braid, the line begins to sag. When I finish, the reins have "grown" about six inches!

What am I doing wrong? This has happened on three sets of reins. Is this normal?

FYI, UNbraiding is not nearly as fun as BRAIDING.

[Stormdrane]

550 paracord is nylon, which can and will stretch a bit, and some types(450 and 650) will shrink, so some folks soak it in hot water and run it through a dryer to preshrink it before tying with it.  Longer projects like reins and leashes may experience stretching or shrinking of a much more noticeable length than you find with smaller bracelet type projects like lanyards, fobs, and bracelets.

I've not tied any horse tack, but I think some of the folks over at ubraidit.com might be able to better help you with your project since they have a lot of experience with your particular task. ;)

[ArtByNancy]

Thanks! And don't you guys laugh, but a quick & easy way to pull a cord through a tight stitch is to use a crochet hook.

[Sundevildaddy]

Just made this band (without watch).. for aesthetics, I added (2) 1" welded metal rings (from old dog harnesses), overlapped, and configured in an Endless Loop, in the middle of the band, using the outer bight, skipping 2, outer bight (catching both rings) skipping 2, then outer bight, then finishing up the band as instructed.
I was afraid of loosing some of the integrity of the weave, but just ensure I kept it tight as i went.

From a survivalist perspective, you can never have too much hardware (weight/size minimal of course) and these rings, with the para-chord have hundreds of uses.

I, missed the mark on measuring total length at the start, so wound up a little short. Needless to say, my daughter loves it (black para w/ chrome rings).. now I have half a dozen tweens begging me for one... how can a dad say no? *eyeballs Stormdrane... (sarcastic) thanks ;p
lol I love your work - Thank you for the Instructables!
~Sun

[SIRJAMES09]

Q:
can the watch band be woven in 2 pieces?? That way it does not cross under the watch & if needs be, you would have unobstructed access to the watch battery....

I know that it would be 2x the work, but....

you know more about this than I do that's why I ask.

[Stormdrane]

Yep, you can do the bands in two pieces, each connecting to a buckle part and the pins of the watch. It's a bit harder getting the sizing right, but you can figure it out as you go... Here's a link from my blog with a few examples:

http://stormdrane.blogspot.com/2006/03/blog-post_114288848922910049.html

[SIRJAMES09]

THAT WAS AN AWESOME INSTRUCTABLE!!!!

I never knew hw they wove this cord, Thank you for teaching me how it's done!!
Now that I know how it's done, I have all kinds of project ideas!!!

TY again for sharing!!

[kopomeroy]

Your photos are some of the best I've seen. A lot of care went into making them so that they would clearly show the critical steps.

[godofal]

i completely agree, nice instructable! i might make one for my dad since i gave him a watch, but the leather is kind of short... il just ask him if he likes it ;)

[wizcling68]

If you took the time to MAKE a gift rather it shows that it's personal to you that you did it for him. Clap Clap I applaud you

[Dlanca1]

This would be a good Father's Day gift!

[Jerry99]

What do you do when you have to replace the watch battery ??

[Stormdrane]

Remove one of the watch pins, remove and replace battery at the now accessible backside of the watch, Then replace watch pin back under the paracord. You can also remove both watch pins to change to a different watch, using the same paracord band. This applies to the other patterns of paracord watchbands too.

[Ianoath]

I also wondered how the watch battery would be replaced. I did not think about removing the pins, but I also wondered, do you think it is possible to make two separate bands to attach to the pins instead of making one single band for the watch? On another note, I just completed a watch band following this and am very pleased!

[Stormdrane]

Yes, you could make different watchbands/different colors to swap out with your watch just by removing the pins. Using the same watchband with another watch would depend on if the other watch was about the same size, as the original watch it was tied on, with enough space for the cord to fit around the pins...

[Jackstools]

Very nice, thank you, your photos made this project very easy and fun

[rozalinda]

very nice....thanks.

[Chimex14]

Me gusta :)

[remmer]

super

[Chewie42]

Thanks Storm it worked out great

[kalmahot]

bueno =D

[173]

 This thing is friggin awesome!!!!!!!! It even looks better that it's on a NRA watch.

[rocketmen2k5]

AWESOME IDEA!
I can see this watch band outliving me :-) 

[iangates]

I couldn't fit the cord under the watch pins.  So I took the 7 cores out of my cord for necessity.   It turned out pretty nice.  It's seems flatter.  I also didn't have a lighter, so I just stuff the ends all the way through the middle loops to the watch.  That gave the middle a slight hump.              All of this saved me from having to buy a new watch over here at Kandahar Air Field.  They are pretty expensive here for some reason :|    Thanks for this.

[nmc4477]

Noel
looks very good.  Thanks for the instructions.

[Bubz.TH]

Thanks for this Instructable!! I'm doing this tonight

[amandets]

Good job, it is great!!!

[BeadHeadBug]

looks good. Nice job.

[jonnyringo893]

reak quick........do you gut the cord before you do this or do you leave it intact?

[Stormdrane]

I leave the inner strands intact. You can gut the cord, but it requires more care in keeping the cord from twisting as you weave, to keep a neat appearance, and the amount of cord may also vary as you can weave more cord into the same space with the thinner gutted cord.

[craftycrafter]

I made this as a bracelet and added beeds came out real nice .Great project for a class or group