Paracord Bracelet With a Side Release Buckle

by Stormdrane

5.1M4.6K798

Intro: Paracord Bracelet With a Side Release Buckle

This tutorial will show how to make a paracord bracelet with a side release buckle. This can be worn as jewelry, and unlike chain, it allows you to store several feet or rope on your person at all times. When made on a larger scale, this can also be used as a dog or cat collar.

A reliable online source of paracord is Amazon.com. They carry a huge selection of cord in colors ranging from army green to rainbow.

More projects, links, and knot references can be viewed on my blog page, Stormdrane's Blog.

STEP 1: Materials

You'll need paracord, or equivalent 1/8" diameter cord, a tape measure or ruler, scissors, side release buckle, and a lighter (torch lighter works best). The amount of cord used can vary, but for this example we'll use 10 feet of paracord to start with. Actual amount of cord used for the bracelet is about 1 foot of cord for every 1 inch of knotted bracelet length. So if your wrist is 8 inches you'd use approximately 8 feet of cord.

STEP 2: Measure Wrist

Wrap the paracord around you wrist and make a note of where the cord meets. Hold this point next to your ruler or tape measure and that's your wrist size.

STEP 3: Find the Center of the Cord

Hold the ends of the cord together and find the center of the loop. Take the center of the cord and pull it thru one end of the buckle (either side of the buckle, it doesn't matter). Now pull the cord ends thru the loop until it's tightened up and attached to the buckle.

STEP 4: Finding the Bracelet Length

Take buckle apart and and pull the free ends of the cord thru the other part of the buckle, sliding it up towards the attached part. You're going to measure the distance between the two buckle ends for the bracelet size for your wrist. Add about 1 inch to your measured wrist length, this will make the finished bracelet a comfortable fit. You're measuring from the end of the female part of the buckle to the flat part of the male end of the buckle (the part with the prongs, they don't count for the measurement because the fit inside the female part of the buckle when the bracelet is closed).

STEP 5: Start Making the Knots

The knot used for the bracelet has a few different names, cobra stitch, Solomon bar, and Portuguese sinnet. Take the cord on the left side and place it under the center strands running between the buckle ends. Now take the cord on the right side under the left side cord, over the center strands, and thru the loop of the left side cord. Tighten up the cords so the half knot you just formed is next to the buckle. Now take the right side cord under the center strands. The left side cord goes under the right side cord, over the center strands and thru the loop of the right side cord. Tighten up the cords (not too tight, just until they meet the resistance of the knot) and now you have a completed knot. You will continue doing this alternating the left and right sides as you go. If you don't alternate, you'll quickly see a twisting of the knots, just undo the last knot and alternate it to correct.

STEP 6: Continue Knotting

Keep tying the knots until you have filled the space between the buckle ends. The knots should be uniform from one end to the other. Tie each knot with the same tension to keep the them all the same size.

STEP 7: Trim the Excess Cord and Melt the Ends

You can now use your scissors to trim off the extra cord close to the last knot that you tied. I trim one at a time and use my lighter to quickly melt the end I cut. Wait a second for the melted cord to cool just a bit and then use my thumb to press the melted end onto the surrounding cord so it hardens as it attaches. You must be careful with this step. The melted cord is extremely hot, and it's possible to get burned, so you might also try using a soldering iron or wood burning tool for the melting step if you wish. Or even use something like a butter knife, the side of your lighter, or the knurled section of a tool to flatten out the melted end of the cord to finish it.

An alternative to melting the ends, is to tuck/pull the ends under the last couple of knots (I have used hemostats to do this on the inside of the bracelet) then trim them to finish. It does work, and is just barely noticeable as the cords add a slight bulge at that end of the bracelet.

STEP 8: You're Finished

If you did everything correctly, it should look something like this finished one. Once you know what you're doing you can vary the amount of cord used by making the knots tighter or looser and pushing the knots closer together as you go.

A tip for paracord bracelets: If the side release buckle is large enough, you can loop the paracord around them again before you start knotting, to fill in the extra room on the buckle.

The 1/2" side release buckles are a tight fit for this, but will work, and the 5/8" size are just right.

This leaves a two strand core for the bracelet when you start knotting.

Now, you could also have a four strand core by starting with a lark's head on the first buckle end, double wrap on the second buckle end (at your wrist size), run the cord back to and over the first buckle end, and then start knotting over the four strand core.

Or, for a six strand core, lark's head the first buckle, run the two strands around the second buckle (at your wrist size), back to and around the first buckle (now has four strands around), then back to and around the second buckle, and then start knotting around the six core strands.

This gives extra cord in case you need it for whatever, but it also makes the paracord bracelets thicker and more rounded, which I personally didn't care for and that's why I stick with the two strand core. YMMV

STEP 9: Other Variations

Once you have the hang of the basic bracelet/collar, you can add another layer of cobra stitches overlapping the first set of knots, called a king cobra stitch/doubled Solomon bar/doubled Portuguese sinnet. The amount of cord used for a king cobra is about twice as much as for the regular stitch. Both the 1/16" and 3/32" sizes work well for the bracelets and can be used alone or combined with paracord.

Glow-in-the-dark paracord is available now, found from various online vendors and on ebay, but I've not used any myself, so I couldn't say if it's any good or not, or how long it glows.

702 Comments

sixtrees 14 years ago

Great job,  you inspired me to make one of my own. I didn't have a snap buckle though, so I modified mine.

fiftyoneman 14 years ago

 This looks great - do you have an instructable on how you did it? I can't work it out from the photos.

sixtrees 14 years ago

OK, I don't think I need to post a full instructable for my bracelet because I just combined two posted instructables. But I will tell you what I did.
Measure your paracord according to stormdraines version, but add 1 foot. Tie the knot that is in this version. https://www.instructables.com/id/In_and_out_Knot_and_loop_Bracelet/
So I started it like kcardwel's but instead of tieing it to furniture and using a seperate piece of cord, I braided it like stormdraine. The end part was a little tricky. I braided it to the end until there was only enough room to fit the two loose ends of cord through the loop. I had one slightly longer end so I used that one to form the loop for the  big knot, I think I tied a knot so the loop was in place. I then loosely wrapped the ends around the loop 3 times and then fed the cord through those loops (like a noose). I then pulled them tight and ran them down under the braids of the bracelet.  
Hope this helps :)

onlyHischild 6 years ago

A little late, sixtrees, but could you explain the steps of your modification for not having a buckle?

JeiaN 7 years ago

How did you do that loop?!?!?!?

darman12 10 years ago

I love the loop, how did you do it?

Matthew23 8 years ago

I've got a 15$ Paracord bracelet for free HERE.

BigAndRed 8 years ago

only for USA, the rest of the world dosn't exist.

BoJ7 7 years ago

The rest of WHAT?!

-Tim in USA

BigAndRed 7 years ago

refer to coment above
(Matthew23
I've got a 15$ Paracord bracelet for free HERE.)
When you click onto link and fill in address, there is only USA in countries list, therefore my coment. This is typical of companies in Usa not sending out to the rest of the world.

awsome pie 14 years ago

Wow that bracelet looks awesome u should make an instructable for that if you haven't already tell me when you do.

hoft62 4 years ago

I have used the glow in the dark cord, works well and glows well. Our 12 year old, thinks it's pretty cool. Give it a try, u will like it.

jorgemath 4 years ago

I will do mine following your instructions. Thanks.

DanT130 6 years ago

would a 3/8 buckle work for this project

Stormdrane 6 years ago

Yes, a 3/8" buckle will work with this project.

ChristinaR91 6 years ago

My 12 year old son is making this for his Dad and friends for Christmas this year. Thanks for the tutorial, he was able to follow along and is pleased with the results!

onlyHischild 6 years ago

I'd love to know the buckle brand. GOOD buckles are hard to find.

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