How could a paracord bracelet help you in a survival scenario? One word: fire. The survival bracelets craze has slowly receded but it is still going. That’s why I’m writing on the usefulness of a paracord bracelet beyond the fashion statement.
How much of a survival aid is a paracord bracelet?
Depends on your skills. If you can reliably carve a bow drill kit out of local materials and start a friction fire, then it’s a decent aid. But then why don’t you just carry a lighter instead?
Rewild University shows us what you can do with a paracord bracelet and excellent skills:
How much can you do with just 7 ft (2.1m) of paracord?
Yeah, you can take the 7 inner strands and tie them together with the outer sheath to give you about 50 ft of really thin cord, but then what? You can fish with it if you have a fishing hook, but food is not really a survival priority in the short term anyways.
If your looking into making your own paracord bracelet I suggest you weave it in a way that it can be deployed quickly. Many paracord bracelets take a long time to to undo.
Practice carving a bow drill and starting a fire in the field only using your paracord bracelet, otherwise just keep in mind that it’s probably not going to help you in a survival situation.
People have come up with the idea of cramming as much “survival” gear as possible into these paracord bracelets.
I really doubt you’ll be able or even need to snare anything with your survival bracelet. Having a compass and a ferro rod with striker in your bracelet is not a bad idea and means that it can actually be useful for someone with no friction fire skills.
The biggest asset of a survival bracelet is that you always have it with you. So if you pair a simple survival bracelet with solid bow drill skills then you have a pretty good survival aid. Otherwise just carry a lighter in your pocket.
The ability of starting a fire is a game changer, particularly in a survival situation. With fire you can boil water, cook, send a smoke signal, illuminate the night, stay warm etc. Fire is the ultimate survival aid, That’s why carrying reliable means of starting a fire is the basis for any survival kit.
