Club Obi Wan

I have a quick parachute cord question:

Do any of you nylon whipmakers out there rinse or wash your parachute cord before you make a whip out of it?

I've thrown together about 4 nylon whips in the last couple of days, and the last set I took outside and cracked them in the rain (they weren't waxed) and the plaiting that got wet tightened up.

(And I DID take the core out of the cord before using it. I've heard of bad things happening to parachute cord whips that used cord with the core left in)

I had plaited the whips as stiff as I wanted them, and was kind of miffed when the lower halves of the whips tightened up.

The only thing I could think of to fix the problem was to pre-shrink the cord by washing it before plaiting. I wondered if anyone else was doing this.

-Adam

Adam, I don't do that, but I do wet the handle/transition and knots and dry before sending them out. That way they start as stiff as they are ever going to be, and break in normally.
Ron

I've made just a few nylons, and I was curious as to whether flattening the cord would really help that much in plaiting. Just for experimentation, I took out my iron, and set the steam to high. As I flattened everything out, I could feel the cord shrinking and pulling out from under my hand. I guess you could do that before hand to cut down on shrinking after it's made, or just plait slightly looser. The former would probably make the tightness more consistent.

-Will

Iv never made a nylon whip but i remember reading some where (I think on a website selling Para Cord) that they highly recommend pre shrinkage. THen let it dry so that it is kind of a mixture of tight and loose
or something like that i cant completly remember.

ill try and find that again

Hey Adam, I always soak my nylon in cold water before i start. It does shrink when it gets wet for the first time. After that you should be fine. as for the Turks head and transition knot i get those wet after i braid them. Keep the good work and the cool videos

winrichwhips wrote:I've thrown together about 4 nylon whips in the last couple of days...

Firstly, how do you throw together 4 whips in a couple days?!

Secondly, I have to echo what darksideman said. I made a couple whips that I didn't preshrink the cord on. That was a BIG mistake.

willthebold wrote:...or just plait slightly looser.

is this a good option? plait loosely then make the whip shrink in water to tighten it up? or will the plaiting bunch up on certain areas?

Don't plait loosely, no matter what material you are working with, just a bad idea. Also it is all about personal preference when it comes to washing your para cord before plaiting.

Keep Crackin,
James

WOAH!
adam askes questions????
to who do i look up to now?

Shouldn't that be "to whom..."

LJ

I purchased some nylon cord which was core-less... Problem is it doesn't seem to wanna flatten out. Hehe... I tried to make a whip out of it... Didn't turn out hat well in terms of looks, but it does crack easily (and hit me on the shoulder blade easily).