Paracord guild Empowering the paracord community.
Today I show off one of the most popular paracord lighter wraps.
I made a lighter wrap using half hitches today. The idea and the first lighter wraps made this way were shown by Manuel Zambrano and inspired me to make my own. Manuel was kind enough to provide plenty of tips which made my work a lot easier and I used a couple of tricks I learned over the years as well.
The paracord lighter wrap made with half hitches is beautiful and would make a really considerate gift to a loved one. It takes time and effort to make though, so it is probably not the most profitable thing around!
The project indeed tested my patience and also my paracord untangling skills. At the end I was really quite well versed in untangling it, making the process a lot faster. I highly recommend you try this project, the wrap is gorgeous!
Items needed to make the paracord lighter wrap
The items needed are pretty much standard supplies for making paracord projects.
- paracord 550, about 12 feet of it
- a paracord lacing needle. You can buy one online or make one using my tutorial on how to make a paracord lacing needle. I can not imagine doing this project without it.
- a lighter and a pair of scissors.
- I also used a cord lock. It is entirely optional, but I like using these. They look nice and work great.
How to make a paracord lighter wrap- the process
The process of making the lighter wrap is quite simple. Using the half hitches we travel row by row down the lighter until we reach a desired length. I used 10 hitches per row, which I found was perfect! It was tight enough to hold the lighter, while also still manageable to work with.
I started by wrapping the lighter with a smaller piece of paracord (the red cord, as shown in the tutorial below) and securing it on with a cord lock. After that, it is all just hitching, row after row. Interestingly enough, in my case it was 10 rows, meaning I did one hundred half hitches exactly!
As mentioned. you may experience some tangling. The trick is to simply develop the feeling of how to untangle the cord. You simply rotate, turn the cord onto one side. If it untangles, great, if not, rotate in the opposite direction. When you will get the hang of it, you will be able to do it a lot faster and will knot what direction to rotate the cord in.
A few images of the process:
The video:
