My Paracord came on Wednesday and the tensioners on Thursday. So before site matters took over I set about the hub and guys. Here is my nice new 100m drum of 3mm Paracord, the construction of this diameter is 3 central twisted strands around a single core so actually 4 and then surrounded by the woven outer shield. Its all of synthetic construction and can be sealed with heat to stop fraying, this batch is Army Green.
While I was waiting for the tensioners to come I couldn't resist testing a couple of loop knots that I thought I might use to fasten the guys to the hub. I found a couple of rings to try them on, first is a Single Davy.
and the second a Double Davy tested on the little pocket knife steel.
Both are essentially the same knot but the double passes twice through the forming loop and I reckon tightens down a lot neater. Both are self tightening under strain. I tried both of these on the hub but found that once tightened down there was no flexibility or give at the joint so I considered a fixed loop variant but it is quite hard to tie these and produce four with the same loop. I abandoned any other variants and decided to just apply the KISS principle. Here is the hub with the guys securely attached but still loose and articulate, I have just used a simple double loop knot, it wont pull through the hole and does the job. I have trimmed off the ends and heat sealed them.
On to the business end with the small aluminium tensioners.
Here they are attached with the same double loop knot.
Testing to make sure I have them the right way.
Gathered, wrapped and ready to go.
A bit of basic geometry told me they needed to be at least 2.8m long, I have made them 3.5m, any surplus can be taken up with the tensioner and its better to have too much than not enough.
