Fire Inside: A Review of UST Paratinder

As we go through the five C’s, I’ve unintentionally have been ranking them in order of importance. The next set will contain knives, which I believe is the most important. With a good knife you can do or make anything. But immediately after that, I’ve got to give it to cordage. Whether it’s putting up your shelter, lashing together a tripod for cooking, and can even be used in the fire making process if made from natural materials.

Unfortunately for us, most of our cordage is either paracord or bank line, and being synthetic, it melts instead of burns. In David Canterbury’s book Bushcraft 101 chapter 3, page 71 under rope, he says,

 “Unlike cord, I prefer my rope to be of a natural material such as hemp. The main reason for this is its flammability, which aids in fire-making and when creating a bird’s nest.”

You should have a synthetic cord at a diameter smaller than ¼” and a natural rope being bigger than ¼” for the fire making process. But, what if we have a ¼” cordage that would burn, yet have the strength of paracord or bank line? UST have made 550 paracord with one of the seven strands being flammable, unlike the others. Before we get into the review, I want to state as always, “I am not being paid to endorse this item. I paid for it with my own money under my own volition. My review is genuine and accounts are from my, and mine alone, experiences with this item.” And with that, let’s get into the review!

So, it’s paracord with a flammable cord, big deal right? Just tell us, is it good or bad? End the blog there, right? Well I actually spent a little more time on it than just that. I wanted to make sure that the paracord I bought was just as good as or better than the paracord I already had. There would be no point in carrying paracord that would only be good for starting fires. I decided that I would first start off seeing how well it put up a ridge line. I used the Siberian Hitch and the Trucker’s Hitch and both knots held just as well as any other paracord. The ridge line itself held well, just like it always does, so no noticeable difference.

Next, while I was out there I wanted to try my lashings. I tied my Clove Hitch, wrapped it three times in the square formation, frapped three times, and tied off with a Clove Hitch on a bight. This also held just as well as the bank line lashing we did last week.

Next I wanted to cut open the paracord and see what I was getting inside. When broken down, I had the mantle in a bright orange and grey pattern, the customary seven strands slightly pinkened I assume from the fire starter, and last is the Firestarter itself which seemed slightly thicker than any of the other seven strands. Right out of the box you will notice while looking at the end of the cord, the seven fire starting strands surrounding the fire starting core.

The next three tests involved the seven strands more than any other part of the cord. First I tested feeding it through a needle for sewing purposes. It did fine with this and since it did fine at this, it means it would be fine to be used as fishing line in case of an emergency. Next, taking a fishing jighead, I fashioned a small end of the paracord into a fishing lure. This again made a very nice lure, especially with the bright orange.

After all of these tests, I concluded that this paracord was on par with any other 550 paracord purchased from UST. So with all that done, I decided to move on to the fire starting core. After trying all of the fire starting methods I could (ferro rod and magnifying glass) the only thing that actually got it to light was direct flame from a lighter. While lit, the flammable core worked more like a match than anything else. It was still susceptible to wind, water, and oxygen deprivation. But, it did give an extended burn. Adding this to part of a bird’s nest would greatly improve your success in producing a flame. Once the flame was out, the cord was reduced to ash and could not be used as char-cloth.

Overall, if you were buying paracord, it couldn’t hurt to pick up this product to try for yourself. Having your items multitask for you is what every bushcrafter needs to look for when purchasing gear. Next week we will be having two pieces of equipment battling it out for your primary cutting tool position. One will be a fixed blade knife, and the other, I’ll let you guess. Comment below before 11 pm EST July 22^nd, 2017. The first person with the correct answer will get a shoutout in the next blog!  As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.