Most excellant John. Shock cord is always needed and a good local source is greatly appreciated.

Will the Kevlar have sewn loops in the ends? What about three point harnesses? Thanks

John - will this be the stuff that I almost borrowed of yours for my L3? If so it would be awesome to have some local.

Go with knots - I've seen kevlar sewn loops come apart under energetic events.

Edward

I am not having the loops sewn for the material that I am offering. I'm a knot guy. Regarding knots vs. sewing - any of you who have ever been TAP'd by me know that I encourage knots over sewing. I know this will spawn about 7 threads and 27 responses, but let me say here and now - I am a knot guy.

Exhibit "A" is that I failed an L3 attemt due to a failed seam that was sewn. Perfect flight, but the piston strap gave way when the main deployed. I personally cut away all my sewn loops and started tying a "turle" knot for all my flights after that flight. I can teach you that knot in a few seconds. I have never (ever) had a knot fail me.

Exhibit "B" is that any of us who have ever done rock climbing typically trust knots over sewing.

This is NOT an indictment against those who have sewn loops. You have to do what is comfortable. Having said that, anyone who looks over my shoulder when I fly - and I fly a fair amount of big stuff - will see that I fly with knots.

Finally, Edward - yes, the stuff I am bringing in is what I showed you and offered to lend to you -- so I am stocking that material. It is good stuff.

JW

One clarification on the knot thing - I don't tie loops into the end of the line. The knots I use slip down tight to the quick link (or eyebolt or whatever) and are one-way knots. In other words, the tighter the tension, the tighter the knot gets. The tag end of the knot can be pulled and the knot quickly opens up.

I tape the tag end to the line, and I've never had one of these open up during a flight. I have had the line fail elsewhere though - on a ballistic deployment, the cord broke in the middle. The knots held... though in that case they were cinched pretty tight 😯

for years and have not had one fail.

It's one of those things I learned from scouting and have applied throughout my camping, sailing, and rocketry.

I am curious about your turle knot...

So far, I've nothing fail rocket wise because of a knot. (Now I've jinxed myself!)

I had a home sewn loop fail once. But, the rocket shredded at well over mach at the time.

On most rockets I tie a bowline in the kevlar and tape the free end of the line back to the shock cord - right at the knot. I use electrical tape. I do this to keep the slippery kevlar knot from loosening up. This seems to work well for both round cord as well as the braid.

Yet, I have never had a GLR sewn Kevlar loop fail (Joe sells these now). Nylon yes, which is why I only use Kevlar. Yet, Event Horizon used a Nylon shock cord. To each his own.

Nylon has a place, too - though not where heat is an issue. I sometimes use nylon above a piston. I often go without a drogue on my dual deploys, so I just cram the Kevlar in there and go for it.

I found a Kevlar drogue chute years ago. The few times I have used it, I didn't have to worry about anything - no Nomex, no nuthin' - just put it in there and away you go.

Amen.