HOW TO STORE YOUR PARACORD AND RIDGELINE:

1. Open hand and spread fingers apart. Place one end of the cordage over your hand,
between the webbing of your thumb and index finger.
2. Place the cordage across the palm in between the little finger and ring finger. 
3. Come around the little finger across to around the thumb.
4. Wrap around the little finger again.
5. Continue wrapping a figure of eight around the thumb and little finger.
6. When you have a few feet left, take off the hank.
7. Wrap the tail end around the hank.
8. Place your little finger down and wrap over it.
9. Insert the tag end where your finger was and create a half hitch or clove hitch.
10. Cinch down and tighten the hank of cordage.

Paracord storage and ridgeline tips:

A slippery hitch can also be used to

secure the hank, as per image below of
the blue paracord. This makes it easy to
pull out either end of if needed.

Above photograph, the green ridgeline

has three prusik loops already attached.
The prusik loops are useful on the quick
deploy ridgeline, so a tarp shelter can be
adjusted easily. To learn how to tie the
knot click on Prusik Knot. The carabiners
just make it easier to attach to a tarp. If
the carabiners break or get lost, a stick
or stake can easily be used instead.

When finishing the hank, by wrapping the end bit of cordage around itself, it doesn’t really
matter which way you wind it. Either wind up or down along the hank itself.

Over a certain length of paracord, you are better off storing it on a winder. Like a
homemade, DIY cardboard cord winder, or a brought paracord ladder winder or spool. Or
coil the rope.

You can also hank Mariners’ bank line, hoochie cord, Nano paracord and micro cord as
well. For thicker ropes, it doesn’t work well as the hand can only hold so much cordage.

If you have a few hanks or cordage in your backpack, to keep it free from snagging other
items in your pack, you might put it in a dedicated bag, like a dry bag.

A large loop, tied with a bowline on one end of the ridgeline is handy. You can pass the
whole hank of cordage through the loop if you want to go around a tree trunk to secure
one end.

For bushcraft and survival use, having a small hank of paracord or bank line in your
pocket is handy for securing shelters, making snares, and lashing tripods, etc. Making
natural cordage is time consuming, so having a small hank of cordage on you, saves a lot
of time and doesn’t take up much space or weight. The ends of the paracord or cordage
can fray and become messy. Burn the ends, or put a stopper knot like a simple overhand
knot or figure eight knot on the ends to prevent them fraying.