Buddy's Dog Collar

Supply List

• Para Cord -5 colors or a total of 40 feet (5 colors 8ft each) Recommend 5 different colors for pattern to show
• Reflective Para Cord Survival Dog Buckle w/ D-ring
• Kumihimo Flat Plate
• Scissors, pencil
• E6000, and or Needle and thread (for finishing)
• Lighter, fast drying glue (for melting/sealing the ends of the cord to prevent fraying)
• 1 German silver Dog Tag and 1 heavy duty jump ring
• Metal Complex Stamp Embossing Set
• Hammer, Chasing Hammer or Rubber Mallet
• Bench Block (nylon and steel recommended)
• Guilder Paste Black
• *Optional – Metal Embossing Templates and Big Kick Embossing Machine (for background design)

Notes: This makes a large/ X Large sized dog collar 21” around, increase or decrease length of cording to fit your dogs’ neck

Directions

1. Cut 5 pieces of Para Cord 8ft long each. Melt all ends of cord to prevent fraying.
2. Thread each cord through one end of your buckle, arrange in desired order, and pull cords through until equal parts are on both sides.
3. To load Kumihimo Disk, push the buckle end of the folded cords through the center hole and hold onto the buckle. Now arrange the cord into the slots as follows: From lightest to darkest arrange your cord in notches 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 on the top of the Kumihimo plate and notches 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 on the bottom of the plate.
4. Now begin with the disk so that the lowest numbers are the farthest away from you. Take the cord in notch 4 and lift it over and lay it into the notch “E”. Now take the cord at the bottom in notch 14 and lift it up and over the plate and put it into notch “e”. Take the cord in notch 15 and move it into notch 4, now move the cord in notch 5 to notch 15.
5. Take the cord in notch 16 and lift it over the plate and lay it into notch 5. Move the cord in notch 6 into notch 16; continue by moving the cord in notch 7 to notch 17, move notch 18 into notch 7, then move notch 8 into notch 18.
6. Move the cord in notch “e” into notch 8 and then move ”E” into notch “e”, then move notch 4 into notch “E” and you have returned to your first move from step 4.
7. Keep repeating steps 4-6 until you have created roughly 1-2 inches of braid, add the “D” ring into the braid and continue until you have reached desired length for dog collar.
8. Once you have braided enough cord you will need to finish it off. Not all of the Para cord will fit through the opposite end of the buckle, so you will need to stitch (for extra security) or glue 1 of each color cord to itself on what will be the inside of the collar. Cut, (melt ends) and glue/stitch one cord at a time so that you do not lose the braid. If gluing let totally dry before going to the next step.
9. Once stitched/glued then thread the remaining 5 cords through the buckle and bend back toward the inside of the collar, trim past the previously glued/stitched ends so that they are covered, and or reinforce stitched. Trim, and melt the ends (pushing the melted ends into the body of the braid to hold in place (one cord at a time). Glue or stitch the cords securely to the collar.

*Highly recommend sewing the cord ends down, and locking in all ten of the cords, especially if you have a pet that might but strain on the collar, as this will be the weakest part of the collar.

Dog Tag Directions

*Optional~ Back ground design: If you would like to have a background design on your tag, you will want to do this first. We used the Big Kick metal embossing machine and a template to crate the pattern in the background of our tag.

1. Place your tag on your bench block, and pencil in the wording you would like to emboss.
2. Position Metal stamp over your penciled wording, (each metal stamp is embossed to help you determine which direction the letters should go) making sure to have the embossed words on the stamp facing you.
3. To emboss, hit the hammer to the stamp with one good blow (not two!), to permanently stamp the metal tag. *recommend practicing on a similar metal prior to creating your piece, to become familiar with how hard to hit the stamp, too light and the letters won’t show up well, too hard and you can warp the tag.
4. After stamping, you may need to gently hammer the tag back flat. A rubber mallet is best, but a chasing hammer will also work.
5. Once you have your pets name embossed onto the tag, use the Guilders paste to highlight the recessed areas. Use a small piece of terry cloth and rub the guilders paste until you have plenty on the cloth, then rub the guilders paste into the crevasses, continue rubbing to remove excess color from surface.
6. Find the center of the braided collar and attach your tag with the heavy duty jump ring to the bottom cord of the braid.