I measured my wrist four times last Tuesday evening using a cloth tape measure from one of those sewing kits I definitely didn’t order, scribbled each figure on a Post-it note then sat and had an internal debate with myself about which measurement was “correct.” Four measurements. One wrist. Somehow convinced myself it measured between 16.5cm and 17.8cm depending on how tight I pulled the tape and whether I was sat or stood, flexed or relaxed. To what end? Clearly not my own sanity, because that’s no way to live. It’s because that stupid bracelet I’d made the week previously for my friend’s fortith had turned out far too big and spun round his wrist like a tiny hula hoop every time he raised his beer.
He was too polite to say anything and wore the hateful thing all night.
I watched it spin. It was embarrassing.
I hate to be that person but that’s the thing nobody tells you when you first start tying cord into knots that you’re then expected to give some unsuspecting bloke to wear outside the house. Getting a cord bracelet to the right size is two challenges blended into one tricky crossword. You’ve got the wrist itself to measure, but it’s deceitful little sucker that is far more slippery a figure than it has any right to be. And then you have whatever knot or clasp you’re finishing the bracelet with eating into your cord length, in a way that I can confirm from experience will catch out 99% of people whenever they do it for the first time. Get either measurement wrong and you either end up choking him in the office or consign his wrist to an eternity of doing the beer hula hoop. I’ve done both….trust me, I’ve earned the right to wax lyrical about this.
Your Wrist Isn’t One Number, It’s Two And They Shift Around
The thing that took me entirely too long to realise was this: when you measure your wrist, that number is not, in fact, the number you should be building your bracelet up to. It’s simply the starting point that then needs adjusting to account for whatever it is you’re actually going to be wearing the cord around, and that was where my first disaster lied buried. My friends wrist measured about 17.2cm around but when I adjusted that bracelet to fit 17.2cms snug as hell and retested it the next day with him wearing a watch on the same wrist, it jumped ship and moved up his forearm to accommodate, leaving him with a bracelet that looked like it’d been booted out. Nobody mentions that most men will stack the living daylights on this thing next to watches, wedding rings, body jewellery and one or two other bracelets and if you size down to nothing but skin and bone, you’re sizing down to wrists that will hardly ever be seen in day to day life.
What else did I completely miss the first time around? The vast difference between how different materials need to actually sit on that wrist. Take leather. Leather has structure to it. It holds it’s shape and hangs beautifully against the arm even when you make it fit nice and loose. Cord, especially the thinner varieties, likes no such things. Waxed cotton or thinner paracords just droops wherever it wants regardless of how tight you make it, meaning that while yes your fitting it to the right circumference it will still look wrong against the arm because it’s not sitting in line with the wrist’s actual shape. Now I measure how the cord hangs when I’ve tied it around the wrist and then, unless I’m going with a fixed clasp, I add at least another centimetre or so to that number. Sometimes two centimetres if I’m not using a clasp that limits movement. That might not sound like much but with a sliding knot you want that extra bit of wiggle room because a fixed clasp does not forgive in the same way.
Your Chosen Knot Is Secretly Eating Away At Your Cord
I hate to say I told you so but…you told me so. Actually knotting the blasted thing together is the bit that bit me on the bum and I say that as somebody who read every article on wrist measurement I could find before starting. You get your wrist measurement, you decide how much slack you want and cut your cord to that length feeling very pleased with yourself then promptly start tying sliding knots at either end and watch, in slow motion as your over estimated bracelet suddenly becomes two or three centimetres too small because holy shit the knot alone takes up cord length. Knots cost free cord, every wrap around the two cords to create that adjustable slider is cord you’ll never get back once it’s tied and if you haven’t accounted for it when cutting there’s absolutely nothing for it except yelling “FOR FUCKS SAKE!” because you’ve discovered you need more cord at the absolute worst point in the build.
The solution, and this is something I wish I’d known up front rather than finding out the hard way with a doomed length of 2mm waxed cotton, is to ALWAYS cut too long, not too short. Give yourself tons of cord length at the start and trim back at the end. Not the other way around.
I always allow another 8-10cms of cord just for the knotting up top no matter what style I’m making because that’s simply not an area you ever want to be pinching pennies on.
How that knot behaves depends entirely on what you’re using it on. Thin paracord is incredibly forgiving because it stretches and doesn’t unravel the second you look at it wrong but genuine leather cord or thinner wax cord will punish you for every uneven wrap, every sloppy corner and every miscalculation because you have nowhere to hide. Tie that sliding knot too tight in leather and try to loosen back down and feel how much damage you’re doing to those cords, then try that with a thinner material. You’ll see why cutting short is basically a terminal mistake and cutting long just means an extra ten seconds snipping off excess at the end.
No, there isn’t a magic number every bloke’s wrist fits into, and cord length can not be one fixed size and fit every bracelet ever made. If anyone tries and sell you that scenario they’re selling you a kit with no real solution attached. The wrist is one beast to measure correctly and allow for when designing your length, and that knot you’ll be tying on the ends will always take up more length than you think it will. Get those two things right and your bracelet will sit like it was meant to sit. Ignore them at your peril and you’ll have hula hoop.
