How to cut a sling or rope if you don't have a knife but have some cord

In a couple of the current threads discussing fixed webbing it has been mentioned that you need a knife to cut off old webbing or to cut a sewn sling.  I generally only carry a knife with me if I know I'm going to be leaving slings and gear to establish a rap route.  Normally I just have a piece of 6mm cord that I use to hold my chalk bag.  The piece of cord serves a few purposes; one is I can use it to tie a prusik, two is I can easily leave it at an anchor, and third is I can use it to cut off old tat or cut sewn dyneema slings.  I get the feeling that a lot of people don't realize you can use a piece of cord to cut webbing or even the rope.  It is really simple, pass the cord through the piece you want to cut, then apply a little tension to the webbing, and then start sawing the cord back and forth.  Takes about 10 seconds to cut a dyneema sling.

For all you visual learners I made a short video showing how to do it.  It is slightly lower production quality than some of the videos I work on but I think you will get the point...

Mikey Schaeferwrote:

In a couple of the current threads discussing fixed webbing it has been mentioned that you need a knife to cut off old webbing or to cut a sewn sling.  I generally only carry a knife with me if I know I'm going to be leaving slings and gear to establish a rap route.  Normally I just have a piece of 6mm cord that I use to hold my chalk bag.  The piece of cord serves a few purposes; one is I can use it to tie a prusik, two is I can easily leave it at an anchor, and third is I can use it to cut off old tat or cut sewn dyneema slings.  I get the feeling that a lot of people don't realize you can use a piece of cord to cut webbing or even the rope.  It is really simple, pass the cord through the piece you want to cut, then apply a little tension to the webbing, and then start sawing the cord back and forth.  Takes about 10 seconds to cut a dyneema sling.

For all you visual learners I made a short video showing how to do it.  It is slightly lower production quality than some of the videos I work on but I think you will get the point...

Yep! It’s scary easy! Those cord shoelaces will work too.

Also works well for field amputations in a pinch

My partner and I once spent roughly 20 minutes trying to cut webbing with the lid of her can of tuna. No joke!

Normally I just have a piece of 6mm cord that I use to hold my chalk bag. The piece of cord serves a few purposes; one is I can use it to tie a prusik, two is I can easily leave it at an anchor, and third is I can use it to cut off old tat or cut sewn dyneema slings.

I'm convinced, time to make the switch with my chalk bag. Just out of curiosity, what knot do you use to keep the chalk bag's cord at the right tension?

Great post mikey. I will add that to my bag of tricks.

My partner and I once spent roughly 20 minutes trying to cut webbing with the lid of her can of tuna.

For any doubters out there, it worked, but was miserable. Postscript: we did have cord with us that day, and Mikey's technique would have saved us a lot of dignity.

Still a good day on a deep Yosemite obscurity, even with tuna juice on our fingers

Another pro tip: you can also cut cord by smashing big rocks against it. Of course this doesn't always work--you need big rocks around, and you wouldn't want to try this at a hanging belay! But if you're on a nice ledge with some rocks it's a quick and easy way to cut rope, especially thick rope. It's worked for me before with some thicker rope that would have been more difficult to cut via friction with another cord.

Alex Fischerwrote:

Another pro tip: you can also cut cord by smashing big rocks against it. Of course this doesn't always work--you need big rocks around, and you wouldn't want to try this at a hanging belay! But if you're on a nice ledge with some rocks it's a quick and easy way to cut rope, especially thick rope. It's worked for me before with some thicker rope that would have been more difficult to cut via friction with another cord.

+1, came here to say this. Softball sized rocks will work if you can find any sort of edge on one. 

Alex Fischerwrote:

Another pro tip: you can also cut cord by smashing big rocks against it. Of course this doesn't always work--you need big rocks around, and you wouldn't want to try this at a hanging belay! But if you're on a nice ledge with some rocks it's a quick and easy way to cut rope, especially thick rope. It's worked for me before with some thicker rope that would have been more difficult to cut via friction with another cord.

Surely the Apple watch has a laser nowadays.

Siriuswrote:

My partner and I once spent roughly 20 minutes trying to cut webbing with the lid of her can of tuna. No joke!

I'm convinced, time to make the switch with my chalk bag. Just out of curiosity, what knot do you use to keep the chalk bag's cord at the right tension?

Square knot

Marmots are always a good alternative.

This is one of the many reasons I have used a piece of 6mil cord on my chalk bag for the past 20 years. That plastic buckle thing with the skimpy junk webbing goes strait to the trash when I get a new bag. 

Regardless of the "cutting" tool keeping what one wants to cut in half under tension is key. 

Cool trick, cutting a sling with perlon.

I use a 5mm cord on my chalk bag, too.  For the knot I use the "single fisherman's".

The 5mm (or 6mm) makes a very fast prusik.  I've never needed to use it, but much of the time in recent years I have been fiddling on new routes and have my Jumars anyway.

However, I also have a tiny folding knife (plastic handle, serrated blade) on a shoestring loop, clipped with a tiny plastic biner to a harness gear loop.

Basically I stole the idea from my partner Lin Murphy, as she had one and I kept asking to use it!

But I love doing obscure climbs, often arriving at a belay on the Apron where you really need a knife if you want to get a biner into one of the hangers!

The other factor was that 2 of my friends were in an accident at Temple Crag where the leader (3rd climber) pulled off a block low on the first pitch.

She was not badly hurt, but it trapped her leg against the ground, and it was too heavy for them to move.

It also trapped a lot of the rope on the ground, and they wanted to use the rope to haul the rock upwards, but couldn't free enough of it to use!

Marshall ran down and managed to find another climber who did have a knife.  They set up a 3+:1 haul and managed to pull the rock up far enough free their friend.

I also have my small camera on a shoulder sling of tied supertape.  Have only rarely needed to leave that sling behind, as I usually have a few tied runners when doing obscurities.

I've never needed to cut a sewn sling, and I wonder how many you'd need to cut to reach around a tree, especially if using a triple fisherman's knot.

I did use my knife once to cut my lead rope at halfway, when the far end hung up on the rap route from the Beckey-Chouinard.

Fortunately we still had the 7.7mm rap rope.

We ended up fixing the half of the lead line we had left to extend the lowest anchor, so we could reach the ground/snowfield.

I keep at short length of 1mm cord either tied through a couple of vent holes in my helmet, or around an attachment loop on my chalk bag. Cuts like a knife if rope held under tension 

I've used a bic lighter many times, its faster than most knives

What I find surprising is the number of people in this thread who don't know this. Remember from toproping 101 to never run your rope directly through a sling on a sling-shot belay? Why do you think you were taught that?

Marc801 Cwrote:

What I find surprising is the number of people in this thread who don't know this. Remember from toproping 101 to never run your rope directly through a sling on a sling-shot belay? Why do you think you were taught that?

You're surprised that two people didn't know this?

Adam Burch wrote:

I keep a 50yard spool of 0.25mm cord in a sock tied to my rear gear loop.  If I had a nickel for every time I've had to cut rope with it, floss, or make a thong on the fly...well.  You know.

0.25mm? You must fly really slowly if you've got time to knit a thong with that.

If you smash big rocks against cord, you can also cut it. You might not want to try this at a hanging belay--you need big rocks! You can cut thick rope quickly and easily if you're on a nice ledge with rocks. Using friction on another cord would have been more difficult with thicker ropes.