Hi.
Does it exist a wire, so soft that it is possible to tie a knot onto it? Optionally a rope that is made in a way - or by a material - that make it hard to cut using regular scissors?
I have a roll of aluminium wire which is very soft and easy to tie a number of knots especially those with wraps such as a Turks Head - but it is also easy to cut with ordinary scissors.
Barry
It should be made from one of the numerous aluminum alloys - " The yield strength of pure aluminium is 7-11 MPa, while aluminium alloys have yield strengths ranging from 200 MPa to 600 MPa ".
Say I choose an Aluminium wire, it is supposed to just be hard to cut. I do not care that much about the load capabilities.
Is there any specific product you can suggest?
What’s the purpose for this “hard to cut” knottable material?
It has been reported that the “high modulus” cordage of any
of HMPE, Vectran, & aramids Kevlar / Technora are hard to cut,
and wear out normal knives.
–dl*
Hi. I suspect a frend (his kid) to open christmas packages prematurely. So this time I want to make it harder to open and still being able to put everything back in place again, without being busted.
Also I have this annual, most stupic competition with a friend of me. Goal is to pack the christmas gift in a way so it’s being as difficult as possible to open ;D
The few latest years, he always “brags” about him using the scissor and almost like a “super human” is able to overcome any packing technique.
This christmas I hope to make it extra difficult to open the package 
Is this stupid? Yes, pure stupidity. Is it fun? Yes ;D
I have some cord with a polyester sheath and a white “fluffy” core which is just about impossible to cut with scissors ~ a knife works if used on a wooden block. I have no idea what it is made of (about 3mm thick), I got it as part of a warehouse clearance of a huge pile of odd rope and cord pieces (for free so I wasn’t going to quibble). Drop me a PM and see if something can be arranged - sounds the sort of daft challenge I would get caught up in!
Barry
It is fun.
One year I wrapped my son’s new guitar with a long length of cord with quite a few knots along the wrapping path. Almost the whole case was covered. I added a few decorative knots here and there with some different colored cord.
It was a good laugh to see his face when he faced the challenge. He went the distance to untie it all.
Yes, a knife or scissors would have made short work of it, but …
Maybe you could use some chain and a lock or small diameter aircraft cable.
Have fun and share a picture.
SS
If I pull this joke off, I’ll share a picture.
However, cable isn’t an option bacause if I tigthen it, I’m afraid it can hurt the receiver of the gift when cutting. Therefore I go with rope that is hard to cut 8)
HMPE is rather difficult to cut, Aramid as well.
Kevlar is difficult as well, but wow, we are talking about some expensive package wrapping!!!
Kevlar, no. I’m not putting any big amount of money in this fun project
You might get lucky, as I did recently, again :
found some cable-pulling (buried communication
cables) tape that was Kevlar --more goldish straw
colored vs. the much more common white, lubricated
polyester tape, and proven by flame : it only chars
(the polyester woof though burns, as it’s only
aramid in the warp).
So, anyway, I found a piece of that.
I think I’ve choosed a propriate material to use. And it was cheap too (less than $2).
It is a 20 meter clothes line, with a small steel thread in center.
I’m a little concern on how it will behave if I chose to tie a tacleclamp, because of the sharp bend.
[edit]
I’ve now tried to tie some hitches, and the experience I got so far is:
- The soft rubber tends to peel off when tightening
- Most hitches (included constrictor knots) I fail to tie in a way that it is difficult to untie. Reason is that the stiffness of the thread make it easy to push one of the standing ends into the hitch to losen it up
- When tying a double cow hitch, the stiffness of the string make it near impossible to tighten it properly without using extensive force. The same happens to several tacleclamp variants
- All this probems because of the stiffness combined with that the line - as opposed to a normal rope - does not deform when it’s part of a knot
I think I need to enter the thinking box to see if there is something I can do to improve packing, I may need to discard the idea of using this cheap clothing line.
Currently, it looks just like a bad idea.
