Plastic Bottle Rope Maker: What it is, and How to Use it
What Is a Cordage Maker?
The Cordage Maker Tool is a compact device that turns ordinary plastic bottles into strong, lightweight, and waterproof cordage in minutes. It uses a small cutting edge and precision spacer to shave the bottle into continuous strips of plastic, perfect for emergency repairs, camp projects, or even crafting.
Instead of relying on rope or paracord that takes up space, this tool lets you make yards of usable line from trash, giving you one more way to stay resourceful and self-reliant anywhere you go.
Soda Bottle Rope?
I, like most other people, hate seeing plastic bottles littered around the outdoors while I’m fishing, camping, and hiking. And, even though it's become a common sight in cities & towns, I don't like seeing littered bottles there either.
But, what if these bottles were a survival resource that were just waiting to be turned into something useful? You could successfully kill 2 birds with one stone...Clean up litter and create a survival resource.
Make Homemade String from a Plastic Bottle
Awhile back, soda bottles were something that I looked at as trash. I would’ve picked them up and thrown them away at the next garbage can on a trail. But now, they are indispensable resources for creating strong cordage and DIY String. In fact, I get excited when I see a "good" plastic bottle laying around now.
You probably already know what I mean when I say “a good plastic bottle” if you use our cordage cards. But, if you haven’t used them yet, I’ll describe some good plastic bottles versus bottles that aren't the best for making cordage a little later in this article…
See our Plastic Bottle Cutters here
Pictured above is our Cordage Making Card while I'm making some thin diameter line for fishing.
How to Use the Cordage Maker (Step-by-Step for Beginners)
1. Choose Your Bottle
Pick a clean plastic bottle — soda, water, or juice bottles work great, but flat walled two liter bottles provide the most consistent, strong, and long cordage. Avoid brittle or crinkly bottles since they tend to snap instead of cutting smoothly, but sometimes you gotta use what you can find, it will work with just about any plastic bottle even the crinkly ones.
Remove any plastic wrapper, lables etc that could gum up your blade, and cut off the bottom of the bottle using scissors or a knife so you’re left with a hollow tube with a lid. Smooth any jagged edges before you start the straighter your edge, the quicker the cordage maker can start producing fully finished cordage.
2. Insert the Bottle Edge
Hold the bottle bottom down and feed one edge into the slot of the Cordage Maker tool. begin rotating the bottle against the blade and the built-in blade will start cutting once the plastic catches, while the spacer sets the thickness of your cord. This is the trickiest part, once you get enough showing to hold on to (with fingers or pliers) begin pulling while keeping the bottle standing upright.
You should feel a little resistance — that’s good. It means the blade is biting.
3. Start the Cut
Turn the bottle slowly while gently pulling the strip that forms. Once you get a few inches of cord started, grab that strip and keep pulling steadily outward. If you get a little piece that cuts off that's okay, usually that's just the cordage maker leveling the bottom of the bottle for a straight cut. (if this keeps happening check our assembly video and make sure your blade is placed bevel side down)
4. Pull to Create Continuous Cord
Now comes the fun part — as you pull, the bottle spins automatically (it's also fun with a friend who pulls while you hold the bottle upright) feeding itself through the cutter. The tool’s blade and spacer keep your cord uniform in width, so it doesn’t tangle or snap.
Each 2-liter bottle can produce over 50 feet feet of strong, flexible line. The tighter and smoother your pull, the more consistent your cord will be. Quick, jerky, sudden pulls can snap the cordage or cause it to cut off, you want long consistent speed pulls on the bottle.
5. Use or Store Your Cordage
You can use the cord immediately or wind it onto a spool card or micro tool for storage. This recycled plastic cordage is waterproof, lightweight, and surprisingly tough — great for lashing, weaving, or improvised fishing line.
TIP: A little known fact of the cordage from this card is that it's heat sensitive. That means you can wrap it around an obect, and apply heat from a flame or heat gun near it, and the cordage with shrink tightening around whatever you have it wrapped around making it extremely secure and versital.
Plastic Bottle Rope Uses
Our Plastic Bottle Rope Makers can turn ordinary soda or water bottles into useful rope in a matter of minutes. This rope can be used for just about everything that normal nylon-types of cordage can be used for:
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Camping & Survival:
Creating ridge-lines for shelters, securing items onto a pack frame, lashing spears onto sticks, etc. -
Fishing:
With our Expansion & Reducer Kit, that works with our largest Cordage Making Card, you can create some very thin rope. This rope is perfect for using with an improvised fishing kit as you can see from the photo above. -
Pulling a tractor:
Yeah we’re not joking…plastic bottle cord is that strong. Watch the video about it later in this article. - Your imagination and individual needs really are the limit for plastic bottle rope.
Best Plastic Bottles for Making Rope
Not all bottles are created equal when you’re trying to turn them into usable rope. We’ve found that non-ridged 2 Liter Bottles (like the ones in the right of the photo above) are the easiest and strongest to turn into plastic rope. Some water bottles (ie: “SmartWater” bottles) are fantastic. But, cheaper “bulk” water bottles with lots of ridges are pretty difficult to work with. They’re thin, hard to pass through our Cordage Cards and they break pretty easily when put under stress.
CHALLENGE TIME: Whenever you purchase your cordage making tools, we encourage you to scavenge around local stores, BBQ’s, or party’s for some great looking bottles to turn into cordage (using the image above as your guide)!
Tag us on Instagram with what you’ve found and what made the best cordage.
Plastic Bottle Rope Strength
As we mentioned above, we have pulled a tractor with cordage made from a 2 liter bottle! That is some pretty solid in-field-proof that plastic cordage has some insane strength. Plastic rope will be more than strong enough for any camping, survival, or recreational use.
Our cordage making tools come in 3 Sizes: Credit Card Size, Dog Tag Size, and Micro Size.
These tools solve the problem of having to carry bulky or cumbersome cordage, especially when you’re using a small bag or no bag at all. This in my opinion is the coolest thing about these tools…Creating something out of what seems like nothing.
Complete Your Kit
Pair your Cordage Maker with:
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Repair or Trap Kits for field use of the cordage you create
→ Explore all Grim Tools that include the Cordage Maker
→ Learn more about Cordage and Rope-Making Skills
See our Cordage Making Tools Here
About The Author
Based in the Appalachian Mountains, Anthony is a commercial photographer and avid outdoorsman. Whether he's setting up a scene for a photograph or getting things ready to camp, Anthony feels most at home with mud on his boots and a warm campfire burning nearby. Learn more at AnthonyAwaken.com
