Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Be careful and consider this before you spend your money. The real 550 Type III Parachute Cord that is sold to the military must meet a military specification as documented in Mil-C-5040. While this ad does not claim this, they do claim to be "Military Specification", which means absolutely nothing. According to the actual Mil-C-5040 government document 550 type III Paracord should be made up of between 7 and 9 strands and each strand shall be 3-ply. Although I have yet to see a true Mil-C-5040 cord that was anything but 7-strand/3-ply. The stuff being sold here is 7-strand/2-ply, this is easy for a trained eye to pick out the 2-strands from the third photo, as the 3-ply strands are a much tighter twist. Also, Mil-C-5040 requires that one of the strands have uniquely colored identifier thread(s) to identify the manufacturer, this cord does not. That is not to say this is not good paracord that meets the specification for 550lbs. strength. There is a lot of garbage being sold out there. This is likely a commercial variant of the Mil-C-5040 cord and probably made by the actual military supplier. The added cost of labeling it as Mil-C-5040 comes in the cost of meeting the government demands for inspection of each small lot. Why pay for that. It all comes down to you get what you pay for, I have yet to find true "Military Spec" Mil-C-5040 paracord for less than about $90-$100 per 1000 feet. BTW, the true Mil-C-5040 type III cord will hold up to about 750lbs. before breaking. I have both the commercial and Mil-C-5040 variants of Type III 550 Paracord from each of the two top military suppliers and I would not hesitate to use any of them for most purposes. That said, the Mil-C-5040 versions are noticeably more robust. See my detailed review of the commercial vs. true Mil-Spec cords from the same military supplier on bladeforums.com (Search: 'MIL-C-5040H Type III').