i have a lowe Alpine Contour rucksack. the waist strap s are ridiculously long. I can see the ends of the straps are melted. What is the best way to cut the straps - with a hot knife. or scissors and then melt the ends. thanks.

I cut my craghoppers ones with scissors then melted the ends to stop fraying. I think I used a gas hob, but I think a lighter or match would do.

A soldering iron works well

sharp scissors and then lighter flame to burn and seal

If you cut at an angle (45deg) then heat seal it will be easier to thread through buckles etc.

I use a lighter too.

oxy-acetylene to seal the ends!
also a good method of removing excess lentgh


only kiddin. sharp knife and small flame. maybe a candle or gas hob

Blobby nylon bits created when you seal the ends can be smoothed off with an emery board or many sorts of handheld file.

Taff a diagonal cut is best and only 'heat' the end above a flame for a second or two. Then press it into a wedge with your fingers.

If it is too hot to touch, you've given it too much heat.

If you have any fine plastic 'strands' left over, simply cut them off with scissors or nail clippers.

To get a neater finish I heat up an old knife on the gas hob (no need to get it red hot) and use that to seal the cut ends.

I think that in recent years my camping stove has been used more for heat-sealing cut straps than it has for cooking!

A camping stove (and pots and pans) are the first thing I throw out when I want to save weight. Next, all the superfluous yards of straps get lopped off!

Carefully placing the end of the shortened strap under the rising flame from a gas hob is my method; this seems to allow the fine control required to get a neat finish.

I let it form a bead on its own, without any manipulation with fingers, although I did once use two full cans of drink as 'rollers'.