Hi Chuck, I have been following your posts on this subject and decided to take the leap. I bought a rope walk, of very dubious quality but high price, assembled it and jumped in. I made a couple of pieces of cord of poor quality. I have had trouble obtaining the thread frequently mentioned herein, but yesterday went to a local shop and found some Gutermann poly thread. No identity beyond that, but it is fairly fine. I took particular note of what you said about it being tightly laid up. The result is in the photo. I am encouraged to continue, but I really need a source of thread in Australia.
An issue I would like to clear up is the official nomenclature of Gutermann threads. Am I correct in thinking that something like Mara 120, 80, etc. refers to the composition and the tex figure relations to the weight/size of the thread, and the higher this number the heavier the thread? I have read numerous notes on this and come away more confused than when I started.