Skull Bead Pace Counter

A pace counter is a simple abacus used to count paces, ie, every time your left foot hits the ground. You get a good measurement of what your pace is, and you can use it to measure off how far you’ve walked. They’re particularly useful if you’re walking around at night. When you get to the amount of paces that equals 100 meters, you slide down one of the top beads. When you’ve reached 1 kilometer, you slide down one of the lower beads. When all four lower beads have been slid down, and you’ve slid down the last of the upper beads, that means you’ve reached 5 kilometers. And then you start all over again.

I decided to make one out of some Tibetan skull beads I have. I have two different kinds. I “believe” one is carved from human bone and one is from buffalo horn.

I had to ream them out in order for the cord to go through. Unfortunately, one or two of them were reamed a little too much and they tend to slide a bit more than I’d like. I was tempted to take them off and replace them, but getting them strung on the cord was such a monumental pain, I opted to just leave it as is. I made it more for fun than anything else. I have other pace counters that I would use in real life anyway.

Attached to the shoulder strap of a Kifaru Scout.