Editing Detonating cord (section)

==Direct employment==
Low-yield detonating cord can be used as a precision cutting charge to remove cables, pipes, wiring, fiber optics, and other utility bundles by placing one or more complete wraps around the target. Detonation cord is used in commercial boilers to break up clinkers (solidified coal ash slag) adhering to tube structures. Also a vertical centered cord being lowered into the water of a drilled well can remove any clogging that obstructs water flow.  Higher-yield detonating cord can be used to cut down small trees, although the process is very uneconomical compared to using bulk explosive, or even a chainsaw. High-yield detonating cord placed by divers has been used to remove old dock pilings and other underwater obstructions.

Creating a slipknot from detonating cord yields a field-improvised device that can be quickly employed to cut a locked doorknob off a door. Detonation cord can be taped in several rings to the outline of a military man-sized target and detonated, breaching a man-sized hole into wooden doors or light interior walls. Detonating cord is also employed directly in building demolition where thin concrete slabs need be broken via channels drilled parallel to the surface, an advantage over dynamite since a lower minimum of explosive force may be used and smaller diameter holes are sufficient to contain the explosive.<ref>[http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/detonators/about/about.html Discovery Channel ''The Detonators'' Episode 4: BEACH RESORT and INDUSTRIAL CHIMNEY] (dead link 10 July 2019)</ref> Anything much more substantial than these uses requires the use of additional explosives.