Simple Key Lanyard

A quick one here- I've been out of a key lanyard for a few weeks, so I decided to whip something together. I tend to like my key lanyards to be low profile so I can get my keys out of my pocket without much resistance. For this lanyard I used a short piece of orange paracord and tied a long two strand Matthew Walker knot as a stopper using instructions from the Ashley Book of Knots. I then added four bight gaucho knots at the top and bottom of the lanyard in tan nylon line. I reference Tom Hall's "Introduction to Turk's Head Knots" to tie the gauchos.

Leash and the Gaucho Fan

I recently purchased a reel of lobster warp, or rope that is normally used to connect the buoy to the trap when folks are fishing for lobster up here in Maine. I bought this rope to make a wreath for a friend, and now I have a few hundred extra feet of it. This rope is light and inexpensive, but still relatively durable. There are several vendors making rope door mats out of this rope in Maine.

This is a leash I made for one of our dogs using the rope. It is simply a claw style snap hook eye spliced to one end of the rope and a looped eye splice to the other end of the rope. I'd like to get better at eye spicing so this is a good way to practice. Around the splices are tied two-color gaucho fan knots. The two-color gaucho fan knots are essentially tied the same as the gaucho knot, but the second color is weaved in after the original turks head is tied.

Paracord Gaucho Belt Loop

With summer winding down I've finally found some time to sit down and think about knots again.  I managed to lose some weight this summer, enough that I was having trouble keeping my pants up with my old belt.  I found this Bison Designs Last Chance belt at a local department store. It's been a good belt and I like the fact it is adjustable.  However, with my 36 inch waist there is quite a bit of extra belt sticking out of the buckle with the size large.  In order to help retain that extra material, I gutted some paracord and tied a gaucho knot around the belt. Right now it's a bit snug.  I left the ends slightly long and have them tucked in under the knot to allow for adjustment.  I also anticipate that the knot might shrink a bit if it happens to get wet.  Paracord is made of nylon, and it is common for nylon to shrink when it gets wet.  It would be a good idea to preshrink paracord for a project like this so it doesn't shrink more than desired.

Letters from Gaucho

This is a hand carved letter opener a friend gave me a while back.  He picked it up on a trip to India.  It's sat in my drawer at work for a while, so I decide to bring it home and try tying something around it.  The knot is a two pass gaucho knot tied from a 5Lx4B turks head.  There are several tutorials for this knot on the web, including one prepared by the late Bud Brewer.  Mr. Brewer also has a tutorial for a three pass version.  Stormdrane did a recent video for this knot as well. It was difficult to photograph- This is the best I could do with the shinny nylon that I used to tie it.