Knife Lanyard

Summers are short here in Maine and there is a tendency to try to pack as much in as you can.  That hasn't left me with much time for knots.  In all the running around a managed to loose my pocket knife, so I took the opportunity to try out this Spyderco Persistence.  I have always been intrigued by the look of Spyderco knives.  I am on a budget, so I elected to go with the Persistence which is one of Spyderco's inexpensive, chinese made models. So far I am happy with it.

For the lanyard I purchased a pair of 72" boot laces from Kiwi. I made a loop using a double knife lanyard knot using one of the laces. This knot is also known as a double diamond knot, and makes a nice knob on a lanyard.  It works best if you have a relatively stiff cord.  JD of Tying It All Together did this recent video of the double diamond knot. Around the loop I tied a long 2 bight turks head. Stormdrane has a very good video for this turks head and as I've mentioned previously it is a great knot for tying around long, thin items such as lanyards.

Turks Head Flashlight Thumb Loop

I've been reading a bit recently about tying T shaped turks heads by taking two turks heads and running a separate cord through them.  It got me thinking of other shapes and combinations I could tie using the same concept.  This is a turks head loop I tied by first tying a 7 lead by 6 bight turks head around the flashlight shown.  I then made a loop out of paracord which I temporarily cinched in place with some zip ties.  I occasionally use zip ties to hold parts of knots in place.  Zip ties are fast, convenient, and you can really crank them down. I then ran a cord through the turks head and extended two bights on opposite sides of the turks head in a pattern similar to a two bight turks head, around the piece of paracord.  There is a hidden bight tucked up against the body of the flashlight on both sides of the flashlight. The original turks head was removed on the second pass through the knot.  Adjustment and tightening was a bit tricky- Not only did the main cord need to be adjusted, but the piece of paracord required adjustment during tightening.  The transition between the 3 dimensional form of the loop and the 2 dimensional form of the side of the turks head took some care- Too tight and the whole thing would twist.  I am going to try to work out a tutorial for this IF (that's a big if) I can simplify to the point where I think it will be easy enough to follow.  Stay tuned.

Loop Lanyard using 3 Pin Spool Knotting/Knitting

This is a loop lanyard I made using a single strand sinnet tied using a technique that I understand is sometimes used in knitting.  Traditionally this kind of sinnet has been done tied with a wooden spool and nails.  There are plastic kits that can be purchased, and there are any number of home-grown spools that folks have used make this sinnet.  To tie the sinnet I made a "spool" from a short piece of 3/4" PVC pipe, electrical tape, finish nails and a zip tie to hold the pins secure at the top of the piece of pipe.  For me this spool was very inexpensive and efficient (particularly considering all of this stuff was in my garage).  I also made two more spools, one with 2 pins and one with 4 pins so I can tie different kinds of sinnets.  After tying the sinnet, I secured it to the snap with cow hitches and ran the ends back up into the sinnet and melted them in place.  To cover the melted ends and dress the knot I used a 4 lead by 3 bight turks head around each end.  You can find Stormdrane's video of 3 pin spool knotting/knitting here.  I also attached an excerpt from the Ashley Book of Knots which shows this technique along with some other sinnets that can be tied with spools.

Multi-tool lanyard

I recently pickup up this Leatherman Freestyle CX as a daily deal on Woot.com. Despite the fact that it really only has a pair of pliers and a knife, it was a really good deal. I most often carry a larger Leatherman on my belt, but I thought this might be a good compromise when I am traveling light. To it I added a lanyard made using a 4 strand round sinnet/braid. There was no lanyard loop included with the tool, but I was able to fish a piece of paracord through a hole near the bottom. I started off using directions from the Creative Ropecraft book by Stuart Grainger for the sinnet. Those directions worked okay. After poking around the web I found that JD of Tying it All Together (TIAT) had a YouTube video where he simplified the instructions for tying the braid. So I re-tied the sinnet using JD's instructions. JD's method was very clear and simple- Just make sure you establish the pattern when making the crosses and stick to it. I then tied a 3 lead by 2 bight turks head at each end of the sinnet to hold then ends together. This turks head is a common start for a 5 lead by 4 bight turks head, and is one way to cover a thin item such as a narrow lanyard. I like the fact that it is a very simple lanyard for a simple multi-tool.