Sunday, September 21, 2008

Paracord 'Cross of Lorraine' ‡

A couple of folks had asked me last year if I could make a paracord version of the ‡ Cross of Lorraine, after I'd blogged about learning to make a regular paracord cross. I figured out a way to do it and here's my second attempt used as a pocket knife fob. 

With my first attempt, I couldn't remember if the longer cross arms went above or below the shorter ones, so I just guessed without looking it up, and of course I messed up and made the first one backwards...

The correct way(20th century version) is with the short arms on top, long underneath, like a Patriarchal cross. Although the ancient Cross of Lorraine version had the arms the same length. There are also other variations according to the Wikipedia entry.

The top and bottom sinnets of the cross are made the same as the regular paracord cross. Then I took four more strands of paracord and tied a crown sinnet near the center of those strands, using four from one end with the four from the top part of the cross to make the short arms, and then the other four strands from the center section to make the lower longer arms with the bottom of the crosses four strands.


10 comments:

Trip_Wir3 said...

Very nice and creative!

danielgreen said...

another great creation by SD. good job SD rememberemail me id love to talk dgreen@trinitywildcats.com

Unknown said...

Really nice work.
I've been toying with the idea of making an Eastern cross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cross_of_the_Russian_Orthodox_Church_01.svg) but so far haven't figured out how to make the slanted bottom bar. Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

Interesting design, and wish to create my own, if you would be so kind, can you maybe email me detailed instructions str8cougarrgs@gmail.com thanx

Dax_Sandman said...

Sharp, Buddy! I recently saw some camo paracord online that I'd pay you to make me just a few outta. Are you down with that?

Stormdrane said...

Thanks for the interest, but I usually refer knot work requests to Ken Cardwell or some of the many other folks that sell paracord work in the buy/sell/trade sections of various forums, like edcforums.com, candlepowerforums.com, bladeforums.com, etc...

Lochabar said...

Hey, I just recently got into paracord and found this blog of yours. I love all of the projects and I just ordered a bunch of paracord so I can try my hand at a bunch of these projects. Do you have a step-by-step or a video for this project? If so, you can e-mail me at darkelfcurler@yahoo.com. I'd really appreciate ay help that you can offer, and I look forward to your future posts. =)

Stormdrane said...

@Lochabar, I don't have a tutorial for the Cross of Lorraine, but it's just as described in the post description.

With the regular sinnet cross, you have a top sinnet and bottom sinnet that come together and pairs of cords from each go out to make the arms.

With the Cross of Lorraine, you have a third component crown sinnet of four strands, that goes between the top and bottom sinnets. Pairs of cords from the third sinnet go with the top to make the short arms, and with the bottom to make the longer arms.

So, that third sinnet is just four paracord strands, and you'll start a crown sinnet in the center of those strands, so that you have four strands from each end of it after tying a few crown sinnets in it. Hope that helps. :)

Lochabar said...

Hey, thanks for this! I made a hybrid one with the snake knot cross design today. =D

Hollywood Robbie said...

Do you sell these? If so I am interested
Magpi@hotmail.com
Thank you Rob