Neck lanyard with a safety break-away

I used around 36 feet of 2.4mm cord to make this cobra stitch/Solomon bar/Portuguese sinnet/square knotting(may be a couple more names for it out there...) neck lanyard, with a break-away hidden under a 5 lead 4 bight Turk's head knot. The Turk's head is snug enough to stay in place, yet not interfere with the safety function.

Some folks need the break-away on a lanyard for peace of mind, and it may even be a requirement if they wear one at work. A safety feature for a neck lanyard is definitely a must for kids, since 'safety' is an unknown or yet to be learned concept for children.

I started with 2, two foot long pieces, of the 2.4mm braided nylon cord, attached to both parts of the break-away(just overhand stopper knots securing them). Then I had two 20 foot long pieces of cord(middled, one for each side) for making the knots over the single strands on the break-away.

Once I had the length of those long knotted sections where I wanted them, I have a total of six strands where they all come together. Two long outer strands, two long inner strands, and the two short core strands. I take the two long inner strands and looped them around the split ring, at the length I want for the end section, and make the knots back towards the point where the long sections come together, keeping the two short core strands in the center of these knots for the core.

I then trim/melt the remaining long inner strands and the short strands to get them out of the way. I now have just the two long outer strands left, to make the king cobra section of knots over the shorter finished section, then trim/melt.

Finally, I used a few more feet(4 or 5 feet I think) of cord to make the turks head(5L4B) over a Sharpie marker, work out the slack and tighten it up, then it's slid over the break-away. Hope that's not too complicated to visualize. :)

The Best of Instructables Volume I

The tutorial for the 'Paracord bracelet with a side release buckle', that I made for the Instructables website, was one of the projects chosen to go into 'The Best of Instructables Volume I' book, available from Amazon.com.



The paracord bracelet I made is even pictured on the cover with a few of the other projects. This first volume has 120+ various DIY projects. The book is supposed to be available by the end of this month(October 2008) and I'm looking forward to getting my copy and seeing the 336 pages of neat 'how to' projects within. The Instructables.com website is known as 'the world's biggest show & tell'.

Lanyard knot fob...

I put a lanyard knot fob on this Spyderco pocket knife, with green Coleman brand utility cord from walmart, then went over that with some 1.4mm black cord in a long 2 bight turks head knot.

Some new knot references...

One of my sisters sent me an Amazon.com certificate, for my birthday last week, and I ordered a few more knot books to add to my slowly growing knot reference library.

They arrived today and all have some different things in them along with similar ones with different perspectives.

The Marlinspike Sailor

The Morrow Guide to Knots

Des Pawson's Knot Craft

Fisherman's Ultimate Knot Guide (Cards)

Binoculars

In my previous post's comments, Velu mentioned that his ship's binoculars could use something to make them easier to find during the night when the bridge is kept dark(I enjoy reading his Bills of lading blog).

So I dug up my old 7x35 binoculars, that my Granny gave me back in the mid 1980's, and put a couple of 5 lead 4 bight Turk's head knots on them, with some 3/32" glow-in-the-dark cord from CoolGlowStuff.com. I left enough room on the end so the lens caps will still fit.

I'm sure the ship's binoculars are larger and of a higher power, so a bigger Turk's head knot would most likely fit.

At least a couple of knot books have different knot work shown on some of the older styled ship's spyglasses/telescopes. Even the book I followed for these Turk's head knots, Stuart Grainger's 'Creative Ropecraft' has one on the cover and inside.

Several types of spyglasses can be found thru Google, both long models and the smaller extendable telescoping ones - both old and new. I may get one of the inexpensive ones off ebay eventually to try some knot work on...

Auburn Cane

I made this long 2 bight Turk's head knot while watching the Auburn vs Vanderbilt football game. Unfortunately, Auburn played a lousy game and lost.

I was going to follow Bud Brewer's tutorial for the Long 4 Bight Turks Head knot from the KHWW site, but I got sidetracked with the 2 bight Turk's head, which can easily be made in as long a length as you want, with enough cord, time, and room to tie it. But I didn't have enough paracord to make a really long one and just finished this one with around 30 feet of paracord for a finished length of close to one foot.