Saturday, February 27, 2010

Paracord grip wrap on a boot knife...

I used about 7 or 8 feet of gutted paracord for this grip/handle wrap on a boot knife. I was following this 'Traditional grip wrapping on Chinese swords and sabers' tutorial, made by Peter Dekker.

*The link for the tutorial has been down a while and after emailing Peter Dekker, he said it would eventually be updated and fixed, but until then I have the 6 pages scanned and available in my Xanga account and posted below.

The boot knife that I used has a smaller handle than the sword in the tutorial, and the gutted paracord might be a bit wider than the cord that was used too, so it came out a little different.

I made the initial loops on both sides closer together, using a couple of pieces of string to hold them in place as I worked(tape was used in the tutorial, but rubber bands may also be used), and did the crossover of the cords on one side and straight across on the other, for a contrasting pattern on each side. The cord ends were tucked with hemostats to finish.

The knife is a Western Cutlery Co. Model #777, which were first made in 1985. I found a catalog link for it in pdf format.

16 comments:

Lane said...

I love this pattern!! I've tried it before on a knife I made for a friend this past Christmas. I could not follow the instructions very well so I settled on a simpler wrap. Is there any chance of a video?

Rich said...

That is really cool how the pattern is different from the front to the back. You constantly amaze!

Raul said...

It would be very nice to see more slip-on bracelet designs. I've done the one you posted and it works and looks great. I just want more designs so I can vary.
Any links maybe?

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's really nice.
The updated layout looks good too, links need to be a different color though, they're a bit hard to see

Unknown said...

Very nice effect on a very nice knife. I understand its a Coleman?

I made my first watchband with a cobra knot and its the best!
thanks, Bob

Stormdrane said...

The knife was made by Western Cutlery Co., and they did make some knives for Coleman at one time.

Unknown said...

Put this wrap on this knife:
http://www.amazon.com/Kershaw-Military-Forged-1-4116-Stainless-Steel/dp/B001CEJIXI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1268941731&sr=8-1

Pic here

http://www.aww-kittah-aww.com/up/files/65/knifewithbetterwrap.jpg

not as tight as it should be but I'm still learning. Fantastic working knife by the way.

Owen_O said...

Hi all

I am having a heck of a time figuring out how to perform this wrap. I tried following the instructions by Peter Dekker but can't get the pattern right. Does anyone know of an instructional video or some other aide? I assume the wrap is composed of two separate cords? Maybe even a tutorial with different colors to highlight the patterning.

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

gripwrap.pdf link is dead

Stormdrane said...

Peter Dekker's site is still up, but yep, the gripwrap.pdf is showing 'not found'. Will have to see if he can be emailed to check on it....

Stormdrane said...

I emailed Peter Dekker, and he responded. He's in the process of updating his website, and will get the gripwrap.pdf link back up and running with some revisions. :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Stormdrane...

The tutorial you followed "'Traditional grip wrapping on Chinese swords and sabers' tutorial" goes to a dead link.. did you happen to save a copy of it?

Stormdrane said...

@Anonymous, The tutorial still hasn't been added to the updated Peter Dekker website, as far as I can see and I don't know when it will be.

I printed out the tutorial to follow, before the blog post on it, and have scanned the pages & saved them to an email that I sent to someone that requested it.

You can email me at Stormdrane at hotmail dot com, and I'll see if I can forward that email with attachments(6 pages total at 4.3MB) to you.

hrafn said...

Just to clarify and to get this going in my head, this is done with a single piece correct? Meaning that there is one cord that makes the entire wrap and not 2 cords one for each loop on either side of the handle?

Thanks.

Stormdrane said...

@hrafn, Yes, it's made with a single strand of cord, following the tutorial, making loops on two sides of the handle.

You could experiment with making additional loops, still using a single strand, if the handle is wide enough, or using thinner cord. Or maybe tying around something like a water bottle...

Unknown said...

The wrap you showed worked great for me. I used 14' of para cord for a 4" X 1 1/8" handle.