Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Adjustable Paracord Wrist Lanyard...

This is an example of an adjustable paracord wrist lanyard, using a couple of Celtic Button Knots and a Scaffold Knot/Multiple Overhand Sliding Knot.

I tied this lanyard last year, with a leftover scrap of neon pink paracord, thus the black and white photos, lol, and stuck it in a drawer. At the time, I thought no one would be interested in it, but digging it back out, someone may find it useful and be able modify it to their own use. Perhaps running their belt though the loop, keeping the lanyard shortened for pocket carry, then extend the lanyard while still attached to the belt for use, with the swivel clip/snap hook allowing quick release of an item if preferred, etc...

 Here's a YouTube video link for a short demonstration of the lanyard.


I may add a tutorial/walk through for making this particular lanyard later. But for a brief description: this one was made with about 4 feet of paracord, tying one Celtic Button Knot, making a loop, tying another Celtic Button Knot around the loop strand, then running the cord through the first Celtic Button Knot, tighten them up, and tying a Scaffold Knot(Multiple Overhand Sliding Knot) at the end of the cord to finish, where it can be attached directly to an item, or swivel clip, key ring, carabiner, and so on.

It may sound a little confusing, and hard for me to explain, but the Celtic Button Knots are tied on opposite sides of the loop, before the cords go through the center of them.


Shown attached to the lanyard is a blue alox Victorinox Farmer Swiss Army Knife, a gift from friend SwissBianco that he gave me in 2007.

You can use other single strand knots, like the multiple overhand knot(example comes from Peter Owen's 'The Book of Decorative Knots'), tied loosely at one end of a length of cord, make a loop, tie another knot around the cord back toward the first knot, taking the cord through the first knot, tighten them up, finish with a scaffold knot, slip knot, etc.. to complete.

The one shown with the flashlight was done with about 4 feet of foliage green paracord, and the only problem with this knot, is that it's tightened around the sliding cord when pulled in either direction, so it can be harder to adjust compared with the Celtic Button knot.Link

A photo walk-through for tying this type of lanyard can be seen with photos I have stored on xanga(now gone, buggers).

Once you know how to tie the Celtic Button Knot and the Scaffold/Multiple Overhand Sliding Knot, you can follow this sequence of photos to tie the lanyard. I used a four foot length of paracord, but you can use more or less to make one to your own preferred longer or shorter length lanyard.

 
When in the shortened length, the Celtic Button Knot on the loop side can be moved along the length of cord that it's tied on, by moving slack from either side of the knot through it, and that will change the wrist loop size. Of course the simple design is open to variation, modification, and improvement, so experiment with it. I hope folks find it useful.

Photos recovered, thanks to the Wayback Machine


The way I sometimes tie a lanyard knot to finish at an attachment/swivel clip, also can slide, but I just haven't used them that way. With the cord looped around the attachment and then tying the lanyard knot with the cord in the center, the knot can be moved up/down the cord to the last knot tied, example seen here at the swivel clip. I just found the double loops of slack to be in the way, but someone might pursue trying something out with it...

17 comments:

Cam said...

I like this!

This comes close to what I see as the ideal lanyard - one that has no ends sticking out and no knot on the end of the lanyard.

Don't ask how I came up with that criteria, haha.

Can you think of any other lanyards that would be like that? I have scoured your blog and I don't see any obvious ontenders other than one where you tie a regular lanyard knot then feed the cord back through that knot. I found that one was a little too bulky.

What I have been using is a soloman bar at the end of a lanyard http://imgur.com/p0lv2.jpg

Any other ideas?

Dan said...

Nice little lanyard - very clean and functional. I could see one of these going on one of my fixed blades (in a manlier color of course ;) ).

OIBoston said...

Stormdrane, love your blog you keep me real busy with all these projects. You should check out http://everyday-carry.com/ he has a great blog too and I would love to see your setup featured on his site!

Keep it up!

Lance

Stormdrane said...

@Cam, I've done simple dummy cord type lanyards with hangman's noose, scaffold knot, bowline knot, etc.. type ends on a single strand of what ever cordage was handy.

@Dan, Yes, I much prefer olive drab, black, foliage, brown, camo, etc.. over the flashy colors, but with sisters and nieces, they like 'em bright.

Stormdrane said...

@Pale Nimbus, I think I've had 3 or 4 of my blog posts shown on the EDC blog, and have it in my links list. :)

Anonymous said...

Cam,

Do a search for maroon and you will see one that has two loops with a double lanyard knot in the middle.

Dirk said...

I really like this, any chance of a full step by step?

Stormdrane said...

@Dirk, There are step photos for making the lanyard found in the xanga link.

Anonymous said...

where i can buy one like this my friend?

Stormdrane said...

@Anonymous, I don't sell them, but encourage folks to tie their own. ;)

Mr. Cicci said...

This is exactly what I was looking for. Pleas post a step by step video. I think a lot of people would appreciate it. I know I would.
JC

Matt said...

Hello, would there be any chance of sending the picture walk-through for this lanyard? It's perfect for what I am hoping to do, and the Xanga link looks like it's no longer working. Thanks, and keep up the great ideas!

Stormdrane said...

When xanga switched over to a 'pay' website, I lost access to all the photos that I'd hosted there, and some pics disappeared where I'd posted them elsewhere in forums, and some still show up, strangely. I lost the orginals when the hard drive on my last laptop gave out.

I'll search around to see if I'd posted those pics elsewhere, but no luck so far finding them. I do have a
demo video of that type lanyard in use, with a description of the tying method in the info below the video on that page.

Anonymous said...

Will the celtic knot at the top come apart if you pull it up to far?

Stormdrane said...

The knot won't come apart because it is tied along one strand, but you will collapse the loop if you pull it all the way down without something (wrist/attachment) inside the loop. ;)

Offgridled said...

Very cool of you to share this. Making one right now. Thank you!!

Jason said...

Love it! I made these up for my Surefire 6Ps and some of my Maglites. I did a post about one of the Maglites I made it up for: http://maglitehistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/lanyard-ring-end-caps.html