Friday, February 24, 2012

A Shard and a glass...

The Gerber Shard is an inexpensive EDC key chain tool, featuring a prybar, nail puller, wire stripper, screwdrivers, bottle opener, and lanyard hole.

I tied a 7 lead 6 bight turk's head knot, three passes, with about 4 feet of 0.9mm nylon cord for a little extra decorative grip around the center of the tool.

With another Shard, I tied two Spanish Rink Knots, doubled with 0.9mm cord.  And another with a Gaucho knot, tied with 2mm cord.  The last is shown with a three pass Gaucho knot with black 0.9mm cord.

There was a glass, but I decided not to pop the top on that beer and save it for later...

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering if you could make a gun holster. I know it wouldn't be practical but I think it would be cool. Anything will help. I didn't know how else to contact you. Thanks!

Stormdrane said...

@Anonymous, I have not done a gun holster, but one of my blog readers made one a few years ago for his 1911, and it looked pretty cool.

He(Brian) had posted photo links in the comments of this blog post, but the pic links do not seem to be good any longer, and I don't think I've seen the photos elsewhere...

Anonymous said...

I am continually impressed with your knotwork, but today all I can think of is what is that knife that looks vaguely like a classic? Victorinox?

Stormdrane said...

@Anonymous, It is a Victorinox Classic SAK with custom laser cut scales, from ebay(reswiss.outlet).

Dan said...

SD, I am glad to see that you are a fan of the Gerber Shard too! I love this thing and have one on my keys at all times. Such a nice easy little addition to your EDC. As always you come up with some great ideas and this little modification to an outstanding multi-tool is no exception!

Matt said...

Great stuff as always!! I have just been getting into doing turks head knots and I was wondering do you use the tools from donb knots to tie yours?

Stormdrane said...

@Matt, I usually just tie knots that can be tied directly onto an object or just around something handy, like a piece of pipe or a sharpie, etc. instead of a knot tool like donb makes, although his knot cookbooks are on my wishlist. ;)

Ricardo Rodríguez said...

Hi Stormdrane,
Recently I got a little more serious about the knot tying hoby and start finding your work or references to it in a lot of blogs and youtube videos.
I think the fist time I heard about you was in the slingin forums some years ago, but that was it.
I found your work amazing and inspiring.

Ricardo Rodríguez said...

I liked a lot your tutorial of the cross knot chain lanyard, and since then I have made some of my own using Mathew Walker and lanyard knots, then I used a simple chain sinnet and ended with a square chain sinnet as Des Pawson names it. The sinnet itself is quite simple but I have not seen yet a very good clear video about it and sometimes I don´t like the start of it and untie the begining cord until it locks in the pattern. I have had better results using it as a lanyard, starting with a scaffold knot, with the loop bent over the eye of a swivel hook and starting the sinnet from there. So far I have not seen this in any other place.
You may see a pair of pictures of it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickthenailer/6833578083/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickthenailer/6833580539/
It seems to me as a good long lanyard and a good way to have a good quick-deployable lenght of cord. I like the way the golden rod square plait, as it is also known, looks against my blue jeans.

Stormdrane said...

@Ricardo, Those look good. The 'square' chain sinnet is the same result you get with using a 'lucet' or two pegs/nails of a knitting spool.

I also undo the start, with the spool knit lanyards, to look like the rest of the sinnet, before tying lanyard knots and loops on each end. ;)

Matt said...

What is your reference for turks heads? I just completed a hatchet project that I saw on the paracordist site came out really nice but I am having a hard time doing anything but a standard turks head on a small scale. The paracordist tutorial was for a long turks head. Thanks for the info I love your site amazing stuff man!!

Stormdrane said...

@Matt, I use different book resources for tying turk's head knots, like 'Creative Ropecraft' for some simple knots, or online sources like KHWW.net, where you can find much more complicated knot tutorials in the index, and print out grids to follow in making them.

I followed the linked YouTube video, by JustKnotLT, to tie the one in the blog post.

Annie Oakley's Kitchen said...

Looks awesome! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

kimberley franklin said...

Nice blog! I like the concept. It is like a boy scout preparation tips. I learn a lot. Looking forward to read other post.

fiona said...

your work is amazing! I love fiddling around with small rope making keyrings but it's all out of my head! I've been asked to run an event making a simple keyring for kids (though adults there too) and was wondering if you had a simple one I could use? thank you so much.
fiona
fiona6427@hotmail.co.uk

Stormdrane said...

@fiona, You might try something with the snake knot.

mygraine said...

Does this knot "silence" the shard at all? I love the tool but it rings like a tuning fork when my keys bump it.

Stormdrane said...

@mygraine, The knot doesn't cover enough of the Shard to quiet it down on a keyring.

You can try using a rubber band, twist looped over the length of the tool to soften the jangling effect, although it won't look as nice as a bit of knot work, lol...

Brian P. said...

I really like the Ti cord pulls. It does make a really nice finished look. The price tag is a bit hard to swallow for those. Do the make the same type of item in alum?

Stormdrane said...

@Brian P, The titanium cord clutch beads are actually a decent price for three of them, where I've seen others charge that much or more for a single Ti bead.

I don't believe County Comm offers them in any other materials, but you can look around the hardware section at Home Depot, Lowes, or other hardware stores for various fittings made of brass, copper, aluminum, etc.. that can be used as cord beads.

I've seen others post examples of some nice looking knurled fittings used with paracord work...