Thursday, April 26, 2012

A locking evolution...


The Swiss Army pocket knife shown with the lanyard is the Wenger Evo EDC Knife (Evolution S13) that I received from County Comm.  This model is unusual for a SAK of this size, with having a locking 2.5 inch main blade using a push button release mechanism.  Anyone that's ever had a slip joint type pocket knife blade accidentally close up on 'em while cutting will appreciate the added security of a locking blade.

A recent YouTube video from JD of TyingItAllTogether(TIAT) mentions what he's been up to lately, along with the gift of a link to instructions for the Back-to-Back Bar, a selection from his next book,  'Paracord Fusion Ties (Vol.I)' which is due out this summer.


I followed the tutorial to learn the knotting pattern, a variation of the cobra stitch/Solomon bar/Portuguese sinnet, but added a snap hook and started off with 10 feet each of olive drab and black paracord.  The finished length of the completed lanyard with attachment is one foot, where the loop core was about 10 inches from where the knot work was started.

The bar is about a 1/2 inch thick when viewed from the side, still flexible, but probably overly substantial for most folks, to be made and worn as a paracord bracelet.

I also finished with a lanyard knot/diamond knot/boatswain's whistle knot, tied by pairing off the four working strands at the loop attachment end.  With a clip on one end and loop on the other, the lanyard can have a belt run through the loop end with an item at the clip end, or clipped to a belt loop and having an item attached on the loop end.

I ended up using about seven feet of black paracord and around nine feet of the olive drab in the finished lanyard.

I used a leftover four foot length of paracord to tie a 'Spring sinnet', another tie from JD(TIAT), used as a pocket knife fob for the Wenger S13.  I started with a loop and lanyard knot then tied the sinnet, tucking the end back up into the knot with hemostats to finish.

And I made a spool knit neck lanyard with about 36 feet of olive drab 'Type I' paracord/accessory/dummy cord, with a glow-in-the-dark Gaucho knot, and another smaller three pass Gaucho tied with white 0.9mm cord on the black powder coated snap hook.

11 comments:

Mycakers said...

I started stitching when I saw your blog. I've never seen this stitch before. Looks like you nailed it! I may have to give it a go. I love your blog, keep up the amazing work!

Mac said...

someone took a solomon bar or cobra weave, whatever it's officially called and made a flat cross with it. I have tried and tried to join it together and can not make it look like it's all on smooth weave. Any ideas?

Stormdrane said...

@Mac, I have a blog post on making one of those crosses from a few years ago, and just made two separate sections with the horizontal run through the vertical.

It can be done differently, as shown in a linked pic from that post, but I've not played around with other methods to get the same end result.

Here's a link to another more recent one by another knot tyer.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, I'm trying to make some good looking crosses for my best friends wedding and really didn't want to have to do the box knot ones because those take forever.

Ryan said...

The spring sinnet looks similar to the four strand crowned plait from Budworth's decorative knots book.

I like to make a swinging dog toy with rope by tying about a foot of the crown plait, tying a crown and wall knot to terminate. I then continue to tie a four strand plait, and terminate with a wall knot.
I use around 36 ft of 1/4 in rope for them. They tend to get stuck in trees, if you aren't careful when throwing them though.

Restita, Seattle Wushu Center said...

I'm relatively new to knotting, and I love your blog and YouTube vids! Thanks so much for all your info!

Rod said...

I''d like to know how you did the spool knit neck lanyard, video would be great

Stormdrane said...

@Rod, Don't have a start to finish tutorial on a spool knit neck lanyard since they can be finished in lots of different ways with the single start and finish cords.

But, I do have a short video on the knit process with a spool, and there are several blog posts with different examples of spool knit lanyards, making your own spools, and using different sized cordage...

Erik The Geardo said...

There are a million things that you can learn in college, but with about an hour a day, you show me something new. There is no greater joy than finishing a project and having something that looks the way its supposed to. Thank you!

Unknown said...

Just wanted to say I love your blog. I stared making survival bracelets using your instructable. I did an image search for bracelets and really want to try one in particular. I'm pretty sure the image pulled to you blog but image has since disappeared. It was in olive drab and was round not flat. I think it was based on the square zipper pull but by crossing the cord it became round instead of square. I thought you had instructions but I cant find them.

Stormdrane said...

@Randy, Sounds like maybe you're looking for the round crown sinnet bracelet.