Sunday, June 24, 2007

Snake knot lanyard with Schmuckatelli skull bead

Here's a snake knot lanyard/wrist strap in olive drab and orange 550 paracord with a swivel clip and a Schmuckatelli pewter skull bead.

7 comments:

Michael said...

Here via Blogrocket.

That is awesome, I always wonder about best way to carry, my knife. I have so much crap hanging on my belt I'd rather stuff it in a pocket. A lanyard like that makes it easier to get out of the pocket.

Brilliant.

Anonymous said...

Great stuff as usual... how do you conceal the ends so well?! Do you ever pre-shrink the paracord? Cheers!

Stormdrane said...

The ends on that one are just under the skull bead. I use good sharp scissors and cut the end strands close to the lanyard, then use a torch lighter to melt the end of the strand and give it a quick press with my thumb to flatten out the melted end(you can get burned by the melted nylon, so always be careful with it). When I can, I'll tuck a melted end into a braid so it's not noticeable. Some folks have mentioned they use super glue instead of melting the ends, but it was too messy in my experience, so I prefer to use a lighter, YMMV.

Mil-spec Type III 7 inner strand paracord isn't going to shrink, so pre-shrinking isn't needed with the good quality cord. Not all types of paracord are the same, even though they may look the same on the outside, the core material may be different(a few strands of loose fibrous material that can shrink by as much as 10% to 12%, so if you use this type of paracord, you should pre-shrink it) and overall strength can vary as well. So if you remove the inner strands and just use the outer shell/sheath of the cord to make lanyards, fobs, etc., the cheaper paracord works fine, but personally, I prefer the MIL-C-5040 Type III paracord I get from the Supply Captain.

Here's a link to ubraidit.com that mentions pre-shrinking the paracord that they sell:

http://www.ubraidit.com/supplies-detail.php?item=26

Their cord is fine to use for lanyards, braiding, etc. But if you want to be able to use the cord and/or the inner strands for potential emergency/survival use, make sure you're getting mil-spec 550 paracord with 7 inner strands.

Anonymous said...

What were the two lengths of paracord that you used for this project?

Stormdrane said...

I don't always measure when I make something, but I think I used about 2.5 ft of olive drab and 1.5 ft of orange, something like that.

eMotion Digital said...

WOW, awesome work! How do you start the orange, (or any 2nd color?).

Thanks!

Stormdrane said...

The second color is sewn or melted with the longer cord and is attached at the point just after it's looped thru the swivel. It will be hidden under the first snake knot that is made.