Coiled lanyard

The rubber coiled key chain type lanyards have been around for years, but the first time I saw one with a paracord sheath over the rubber coil was probably last year.

I believe one of the guys at TAD Gear had made some and mentioned how much of a pain it was to work the paracord over the coil, so they're not offered for sale there, but lots of cool stuff to browse anyway if you check 'em out.

I bought a couple of cheap coil lanyards off the key chain rack at walmart last year and tried it myself, quickly giving up on it. It was taking forever to 'inchworm' the cord over the coil. The problem was that the coils I first bought didn't have a metal crimp with a hole in the end on the ends of the coil. I found some that did, at a grocery store for about $1.50 each.

 I used one of the 7 inner strands of the paracord to tie onto the hole of the crimp, and pulled the tied strand as I worked the cord over the other crimp and coil at the same time. Using about 4 feet of paracord, it still took awhile, but it finally worked for me this time. I removed one crimp and cut off some of the coil to shorten the lanyard.

After reattaching the crimp, I added small split rings to each end and a swivel clip to one end for attaching to a belt loop. At rest, the paracord covered coil measures about 6 inches long and can be stretched out to just over 3 feet.

On one of the forums, someone mentions stretching the coil straight and pulling the paracord over it made it easier, but I'm not sure how they did it, maybe someone can chime in on this. This one should work fine to attach to a flashlight, multi-tool, knife, key ring, etc.

If you want one and know you're not going to make one yourself, there are a couple of guys on one of the forums that were offering the hand made lanyards for sale in the buy/sell/trade section, or you might try googling for a 'coiled lanyard', or try one of these from berkeley point.

Another option might be to try using a wired home phone coiled cord or recycle a car cell phone coiled cord, using some duck decoy crimps on the ends.  I dunno if 550 paracord sheath would fit over those though, some more obscure larger diameter paracord might.  Then you'd have the copper wire inside the coil to strip out if needed for some potential zombie apocalypse survival usage, lol...

Aluminum knitting spool

A blog reader had seen my posts on making lanyards with a knitting spool and made some of his own spools using aluminum. He kindly sent me one, and I have to say it's built like a tank and should last a lifetime.

It's perfect for 2mm and 1/16" sized cord, like the 'Type I' paracord/accessory/dummy cord, that I like to use, as well as mason's line. I tried it out on some orange mason line, for a neck lanyard, and it works great.

Thanks Bennie, I appreciate it, Semper Fi!

 

The lanyard knot and loop at the end of a knitting spool braid

I'd posted these rough photos on EDC Forums in the 'Lanyard thread', but I still get asked how to do it. So, I've added them here on the blog.

I take the single strand at the end of the braid(about 7 or 8 inches is good to work with), run it thru each of the loops after taking it off the knitting spool to secure the braid, then tie the lanyard knot with a loop, and the excess after working the knot down to the braid is tucked/pulled back into the center of the braid with my hemostats.

Paracord cross made with the snake knot

As an alternative to the round and square sinnets, the snake knot can also be used for a paracord cross. I'd made some of these a few months ago, and a friend asked why I hadn't posted them, I get side tracked sometimes...

They use under 4 ft of paracord, just under 2 feet for the top part and 2 ft for the bottom. Make three snake knots with just enough loop for an attachment from the center of one cord, and make six snake knots for the bottom part. Then make three snake knots out each side for the arms, trim and melt the ends off. They can be made without the inner strands of the paracord, but I prefer them in.

...and a comparison with round and square sinnet crosses...

ID badge lanyard

A few folks asked me how I braided around a strand of paracord using a knitting spool. Here's a photo showing some navy blue 1mm cotton cord knitted around a single strand of orange paracord(Auburn colors, War Eagle!). This will be an ID badge lanyard for my dad when finished.

The paracord ends go around the swivel clip, then a few snake knots were tied around the paracord and the end strands from the knitted cord(to keep the ends in place) to finish.

And as finished...






...another done in neon green with a black outer braid and Schmuckatelli pewter skull bead...