I've made many of these for friends and family that like to read. A good book deserves a good bookmark. I used CoolGlowStuff! 3/32" cord to make this one. Just slightly smaller than gutted 550 paracord, the glow-in-the-dark cord takes four turns on the monkey fists to cover each side on a 1/2" marble, so I used a 6 foot length of cord. I made one monkey fist, tightened it up, then tie another fist starting right next to the completed one. There should be enough slack to make the fist around two fingers before tightening. Before the final tightening to remove slack, I adjust the second fist so there's a 10.5" space between the fists, this fits most hardback books that I read. Here's a link to a video posted on the Instructables site showing how to tie a monkey fist using a folded bit of coathanger and another example on Animated Knots by Grog. I use my fingers, but this method may help someone get the hang of it.
And here's another bookmark I made using paracord and a Turk's head knot.
8 comments:
This is really nice.
That is really neat! :)
Stromdrane-Any hints on getting those monkeyfists that small? I am having a lot of trouble keeping the strands separated correctly.
I tie them around my fingers, but I know I've seen a simple "U" shaped bracket that some have used to make the fists with. You might look around the Knot Heads World Wide web site to see if that photo is there.
It's something you could make with a coat hanger of bendable wire/metal that will hold it's shape.
Of course you have to take it off the bracket after making the basic fists' shape before tightening it up which is the part most folks have trouble with....
It's just a matter of going taking your time gradually working the slack out over several passes. If you didn't make enough turns/passes around the core of your fist, it will easily get uneven and won't look right, just start over.
Do you tuck the tag end of the rope back inside each fist somehow, or melt it, or ?
Looks awesome and thanks again!
I trim and tuck the other strand of each fist after tightening. When finished, if you've kept everything neat, it'll look like there never was another strand.
Looking through your old posts. I haven't seen a demonstration on how to tie the turks head "ball" knot like on this page.
Just a regular small turks head, like a 3L4B, can be tightened up over a ball/marble. You just have to use a knot that will fit over the object. One with a lot of leads will be too elongated to close up on the ends.
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