Thursday, November 05, 2009

Lanyard Snap Shackle

I bought a couple of these black painted bronze snap shackles from MIL-SPEC MONKEY, to use with paracord lanyards.

They do cost a bit more than the usual cheaper swivel clips and carabiners I often use, but it's a neat, well built accessory for some paracord work.

I added one to a lanyard made like the 'Paracord Lanyard Project'. The snap shackle has a 1" slot, so I looped the cord ends around the shackle a couple of extra times to fill the slot. The lanyard is also slightly longer than the tutorial version, with a couple extra feet of paracord, so this one has just over 12 total feet of 550 paracord in it.

The working ends are pulled under the last couple of knots on each side with hemostats, instead of melting the ends, with the excess then trimmed and tucked to finish.

I used some black 1.4mm cord for the shackle ring pull, which opens the shackle. I don't know how long the black paint will last, but I guess scratches could be touched up with a Sharpie. I imagine the bronze would still look nice over time as the painted finish eventually wears off.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

There neat looking. Remind me of a grenade pin.

Jill said...

Great site! I stumbled upon it looking for knotting instructions/how-tos. Thanks for sharing.
- J

Michael said...

Stormdrane,

I've checked out a lot of you work and it is incredible. You have a lot of books listed, but what would you recommend as a good first book that teaches the foundation knots but not so boring a person loses interest?

Thanks

Stormdrane said...

Lots of info is available online for learning knotting. Various books offer different perspectives of a lot of the same things. I think a few good choices for starting knot books are:

The Book of Decorative Knots

Creative Ropecraft

Knot Craft

Again, most of the common knot work that's found in knot books can be found with some searching online. A bigger book like, 'Ashley's Book of Knots', may have much more in it, but it's more of a reference for someone that already has some knot experience, and I don't think someone starting out would find it as useful to learn from.

Michael said...

Thanks, I'll check those books out.

I spent hours last night trying to end a wrap that I did on my Maglite in a Turk's Head. The beginning Turk's Head was easy, but trying to figure out the finishing one was brutal. I finally got it, but only from trial and error.

Unknown said...

I'd like to send you a knot related picture. Do you have an e-mail address i can send it to?
Dan.

Stormdrane said...

You can post it here in the comments if you upload it to Photobucket, Flickr, Xanga, Imageshack, etc... and then post the link, or send to me at Stormdrane (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Chad said...

Stormdrane,

I have an idea of a paracord bracelet and somehow integrating my wedding ring into it (depending on the weather, it's almost always either too large or too small on me). Do you have any ideas for this?

Thanks

Stormdrane said...

Chad, you could use the wedding band in place of a clasp, for a fixed size paracord bracelet. Just big enough to squeeze your hand through it.

Loop center of paracord onto one side of the ring, measure out for size, and then loop that point around the other side of the ring to start knotting...

I've not tried incorporating a ring into the center of a regular paracord bracelet, but I imagine it could still be done...

Anonymous said...

I appreciate the tutorial. I can't get my bracelet to end as"square" as yours. The last knot keeps endining up a little off. BTW, what a small world. I'm in McDonough as well. I'd love to see some of your work and be a student. My daughter has been making bracelets for her friends for a while, so we stumbled across your blog looking for new ideas.

Knotical said...

This is a nice piece of hardware to use as a trigger mechanism for your trebuchet.