Gaucho Knots...

Both of these knotted beads are the same Gaucho Knot(3 pass) made with tan 1.4mm nylon cord.  One tied then tightened over a wooden bead, and the other tied then tightened over an old insulin syringe, which was a similar diameter to the wooden bead's hole size, allowing loops of ungutted paracord to fit both.

These knots start with a 5 lead 4 bight turks head knot, which is then made into a 'Gaucho Knot', and after than into a '3 pass Gaucho Knot'.  I gave the knots a brushed on coating of Krazy Glue after working the slack out and tightening them up.

I think I got lost trying a Gaucho knot from a long 4 bight turks head knot, guessing at the overs/unders from tying the shorter versions, making this one with orange tether cord over navy blue paracord, but it still looks good to me...

Headhunters Knot...

I tied this 'Headhunters Knot' with a length of gutted paracord, just making a single pass around the center section of an AA Tactical Maratac Flashlight. I'd much rather of used some nice leather for this knot, but did not have any on hand. Variations of this knot have some interesting looking patterns.

A couple more headhunter knots shown tied with red 1.4mm cord over wooden beads, for use with paracord wrist lanyards.  One is doubled and the other tripled.

The number of 'passes' can get confusing with knot terminology and can mean different things with certain types of knots.

Paracord Garbage Can Lid Tether...

I put up an instructable for this simple paracord project with a garbage can and lid.  I did this for our garbage cans several years ago, to keep from having to go and search for the lids on windy days after they'd blown away.

The current paracord retention strap/tether has been in use for 3 or 4 years now and although the color has faded, it still does the job.  If the weather really gets windy and blows the cans away after they've been emptied by the sanitation engineers, at least the can and lid don't get separated.


If I hear a loud scraping sound on windy garbage days, I don't even have to look out the window to recognize it as one of the neighbor's garbage lids moving down the street.  Hopefully someone grabs it before it's gone down a storm drain, lol...

*If you don't use a strap, write your street address on the inside of your garbage lid with a Sharpie/marker so a good neighbor can return it if found. :)

Fenix E15 with a Spanish ring knot...

I follow Fenix Outfitters on Twitter, and they recently had a contest for a Fenix E15 Mini LED Light by simply retweeting a Twitter post, and I won.

The cool little flashlight arrived in the mail today and I added a Spanish ring knot to it with 0.9mm braided nylon string.  The string was white, but an orange Sharpie made quick work of changing the cord color.  It's been a while since I'd tied this knot so I had to look in my copy of Bruce Grant's 'Encyclopedia of  Rawhide and Leather Braiding' to refresh my memory.

The light came with a split ring and a spare o-ring, and I added a small gate clip to the split ring to make it easy to get on/off my key ring.

The knurling on the light gives enough grip to hold it in one hand, and use thumb and index finger to twist the head for on/off, and doing that quickly also changes the output from medium to low then high settings.

I found that the pocket clip from my Gerber Infinity flashlight fits well over the Fenix E15 body, so that I can clip it to the brim of a ball cap or boonie hat, for hands free use.

Getting a new flashlight always seems to lead to wishing for the Sun to hurry up and set, to properly test the light out in the dark. :)

Pineapple Knot...

I followed Bud Brewer's tutorial on KHWW.net, for tying 'The Long Pineapple', a turks head knot variation, over a Zebra F-301 Compact Pen. The knot starts with tying a long 4 bight knot, then a second strand is interwoven creating the pineapple knot.

I made the initial knot longer with an extra turn at the start, to cover more of the pen, and figuring out the overs/unders from Bud's tutorial and applying it to the longer knot was easy enough to figure out.


I used 3/32" orange tether cord from County Comm to tie the 4 bight knot, then used 2mm blue nylon cord to interweave the pineapple knot. I tied this one while watching the Auburn vs Mississippi football game, War Eagle!

And a paracord pineapple knot on an EOD Robotics Breacher Bar.