Sunday, August 11, 2013

Paracord Fusion Ties - Volume 2: Survival Ties, Pouches, Bars, Snake Knots, & Sinnets

I was excited to receive a signed copy of JD Lenzen's new book last month, 'Paracord Fusion Ties, Vol. 2: Survival Ties, Pouches, Bars, Snake Knots, and Sinnets', with the foreword written by Kevin G. Gagne(The Paracordist).  Many are familiar with JD from seeing his Tying It All Together(TIAT) Channel on YouTube and Facebook.  With all the great projects inside, it makes you wonder how he's gonna top this with then next volume, but if you've seen the work he's shared, you know he will.

I tied this 'Secret Compartment Fob', from Chapter 7 of the book, with red, white and blue paracord, and placed a 2" x 3/16" misch metal ferro rod inside(which can be scraped to make sparks to help get a fire started), and attached it to one of my Swiss Army Knives.  I also added a Tiki bead to the fob, that I received from Schmuckatelli Co.  You could instead put rolled up money or a note with important info inside the fob, or similar sized objects.


The fob is tied with three middled strands of paracord so you have six working ends to tie a crown sinnet(round/spiral pattern), and finished with a 6-strand diamond knot, with the end strands trimmed to however long you want them.  The firesteel stays securely inside until you want to remove it, pushing it out from the top end, and is easy to reinsert, and just pull/tighten each of the end strands to close it back up. 

Brighter paracord colors used with lanyards and fobs help to keep them visible so you don't lose whatever you've attached them to if you should drop or set them down, but you can certainly work with 'tactical' or subdued solid colors like black, olive drab, tan, coyote brown, green, navy blue, etc... or one of the multitude of camo/combination/reflective/glow-in-the-dark variations now available.

I left the inner strands intact on this one, but you can gut them if you like.  You can tie these like I've tied my paracord wrist lanyards, having loops on both ends of the crown sinnet for more attachment options.  Took a few more pics of the cool Tiki beads(Ona, Kiko, and Ku) used on the examples I've tied here.



And I tied a modified version combining JD's secret compartment fob and my regular wrist crown sinnets, that have attachment loops on both ends for lanyard use, large wrist loop, and small loop around snap hook/swivel clip.  I used some ranger green(5 ft), brown(4.5ft), and woodland camo(4ft) paracord for the lanyard, and put a 2" x 1/8" firesteel inside the crown sinnet, alongside the wrist loop cords that the 6 strand crown sinnet is tied around.  
 I used a black oxide 'Classic' Schmuckatelli skull over the wrist loop paracord strand, which was not gutted.  The brown and camo strands were gutted.  Added six small 'Joe' skulls on the end strands after the diamond knot, and those strands will hang up or down depending on which way you have the lanyard oriented.  

I melted the ends of the paracord below the small skulls, then flattened each end out with pliers, so the cooled hardened paracord is then wider than the skull's hole, so they don't fall off.   The modified 'Secret Compartment' lanyard is pictured next to my EDC keychain for size reference, with the finished lanyard being about 14 inches long, including the snap hook/swivel clip


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome work David!!

Mark Brewer said...

What are brand/model are the knives you are showing with the lanyards?

Stormdrane said...

@Mark, The Victorinox models shown are: A Black Alox Pioneer, a Blue Alox Farmer, and a Plain Edge One Hand Trekker, Swissbianco Edition(#012) with his designed pocket clip attached to the back scale.

Unknown said...

You should do a paracord cargo net tie down that people use in the tail bed of a truck to tie down things like a gas can/push mower. I had one in the back of an Isuzu Rodeo. (Google "cargo bungie net"). Hope to hear back from you. Thanks in advance.

Matt said...

This is a great idea! Mostly because I thought of it before finding your blog. ;-) But I have been looking the past few days for a good "pouch" weave so I could put a ferro rod into it. Low and behold, here you are! :) Thanks for sharing the great idea!

I don't know if you added the 4 Amazon links at the bottom or if Blogger did, but I tend to get my paracord from http://www.wildbillwholesale.com/paracord.html They seem to have consistent, lower prices while still maintaining high quality of paracord. And they have better high volume deals than I normally see.

I know that sounds like a commercial/spam, but it's really just an honest customer opinion. And a fellow paracord enthusiast trying to help a brother out. ;)

Home on the Range said...

I was out and about and saw a paracord steering wheel cover. Not as cool as your stuff, but pretty darn cool.

Unknown said...

Good evening Stormdrane,you talk about JD topping his next volume I always wonder that about you.You always come up with the really cool unique designs.I have been away from tying for quit a while so to get inspiration I just go to your site.Thanks

Hectic Mama said...

I just want to say thanks Storm Drane. I am a crafing mom with 3 boys. Not many craft projects I start peek their interest but this is one that really has. So thanks for the quality time with my boys. They love your blog!

Unknown said...

Well, with trepidation I finally took on one of the easiest knots. I have only recently been introduced to knots and what they can be done with them. From Paracord Fusion Ties Volume 1, I took on the Switchback Knot bracelet. It came out pretty nice, though, the 550 paracord was not the best choice for this bracelet. Still, I am very happy that a man I met within a group of people, Mark, turned me on to the use of paracord. Some of the knots from both Fusion books, and, of course, The Ashley Book of Knots takes me back to my Boy Scout days.

My friend, Mark, turned me on to your blog, plus, TIAT. Thank you, Stormdran,for all of your great works you choose to share.