Pa's backup EDC keychain lanyard...

I found my Pa's backup EDC keyring setup, tucked away in a spot where it probably hadn't been used in a while, and some of the items were in need of a cleaning and lubrication or replacement (paracord), having tape residue on blades from opening boxes, and some minor surface rust removal needed in the case of the Leatherman Micra and the old Made in USA Swiss Tech gold tini coated multitool (I'd given both of those to Pa probably close to twenty years ago).

The paracord lanyard/fob that was attached to the keychain, a basic Solomon bar/Portuguese sinnet/cobra stitch type, was one that I probably tied back in 2005, and was dirty/sticky where it looked like maybe candy melted to it at some point (in a backpack/messenger bag/satchel in a hot car).

So, I tied a new lanyard in the same style as the old one, using some digital woodland pattern paracord and adding a Schmuckatelli Co. Ona Tiki bead to replace the pot metal bead that was on it, which most likely came from Michael's craft store, wallyworld, or Hobby Lobby.

As mentioned, there's a Leatherman Micra and Swiss Tech multitool on the keyring, plus a Gerber Nailclipper (a design that's had many different brand names on it), Spyderco Ladybug Salt (County Comm exclusive in orange ~ 2011), Titanium Pico Widgy prybar with kydex sheath (County Comm), Titanium Peanut lighter, and I added a small fauxton LED keychain light since there wasn't a flashlight on the keychain.  I thought there was a Maratac AA LED light that I'd given to Pa to add to the keychain at one time, but I haven't seen it around in a long time, so it may be lost...

I tied a few more, using different finish Cyber skull beads.

Pineapples Akimbo...

To make a closed loop edc paracord wrist lanyard for my Victorinox Tinker SAK and Maratac AAA LED flashlight, I tied an Arms Akimbo lanyard knot, from 'The Directory of Knots', by John Shaw, a knot that is usually tied along a single strand length of cord. Knot #583 in 'The Ashley Book of Knots'.

I brought the end strands of a 32" length of paracord together and treated the two end strands as one, taking care to keep them aligned through the twists and turns of the knot so that they didn't get overlapped and out of sorts when tightening it up.

I also tied a 10 part 8 bight 2 pass type 2 pineapple knot with some 1.4mm cord, tightened up around an old improvised oversized lacing needle made from metal chopsticks.  This was done so that the finished knot would be large enough to pull a loop of ungutted paracord through.  You could also use a drinking straw or Bic pen body as a mandrel to tie the knot around.

Then I gave the knot a couple of brushed on coats of Krazy Glue, first around the outside of the knot and after that coat dried, I removed the knot from the lacing needle and applied another coat of glue around the inside of the knot to make a sliding lanyard bead of it.

This pineapple knot is shown in Tom Hall's book, 'Introduction to Turk's Head Knots'.

Luggage upgrades...

Almost ten years ago, I'd added a paracord handle wrap to a piece of Ma's luggage, using neon colored cord and knot work to help make it stand out from all the other similar looking bags at the airport/cruise ship/hotel lobby and reduce the chance of someone mistakenly walking off with the wrong bag.

I finally got around to removing the dozen metal zipper pulls (almost 2 ounces worth in weight) and replacing them with some 1.4mm cord (doubled Solomon bar/Portuguese sinnet/king cobra stitch) versions.  Seven done in orange on the outside, that were tied directly to the zippers, and five more in black with loops long enough to ring/cow hitch to the inside zipper attachments.

I also tied a long 4 bight Turk's head knot (21 lead 4 bight, doubled) with neon orange paracord to the side handle (using around 15 or so feet), which previously had a bright yellow duct tape handle wrap on it.

The neon yellow 3 bight Turk's head knot is still on the top handle, and aside from a little bit of surface dirt from handling, it still looks good enough to leave alone.

I thought the orange zipper pulls looked a bit pale after tying, so I went back over them with an orange Sharpie marker, but now they look too dark to me, almost red in color.  Ma said they looked fine to her, so I'll just leave 'em be, unless I get bored and my hands stop bothering me/cramping up long enough to try something else...

 

A few bowline knots...

Just a few bowline (pronounced 'boh-linn') knots, a knot with a fixed loop at the end of a strand of cord/rope.  Here I've shown some loosely tied with paracord, and then tightened/applied.

There are a number of other variations (something like 55 different ones going by 120 different names) of the bowline that can be tied.  These few examples I tied here are diagrammed in 'The Directory of Knots' book by John Shaw.

Each bowline can be further secured with a couple of half hitches or a double overhand knot tied around one side of the loop, as shown in one of my photos...

And pictured is an example of how I might use a bowline knot/variation with paracord for edc (everyday carry) with a knife, flashlight, keychain, multitool or whatnot.  I made a simple single strand paracord lanyard with a water bowline at one end and at the other end tied a fisherman's bend onto a small carabiner.

Alternatively you could make the bowline loop larger and run your belt through it or ring hitch it around a belt loop, or add a gate clip, carabiner, snap hook, switching up attachment options....

A more secure sheepshank knot...

The sheepshank knot is used to shorten a length of cord that is too long for your needs, where you don't want to cut the cord to size, so you can still retain the longer section for later use.  The basic sheepshank needs to be kept under tension otherwise it comes apart.

This paracord example is a more secure modification that has the working strands tucked through the loop ends of the sheepshank, then the knots are tightened, as you make sure the three cords between the knots are equal in length to share the load you'll be putting on them.

Good diagrams for the sheepshank knot can be found in 'The Directory of Knots' by John Shaw, and ABoK (The Ashley Book of Knots) also has a few variations.

An example use would be to shorten up a tent guyline or tarp tie down, so that any excess cord wouldn't be hanging down on the ground or in the mud, or otherwise in the way.  A fisherman's bend (also called an anchor hitch) is used where the paracord is attached to the tarp grommet.

This sheepshank was a knot I learned in the Boy Scouts (the basic version), but not one often used.  The above demonstration link to the Animated Knots by Grog website mentions alternative possibly more secure knots to use.  I have used the modified sheepshank knot to shorten a long extension headphone cable for my desktop computer, but just coiling it and adding a rubber band would have been easier and faster, lol...