Raising Cane...

The Jig Pro Shop sent me a couple of their Easy Assist Former Mandrels to test out back at the start of summer.  These are new Turk's head knot tying tools that don't require the user to have a lot of the knowledge of the ins and outs, overs and unders and rules with tying such puzzles of knot work, and be able to make some knots in different sizes.  I'm sure many would find tying them addictive and would want to learn more about the possibilities of where can they tie another one around something.

I'd not done much tying for a long spell with losing a consideral bit of my eyesight (legally blind), so they had just been sitting sat the back of my desk.

I tried tying a couple of smaller Turk's head knots on the mandrels, with paracord, after watching a YouTube video demonstrating their use.  They didn't arrive with any instructions, but they weren't hard for me to figure 'em out.

I wanted to challenge myself with the larger knot (a doubled 17 lead 5 bight knot, I think) and dark colored paracord, which is particularly difficult for me to see now.  It did take me a few attempts to get it right, at least I think it looks presentable on my walking cane, and there's plenty of room to add more.

I started with a much too long length of about 25 feet of black paracord (over guesstimating).  Tying the doubled knot on the mandrel only used around 15 feet, where I then removed it and slid it onto the cane for tightening and working the slack out.  I did use a bit of xtreme tape on the cane, before I started,  to keep the tightened paracord knot work from sliding/slipping on the slick cane surface when I was done.

Total time invested was a bunch of hours, although that includes having to untie and start over because of mistakes and errors that I was able to catch myself making.  Lots of talking to myself and trying to have patience, seeing the cord blurred and distorted while holding the work less than a foot away from my face...

The olive drab paracord gaucho and single strand star knots were tied on the cane years ago.