Tuesday, January 09, 2007

A few more that I made with 1/16" utility cord in a cobra twist stitch and added small pewter skulls.
 Posted by Picasa

Monday, January 08, 2007

SAK Lanyard/fob with skull bead

I used about 4 feet of 1/16" camo utility cord for the cobra twist lanyard/fob with a small pewter skull bead.

Shown attached to a Victorinox Ranger.

SAK lanyard with 'Type I' paracord...

Using 'Type I' paracord, I spent over an hour on the one pictured below by tying, untying, retying, over and over so that I could get 10 feet of cord into it and have the finished lanyard's total lenght at about 6 inches. I started with a set amount of 10 feet plus about 3-4" extra that I usually trim off it there's room as I finish.

I had to figure how many inches to start tying from the center(4"), how long to make the first set of cobra stitches/Solomon bar/Portuguese sinnet(2"), then overlapping those 3 more times and still have enough left for a finished tail end with a lanyard knot and a doubled granny knot(1.75" long after tying them), and have the loop on the top for attaching it to the knife(1.75" which is long enough to fit thru a lanyard hole and still have room to loop the lanyard body thru it on an average pocket knife, it appears long when just looped onto a split ring like on the SAK).

That kept the finished lanyard at about 6 inches. I have a tape measure handy, but I don't measure precisely as I tie. I mostly just tie/untie until it looks ok to me. I only know those measurements after I've finished, and these only work for that sized cord.

The Swiss Army knife is a Victorinox Ranger.

Saturday, January 06, 2007




Here's a lanyard/fob made of Type I paracord for my Victorinox Swiss Army Tinker. I used several feet of cord(I'm guessing 5 to 7 feet, I didn't measure it as I was using leftover pieces) using the king cobra stitch and finishing with a lanyard knot and a doubled granny knot. And you can see the size difference compared to the regular 550 paracord on my keychain.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Shock cord lanyard...




I used shockcord for the main length of the lanyard and put round sinnets of black and olive drab paracord on each end with a swivel clip on one end and a snap hook and swivel on the other.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Crown sinnet leather bootlace keyring fob


Here's a photo of a square sinnet keychain fob I made from a leather boot lace for one of my sisters a couple of years ago. She's kept it on her keychain since then and it's held up well.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Monkey fist paracord fob...


Navy and maroon/burgandy paracord fob, started with monkey fist, two color crown sinnet with wall/crown in the center.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Monkey's Fist Christmas Tree Ornaments...



Some more monkey fist Christmas tree ornaments. For the centers I've used ping pong balls, 1" and 1/2" wooden balls. The poly cord came from Walmart. These won't be going on our 3 foot tall fiber optic Christmas tree, so I'll probably be giving them away. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Free photo editing software...

I use Google's Picasa for editing my photos for this blog. It's free to use and really helps with improving the photos I've taken with my digital camera. They also have a 'Web Album' you can use to store your photos online in private or public albums.

I've gone through the grief of having a hard drive crash and losing lots of photos that weren't backed up or saved onto CDs/discs. So do yourself a favor and try Picasa, or others like Photobucket, Flickr, or Xanga for storing photos online, all free to use and access wherever you can get online.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Fender type paracord lanyard keychain fob...

Some of the knotty guys on a couple of forums made some crown sinnets and went back up over them with twists(half knots) and they looked pretty cool.  Reminds me of fender type rope/knot work, that I've usually seen done with hitching.
Here's one, with a Schmuckatelli skull bead, that I tried using coyote tan/desert camo paracord. It takes about twice as much cord to make, but can provide a beefier grip to a lanyard or keychain fob.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Round sennit lanyard/fobs with black reflective and assorted colors of paracord...

A few round sennit knot lanyard/fobs made with black reflective paracord and assorted colors. Posted by Picasa And another photo taken with the flash to show the way the reflective paracord really does a great job at reflecting light.

Friday, November 10, 2006

A short 'How to' video I made on making a round sinnet paracord lanyard/fob

I used two pieces of gutted paracord, one 30 inches of black reflective paracord and the other 25 inches of red paracord. This will allow about a 3 inch loop and a 2 inch body when finished. Note: The difference in the round sinnet and the square sinnet is just in the angle used when weaving. If you want a square sinnet, you'll have solid colors on each side of the finished lanyard/fob, just weave straight across instead of at an angle. You can also combine them by doing a few angled, a few straight, and so on. My camcorder battery died just as I was finishing up with the lighter. After trimming the ends, hit them with the lighter to quickly melt them, and give a quick press with your thumb so they attach to the surrounding cord and won't come loose. Be careful though, it's easy to get burned. And there's no narration(just heavy breathing if you turn up your volume), but I think you'll get the gist of it.

Monday, November 06, 2006

These are some monkey fists that I made for use as Christmas tree ornaments. I used cord that I found at Walmart and used ping pong balls for the fists' centers.

It's easier and faster to learn the monkey fist when they're made larger(at least for me, YMMV). So if you want to learn, you might try it first with larger diameter rope/cord and use a ping pong ball, golf ball, racquetball, or tennis ball for the center until you get the hang of it.

 It took me one hour to make these five monkey fists, but making a smaller one with paracord or smaller diameter cord, using several turns, and adding a sinnet, twist, or cobra stitch could take an hour or more to make just one.Posted by Picasa
I've used various sized ball bearings, marbles, wooden balls, and even ping pong balls for the centers of the monkey fists I've made. You can find them on ebay or your local hobby/craft store. You can make the monkey fists without anything in the center or just use some wadded up paper or plastic if you don't have anything else handy. Posted by Picasa

Friday, November 03, 2006

Nalgene bottle paracord wrap

Here's my Nalgene bottle with the Brunton compass top. I've wrapped it with 37 feet of paracord using the common whipping method. If you keep it tight as you wrap, you won't have a problem with it slipping off, or wrap it with extreme tape first.

I believe it will hold 50 feet of paracord, but I just used what I had laying around. It can be removed in just a few seconds for quick use by pulling the bottom cord loose from the inner loop. If you wanted to get fancy with it, you could tie a turks head knot with many options of leads/bights to a pattern of your own choosing.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

A few links for skull beads you can use on your lanyards and fobs

I've received lots of requests for links to some sources of the skull beads I've used and there are many possible online sources, including ebay, and some customs found on various forums, but here are a few links to some popular ones:

Small pewter skulls
Schmuckatelli skulls
T.A.D. Gear pewter skulls
T.A.D. Gear long beads
Assorted skull beads

Friday, October 27, 2006

Two color monkey's fist...



Toxic green and black monkey fist with a doubled lanyard knot and hangman's noose. a 1" wooden ball was used for the monkey fist's center. It's made the same way as a regular monkey fist except you're using two strands. Just go slow and keep the lines from getting tangled as you go. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Small monkey fist(small marble for center) with a hangman's noose made from 1/16" utility cord. Posted by Picasa

Friday, October 20, 2006

I made this lanyard with shockcord and a swivel clip, with a cobra stitch done in black/olive drab utility cord over the shockcord. I can clip it to a belt loop and let it hand down inside my pocket or use the knife's pocket clip and the lanyard will help prevent loss. The lanyard can also be clipped to itself for use as a wriststrap and the shockcord allows a good bit of stretch to fit any wrist. Posted by Picasa