Knots for Lanyards/Paracords

March 9, 2012 4:46 AM

How do I make a lanyard for various pocket tools and EDC items?

Greetings all - with my recent kick of focusing my Every Day Carry (EDC) items, I am trying to figure out "how" to best connect my EDC items (flashlights, pocket tools, knives, pry bars, etc) to various keychains and wire rings.

I have heard of paracord, so I am wondering if this is the best item to use to connect this stuff? If so, suggestions as to what type of paracord I should buy and where? (would have to be able to buy it online and ship to Canada for a reasonable price).

And if paracord is my best option, what is the best way to tie the knots? I am not looking for something elaborate as this (but that would be nice to learn how to do!), but I am looking for maybe something as simple as this?

Therefore, I am just looking for options and suggestions. I have a couple of keychains and wire rings that I want to attach items to that have lanyard holes (small pocket knives, flashlights, etc), so I just need options to connect these.

Suggestions for sources of split rings for keychains are always appreciated as well (as well as sources for smaller wire ring keychains). Thanks!

posted by dbirchum to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

Stormdrane's blog is a must-see for paracord-related stuff. Also, TyingItAllTogether's youtube channel.

In general, you can go as simple as a plain old knot at the end and just loop things around, or go with some kind of cobra knot or a sinnet. There are lots of web sites out there and a whole bunch of youtube instructional videos.
posted by rmd1023 at 4:56 AM on March 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

Paracord is great stuff. You can just buy it off of Amazon and there are a lot of great videos on knot tying and making all sorts of things with paracord on YouTube.

Have you thought about joining them all on a carabiener instead? That way you can easily take them off if needed. You might have to shop around a little to get a size and shape that would work.

I've also seen wire keyrings used to hold an EDC together and it looked great and worked very well.
posted by wwax at 5:40 AM on March 9, 2012

I would recommend getting ten feet of each of a couple different kinds of paracord. Get some dark colors, get a couple that have reflective tape in them, etc.

I'd also recommend getting a multi-pack of cheap carabiners (not load bearing). I keep my keys on a length of cord clipped to my pants at all times. (lost my keys or left them in the ignition too many times.)

As for knots, do you have any friends that have served in the military? My Marine buddy is a natural expert on knots.
posted by notsnot at 6:03 AM on March 9, 2012

Best answer: That second lanyard looks like a very simple knot of the sort you get when you hold two ends of cord together, make a loop further down, and then run the ends through the loop. A similar knot which is a lot more secure is the lanyard knot. It's very easy -- you should be able to learn it in just a couple of minutes, and then you can make as many lanyards as you need.

Your first lanyard is a coil knot (a.k.a. Chris Reeve knot). It's not quite as easy, but if you watch a video I'm sure you can get it. Other easy patterns for keychain lanyards include the square sinnet, round crown sinnet, and cobra knot / solomon bar. These look complicated but they're really not -- most people can learn to do all three in an afternoon. I made a metafilter post about this stuff a few years back -- you can check it out if you need more ideas.

I get my paracord at Supply Captain and my split rings on Ebay. If you search for "hammered split ring", those tend to be the nicest ones. Those wire rings wwax mentioned are also great.
posted by vorfeed at 11:41 AM on March 9, 2012