Thursday, February 15, 2007


Supplies needed will be 10.5 feet of paracord. It's best to have the extra few inches so that when you finish and cut the remainder of the cord(if you get it finished up just right), you still have 10 feet used in the completed lanyard. I'm using 550 mil-spec paracord with 7 inner strands, but you can use other types of paracord, utility cord, line, or rope that is a similar size to paracord.

Also needed are scissors, a tape measure, a lighter(torch lighter works best for a neat burn in finishing the ends, but a regular lighter will work, or you could use a soldering iron, and even a good weatherproof glue may be used), a snap hook, swivel clip, carabiner, or a keyring will work if you don't have the other type attachments to use, and a twist tie or clothespin which will be used to hold/mark the center of the cord you'll be using.

Find the center of the length of cord and attach the twist tie or clothespin. Now you'll tie a lanyard knot keeping the twist tie in the center of a 2 inch long loop above the knot.

*Note* You can skip the lanyard knot if it seems too difficult and instead use the twist tie to tie off a 2 or 3 inch long loop at the center of the length of cord. The finished lanyard will have a slightly longer loop if you skip the lanyard knot.


Once you've finished the lanyard knot or tied off a loop, you should find that the free ends of the cord are of equal length. If not, adjust the knot/loop to even the lengths.




Now you can loop the free ends over your swivel clip/snap hook/or keyring a couple of times and tighten that up so there's a 5 inch space between the lanyard knot/loop and the base of the clip/hook/keyring.

5 comments:

Annabelle said...

Very cool! Thanks for posting the tutorial!

Anonymous said...

hi my name is courtney i live in jefferson city TN and i was wondering if u could make me a lanyard with string like ur pictures show and u could mail it to me i would greatly apperciate it










thanks i will leave my address on here when u reply... :}

Stormdrane said...

@Courtney, I rarely sell my knot work to keep from getting burned out on my hobby, and usually refer requests to other knot tyers that do sometimes offer custom knot work, like these folks:

Ken Cardwell

The Paracordist

Unique Ropecraft

Tied in Knotz

You may find many others on ebay, Etsy, Artfire, and in the buy/sell/trade sections of some online forums. I also encourage folks to give tying a try themselves. ;)

Anonymous said...

Love all your work and can follow your inst. quite well. The problems I have are to do with, as example. I made a monkey's fist that has two cords remaining but of different lengths, how do I then make it into a key ring fob? I seem to hit a wall re-adapting from one to another. What can I do. Craftyv

Stormdrane said...

@Anonymous, If one end is longer than the other, work slack from the longer end all the way through the knot to the shorter end, until you get them evened out. Then you can tighten the knot up and continue working with those equal length end strands. ;)