Introduction / link list on knot tying and paracord

EDC Gear for Flashlight Carriers
1

Hi
I’ve been making paracord lanyards, or more accurately have been hoarding various instructions to do so for some years now; so I thought I’d write a short introduction / link list on the topic.

THE MATERIAL
Paracord/550 cord: 550 pound tensile strength general utility nylon cord consistent of a 7-9 braided inner strands in a coloured sheat, thusly varying in thickness (diameter, not pressed flat) between 3 and 4 mm. There are other, usually cheaper version of roughly the same diameter with fewer and fluffier strands marketed as 275 or 350 cord, as well as a 2 mm ‘micro’ version, yet out of these 550 cord is by far the most common.
Advantages of this material include resistance to abrasion, UV light, mildew/rot, high tensile strength, relatively low price, smooth surface compared to other synthetic cords and wide range of available colors including glow in the dark, various patterns and reflective strands. A downside is the size, the diameter is often too large for smaller, more detailed knot works.

WHERE TO BUY
aliexpress: lowest prices but not necessarily lowest quality. ~$0.045/ft
banggood: only 11 colors but chances are you were buying something else there anyways. $0,0597/ft with code ‘newbg’. Shameless affiliate link.
^these two are also the best sources for Europeans due to significantly higher shipping costs of US-based vendors
fivestarcord: Former UK shop , very good quality back then. Moved to US ~2 years ago. $0.07/ft (both regular and 2 mm micro cord) or $0.16/ft for GITD/reflective. $2.99 shipping flat.
supply captain: $0.0895/ft on 100 ft solid color bundles but they also sell 1000 ft spools at $0.05495/ft. $5.05 shipping rate increases with weight.
paracord galaxy: $0.0499 to 0.0649/ft. $7.50 shipping
1000 ft spool wholesale: $0.0369/ft but you have to take a minimum of 5 spools 1000 ft each.

INSTRUCTIONS
boondoggle man: Site aimed at children, shows some of the basics like crown knot, solomon bar and 4 strand braid.
Stormdrane: One of the most active contributors to the scene, has many other good resources listed in his blog’s sidebar. Youtube channel.
IGKT International guild of knot tyers, notable for their forum.
IGKT Surrey Branch: Some excellent instructions, especially the various on-hand turk’s heads are very useful.
Jack-Tar: Another IGKT member, German site only partly translated; nice illustrations.
NetKnots.com
Grog’s Animated Knots
KHWW.net: Knot heads world wide, another good resource on advanced knots; currently offline.
Splicing instructions: Permanent loops.

Tying it all together(TIAT)/Two knotty boys: Used to have a focus on bondage, now makes ‘fusion’ knots, new inventions and alt version of old knots, many wide bars/braids. A bit chaotic due to the sheer number of videos, I’d recommend downloading them all ( ~150 videos/4GB in webm format, use ‘flash video downloader 6.1’ or some other addon with similar functionality) for ease of use. Youtube channel. Old website (NSFW).
Paracordist:

Chinese Sword Grip Wrapping
Crown and Wall Tutorial: Reupload since I have no idea where this is from.

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I join BLF because of my interest in led flashlight that led to paracord keychain that led to tritium that led to EDC knives that led to keychain tools that led to interest on having zombie apocalypse box.

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Thanks for sharing .

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Could I add a welcome and a few addresses for U.K. based Paracordists.

Wild Elk
Heinnie Haynes Atwood Rope Co. Paracord and a lot more besides.
The Bushcraft Store

M6 Stainless nuts. for when you want a plain alternasive to skull beads.

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Some knots everyone should know:

Bowline: Bowline - How to tie a Bowline Knot animated and step by step illustrated

Water Bowline: Water Bowline | How to tie a Water Bowline using Step-by-Step Animations | Animated Knots by Grog
more secure, working part pointing outwards like with a regular bowline

Yosemite Bowline: Yosemite Bowline - Animated, Illustrated and Explained by Netknots
more secure, working part pointing inwards

Figure 8 loop: http://swiftwaterrescue.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/figure8.gif
easy to tie, easy to remember, strong. Most flashlights are small enough to be put on the end loop/bight before tying this knot, for bigger objects there’s the follow through version http://swiftwaterrescue.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/figure-8-follow-through1-e1323807611109.gif

Hangman’s Noose: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Hangmans_Noose_Howto.jpg/473px-Hangmans_Noose_Howto.jpg
fashionable but can come undone if the working end is left too short

Alpine butterfly: http://swiftwaterrescue.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/butterfly.jpg
simple loop in the middle of a line

Constrictor knot: Constrictor Knot - How to tie a Constrictor Knot
tightens itself like the name says

(Double) Sheet Bend: Sheet Bend - Weaver's Knot | Animated and Illustrated
decent knot to connect two lines as the working ends point in their respective original directions.

Fisherman’s bend/Barrel knot: Double Fisherman's Knot - How to tie a Double Fisherman's
a favorite of mine due to its low profile

West country wipping: West Country Whipping Knot | How to tie a West Country Whipping Knot using Step-by-Step Animations | Animated Knots by Grog
simple but strong whipping, decent to add grip to a handle. I prefer to finish it with a constrictor knot.

Flemish Twist: http://www.rmsgear.com/Images/TutorString/tutstring_12.JPG
for some reason I couldn’t find a clean pic tutorial on this, but it’s simple. Take two lines or bundles of smaller lines, twist both of them to the right (or left, doesn’t matter) by a half turn, then wrap them to the left (or right, if you twisted them to the left before). It’s a fast method to combine two lines into a strong but slim rope, a favorite of bowyers before the endless loop came around.

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I can tie my shoes, and only wear slipon’s around the house, does that count? Paracord does sound like fun though.

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Wow, what an awesome collection of resources and knowledge. Thank you for sharing. Seems like a great hobby with a relatively low cost barrier to entry.

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Thanks for the links. Good timing for me as I have just noticed that Banggood have paracord on a flash sale at $4.29 per 100ft for the next few days. :wink:

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Anyplace that has a good deal on something like half a dozen colors of 550 in a modest length like 25 feet?

Home Depot has 1/8” 160 lb 50 feet for $3, but seems like I should have some of the real deal, just not enough to climb anything.

Shouldn’t there be a ton of good paracord available as surplus?

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How do we differentiate paracord grade? Since they are mend for emergency or safety purposes.

Thanks for sharing, bikedude.

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Nice list.
Did my first lanyard yesterday :slight_smile:

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If you visit Paracord Galaxy or Gorilla Paracord both have a good description of what is ‘real’ paracord. I’ve bought the cheap stuff at HD and some local hardware stores and it’s ok for utility work but not so good for braiding mainly because it has a simple loose bundle of inner strands vs. the 7 twisted strands in ‘real’ paracord.

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Hard to tell, the inner strands look different sometimes, idk if that means they’re weaker or by how much. The cord I’ve bought from 5starcord, banggood and AE all has 7 non-fluffy strands, that’s one factor. You could take out a strand and put a weight on it, but it’s less accurate than using testing machinery with special clamps and so on. It depends on what you expect to use it for in an emergency. If you need maximum strength you should use dyneema/spectra, it has >2000 lbs tensile strength at 3mm.

but they look different. That’s
Yougle Electronic Commerce Co,Ltd 0.45€ 91% OFF|YOUGLE 550 Paracord Fallschirm schnur Lanyard Zelt Seil Abspann Mil Spec Type III 7 Strand 50FT 100FT Für Wandern Camping 215 farben|equipment| - AliExpress
Shenzhen SMD science and technology Co.,Ltd (Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com)
banggood
and 5starcord from the original post.
5star is an US/former UK based seller, their strands look best, Youngle’s being a very close second
Shenzen SMD’s, along with sending me the wrong color (olive camo), has a horrible smell that doesn’t go away after washing and waiting a few weeks. I would not recommend them.
Camo colors have a general tendency to smell a bit badly, but Shenzen’s was extremely noticeable.
Banggood’s look similar to the worse AE seller’s. They smell but it’s more like plastics that have been stored in a dusty environment, less alarming.
5starcords doesn’t have a smell. Maybe they use other coloring agents, maybe they wash their cord (wasn’t washing/steaming part of the original production process?).

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I’ve had a few 100ft hanks from AliExpress and it isn’t in the same league as proper 550 Paracord, the outer mantle is a lot looser, it will fray and move back from a cut end almost on it’s own. It doesn’t have the same feel about it and the un-gutted cord acts more like gutted, I’ve learnt now - only genuine cord from now on from a few U.K. suppliers that I can trust. I’d love to buy direct from the U.S.A. but the shipping is just too high.

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You could check if you’d get better shipping rates via shipito or some other freight forwarder.

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The couple of places that I use in the U.K. get it from the U.S.A. one sells Atwood Rope Company and the other has very good quality cord but they don’t always have the stock of colours that I’d like, I’ve built up quite a good stock myself but you can never have too much Paracord or too many colours. :bigsmile:

17

How did I miss this thread?

thanks for sharing all the links and info.

I’ll post some more useful link a bit later, suffering shoulder pain now so can’t type for too long.

Best UK paracord supply for now I use wildelk.co.uk.

Had some UK Warehouse Banggood paracord, it was the worst I’ve ever seen.

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Then there's this thread ...

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Nice! Those monkeyfist lanyards are awesome!

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Thanks for the comparison. Okay, found this info from wikipedia. I bought one camo lanyard from out-door last year. It does have some chemical smell indeed.

Think I will stick to the first aliexpress store or US/ UK sellers. Any recommendation from eBay sellers?

How hard is it to make something like this? It might be good for my medium size flashlight.