Jacktheclipper, you got me!
I foolishly clicked on this thread and was assailed by photos of the work of jacktheclipper, Essexman, Langcjl and many more! Well, with a little prompting from Jack, I went out to try it. I originally decided I like leather instead of Paracord. Ok, so that was a joke, but I'm headed in the right direction now (I think). It's all an experiment at this stage.
So.... you know how it goes, I have to tease a bit, before I actually do Anything!
Just enough cord to try out something and see what it's like.
Between the local Lowes and Hobby Lobby, there's enough stuff to play with & the stuff off the internet comes in this week! The Blue Hawk stuff in the upper right corner from Lowes and is for metal cables (clamps and ends). I think they will polish up real nice and work for end caps and guides for Lanyards (they might even need some filework on them). The Deer? Well, I don't see anyone putting a Buck's head on their King Cobra Knife lanyard, but they probably should be.
Of course, I have been reading and watching all kinds of videos. I bought these pins from Lowes, to make needles for threading cord.
I have to have a fixture. I can't handle just holding the paracord in my hands and working with it, so I will be making a jig for doing lanyards and then I should have enough left for a small board, for Turks head knots.
First, I will be making the fixtures and see how that comes out. I've seen several on the net and I am not going to do mine that way (of course), so I will show how I make it, when I get there.
jacktheclipper, thank you sir...
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The ongoing saga of the Jig. I have made more modifications to this jig. I want to be able to carry it to work, in some type of bag and it was just too long, so I did some mods, to make it into a hinged jig.
All the parts came from Lowes. Small hinges, some 1/8" X 3/4" Aluminum flat, some 10-24 wing nuts and some 10-24 brass screw in bushings for wood. Cut the board, add the hinges, cut and drill the aluminum, drill and install the bushings and there you are. A folding jig, that can be carried in a bag.
I also have a small plastic container for carrying the rest of the supplies.
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Now, on to the inportant stuff...
My first real lanyard, Here it is:
King cobra, followed by crown knot, followed by snake knot at the other end. Or at least that's my story...
OAL ? I think about 9" give or take. Probably too long for an EDC light hooked to a belt loop and stuck in the pocket, but hey, it's a first try...
The cord came from Supply Captain. 3 colors used - Desert Camo, Chocolate Brown, Dark Brown. Other parts came from Lighthound. I probably got $3.10 into this lanyard. I can see why people just make simple ones. When I do one with metal beads, etc, I will be pushing $5-$6 for materials. It's expensive to be creative. If I go with copper and aluminum tubing, to make the beads, it would raise the cost even more! Prices are going up every day, on copper especially.
Anyhow, I think it's a good start and came out good for a first try, but really, it's not challenging like the flashlights I do. Once you do a knot a few times, it's just repetition and gets monotonous, (of course filing does too, but it doesn't feel the same as this knotting does). I can see doing these, to go with the budget lights I'm fixing to work on, in a couple weeks, but I can't see this as replacing the lights, when the summer heat (already here), drives me out of the garage till November.
The Jig worked Great, for the Solomon bar (King cobra section), it will be good for all the bar style knots, but for things like the crown knot or others, the fixture will sit idle, since they are more of a hold in hand kind of knot.
