How the heck do you make a knife lanyard???

[Gunstock Jack]

I was asked to do a little tutorial on making a knife lanyard. Well, it's fairly straightforward to make one like this:
Take a strip of leather, soft thin leather seems to work best, but you can use a bootlace too. It is harder to cut the slits in thicker leather, however.

Cut it to length with angled ends.

Now fold it in half and estimate where you'd like to start cutting the slits. This will vary from knife to knife and depends on whether it has a bail or a tube.

When you cut the slits, it is easier to plunge the knife into the material and pull the material through the blade. Use an X-acto knife or similar and make sure it is sharp. Use a piece of card or something firm to hold the point of the blade; I'm just using the back of a scratchpad.

This operation can be a little tricky, but with a little practice you'll soon get the hang of it.

Cont'd. next post

[Gunstock Jack]

OK, if you've gotten this far, hopefully you haven't cut yourself yet!

Alright; so now your lanyard should look something like this:

Now we need to thread the hole with the lanyard; sometimes you'll need a sharp pointy instrument to push it through the tube if its small (like the GEC 72/73 series knives). Make sure to clean the hole first so you don't soil the work you've done so far!

NOW, for the fun part!Thread one end of the lanyard through the first cut on the other side; make sure it is the first cut, as they can be hard to see and you'll end up taking it apart and starting over:

Without moving the knife, take the half you just went through and go through the first hole on the first side. It's important to go through the lanyard in the same direction with both ends to get the braided effect.

Continue in this manner until you go through the last hole. If you cut 3 slits on each side, you will end up with 6 "braids"; 4 on each side will give you 8 braids, etc.

After you've gone through all the holes, work back through the lanyard to even out the "braids".By the time you're done with all your knives that will accept a lanyard, you will be an expert!

[muskrat man]

Very nice, I'll have to try this sometime

[orvet]

Nice work Barry!

[knives-are-quiet]

Here are a few good sites to learn braiding lanyards.
I never braided anything in my life but made this lanyard from one of these sites.
Took a few tries first but finally I got it.
Many different types on this site some easy and some very hard.


http://www.lighthound.com/Square-Weave- ... _40-1.html

http://www.realknots.com/

JW

[TripleF]

Thanks Barry!! Very helpful!

[treefarmer]

What purpose does a lanyard on a knife serve if it doesn't have a loop large enough to be around the neck or at least the wrist? Not trying to be a wise guy, but just wondering about the purpose of a short lanyard? Treefarmer

[Gunstock Jack]

Whelp, you can make the loop at the knife as big as you like. You might wanna hang it around yer neck or just have a string to pull it out out of your pocket. Where you decide to put the first 'slit' is up to you.
I like to have a loop large enough to put my little finger through for security and long enough to reach outta my pocket w/ gloves on. You can open a GEC 72 in spear or wharncliffe easily with gloves.

[Gunstock Jack]

Oh yeah....

IT LOOKS COOL !!!!

[knives-are-quiet]

So you don't lose or drop your knife while using it.
God forbid your in a survival situation and you lose or drop your only tool for survival.
Also your lanyard can be used as cordage if needed.
Braiding the lanyard give you more cordage wrapped more compactly.
In the collector world it does enhance the all around look of your knife.


JW

[Ramrod]

Leave it hangin out of your pocket. Keeps it sittin vertical and just enough to pull the knife out.
Mark

[Tucool]

I was just wondering how to fill the saturday afternoon before I have feed the horses again, lucky for me
being a horse breaker I've got all the leather I need to make a truck load of these.

Thanks for the tutorial.


Brett.

[treefarmer]

After asking the forum about the lanyard, I got to thinking about them and mentioned it to my Pastor who is an outdoorsman. He said he would make me a couple out of nylon cord. Being an old dog and a traditionalist, I was a little skeptical about using a lanyard. Most of my deer processing has always been with a "big" pocket knife, a trapper or a folding hunter(Florida deer ain't that big) and a sawzall. After trading for a double lockback Camillus that had a lanyard hole, I have become a "believer". The lanyard the young preacher made is attached through its' own loop and can be removed easily for washing which it definately needs when we get done dressing Bambi. In the last month I have have once again benifited by reading the thoughts and comments of the knowledgeable AAPK members! Thank y'all. Treefarmer

[Texas_Aggie]

The paracord lanyards are quit nice. The big thing is the amount of cord. a six inch lanyard contains somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 ft of cord. For the survivalist...perfect. I am old school. I like the paracord..but on a top dollar, stag, wood, or bone handled knife..leather just cant be beat. If i had a tactical folder with a lanyard hole, I would definitely use paracord. My stag only looks right with natural material.

Here is a link for instruction on paracord weaving. Google also yields a ton of results.
http://stormdraneslanyard.blogspot.com/