Lanyard using Paracord with Diamond Knots and whipping thread

[Gary W. Graley]

Hi folks, took some shots of the steps I go through when I make a paracord lanyard for my knives, the Diamond knot is very handy knot to learn to make, there are youtube videos on the subject as well, so I suggest searching out those when you can, but here are some main points to be aware of when making them.

Sometimes it's not easy to get the paracord through the hole, so I will slice the paracord at an angle and then carefully melt that with a lighter to keep it from fraying, on some holes that are really small, I will remove some of the inner core strands JUST near the end so it will fold down smaller to get through the hole and pull hard to get the full paracord through.

Please ignore the blue stuff in the photos, that's tacky stickum to help keep the paracords in place while I take the photos

EDITED to say I changed out the first set of pictures to these with two colours of paracord to help see how they are threaded/knotted together better...

My 7 year old grandson gifted me this folder, gotta love grandkids like that !

I welded two colours of paracord, the weld spot is inside the knife handle, strong enough for this duty but you wouldn't want to hang from it.

lanyard1 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Here it shows I fold one side so they are side by side, and the other side gets a loop, but before you do that, take that strand of paracord and twist it two full turns, this will help prevent the lanyard being twisted when you go to tie the knot.

lanyard2 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Next you lay the twisted loop OVER top of the parallel loop

lanyard3 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Then take the one free end of the parallel loop side and bring that under the other side and then down through BOTH loops

lanyard4 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

lanyard5 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Then bring that one BACK up through the top loop

lanyard6 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

with some wriggling, you should end up with this pretzel looking design, notice the diamond shape in the middle

lanyard7 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Next we take the one side so it is continuing around and come up into that diamond hole area

lanyard8 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

And take the other one, bring it along so it is also following the curve and take that one also through the diamond hole

lanyard9 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

you will end up with what I call a World looking ball, it'll be awkward but will bring it into shape easily

lanyard10 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

I use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the cords tight, do this easy at first to get it down to where it's a ball, pulling on one side then the other side, equally, and finally pull them VERY tight, it becomes a hard knot

lanyard11 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

In order to prevent the knot from swinging around the end of the handle into the area of the blade, I take some heavy thread and do what's called "Whipping" basically you make a loop that has one end back at one side, you will pull on that to bring the knot under the tightly wrapped thread.

Edited to say I pulled a strand from inside the paracord to use for the whipping on this one, just to see if it would work, as long as you have GOOD paracord, the inner threads should be good to work with.

Edited again to put this link here to show the where to get the black thread used on my usual ones.

lanyard12 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Just start wrapping and pulling the thread tight around the two strands, keeping that loop out near the knife, then cut the thread short and stick it through the loop

Yet another EDIT a tip on doing this whipping, after you get several turns around the paracord, grab the one line of the loop, not the one you will pull later but the other one, and pull that up tight, that will SNUG up the starting wraps for you and make it all nice and tight when done...

lanyard13 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Pull the thread carefully, not too hard or you will pull it all the way out, just pull enough to get the loop under the wrapped thread and trim off the end sticking out on either side

lanyard15 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

lanyard14 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

lanyard16 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


To end the loop of the lanyard with another diamond knot, do the same thing as before.

Tighten it up, if you have one side of the loop longer than the other, just adjust using the needle nose pliers to work the paracord through the knot before you tight it up fully. Here you see both diamond knots, I have to trim off the ends there and then with a lighter carefully melt the short ends down and quickly press that against some polished metal surface and rub and it will end up being a nice polished looking end of the knot

Adding this video of the diamond knot just made 12-20-23, I don't know why it went vertical but after several times making them, I just went with the last one

Hope that helps or at least gives you guys/gals some ideas to try.


And here is a link to a making a braided leather fob

G2

 

[Rey HRH]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge even to people like me who will never learn to pick that skill up.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

You're most welcome and it's not too hard, it looks pretty convoluted but it isn't if you take it step by step.

Main thing to remember is the one side the cord is side by side, the other you twist it into a loop and lay that loop over the other one.

some fiddling around but the end result is a neat and very strong knot !
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

I changed out the photos with ones that I used two colours of paracord to help see where lines are going...still not super clear but I hope it makes more sense, you may need to clear your browser cache to see the new images.
G2

Here's a short video, not the best but then I am not a video kinda guy but it may help


[video=youtube;lHuyOzwZSR8]

 

[J D Wijbenga]

Thanks for the explenation and the video Gary! By the way...what knife is that, that you grandson gave you?

 

[Gary W. Graley]

You are very welcome sir and the knife was one that he picked from a grab bag of knives his dad bought at a dollar store, so, it truly is the sentiment in this case as the knife is about only a knife in name and looks but not one you would ever want to carry and depend on, he was only 7 at the time but, it's a start!
G2

 

[Rey HRH]

You are very welcome sir and the knife was one that he picked from a grab bag of knives his dad bought at a dollar store, so, it truly is the sentiment in this case as the knife is about only a knife in name and looks but not one you would ever want to carry and depend on, he was only 7 at the time but, it's a start!
G2

Then it's a very precious knife then. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Phydeaux]

Looks much better with the different colored cord. The way I like to think of tying the knot is a carrick bend with the free ends looped around and threaded back through the center.

Ric

 

[KG4ULR]

Thanx for the tutorial. Who said an old dog cannot learn new tricks.

 

[J D Wijbenga]

Thanks! We all have to start somewhere. At least he has a grandfather who can show him what a good sharp knife is like!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Indeed ! Thanks guys and when I made the jump from leather lanyards or fobs actually, I haven't looked back, just seems natural to use these!
G2

 

[Sullie]

Thanks for the post!
I really like the idea whip finishing to keep it from flopping around...why didn't I think of that?? I have just had to add ugly knots on ones I wanted to stop.
The diamond knot works very well and with a little practice anyone can do it. I am not a pro by any means.
Thanks again!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

welcome sir and yeah, once I started using paracord I needed to come up with a way of keeping it from flopping around and remembered the whip knot from the Navy, a life saver for sure! I didn't want to put MORE knots than needed on there.

And to get the diamond knot into the right position, you would just take the needle nose pliers and adjust the length of paracord until you get it to where it's at the right distance from the end of the knife, not hard but it is an important thing to do otherwise it will be a nuisance if it's too far or too close. Adjust it BEFORE you fully tighten the knot!

G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

The black thread I use I purchased from Tandy years ago, a mistake on my part as I was at a store up in Syracuse and needed some black thread, it looked too thin but couldn't remember exactly, got home and yep, it was WAY too thin for my hand stitching of sheaths, and only recently figured out that it is GREAT for whipping the lanyards! Thought I'd add the link to that on this thread too.

Thread at Tandy

G2

 

[mqqn]

Thanks Gary - I will give that a try later this evening - that looks great, nice tips - and I like the "whipping" idea too.

If I get get the technique mustered, I will show my granddaughters - they will love that and want the lanyard on their knives.

best

mqqn

 

[Gary W. Graley]

It's certainly worth a try, I may do another video showing how I tighten down the knot, I pull it down by hand/fingers at first to get it snugged up and then use a pair of pliers on each single line to really PULL it so tight the knot is hard as a rock. You're results may vary depending on the quality of the paracord. This new stuff I got from Amazon and it has 8 strands inside and what's nice is, you can pull out a strand and it's straight, not all wiggly, so you can use it in an emergency to tie something off if you have to.

The whipping part works great also for tying off the end of a rope, which is what it normally is used for, helping to keep the rope from unraveling, I figured it would also work great to bind the two pieces of paracord in this situation

G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

I've named this style a Bobtail fob, being short but useful, on this small Dragonfly a longer lanyard would be out of place, so this works great to add a little bit of length to the handle as well as providing a means of retrieving the knife out of the pocket too;

G2

 

[aesmith]

Hi, what do you do with the free ends from the lanyard knot, are they just cut off and sealed, or do you have some clever way of burying the ends?

Thanks, Tony S

 

[Gary W. Graley]

They are trimmed off close and I use a lighter to start them to melt and then quickly push them down on some highly polished metal, usually the side of my Swiss Army Tool handle.
G2

 

[Stand Straight]

Great instructions Gary. I really like that bob-tailed diamond knot. I use lanyards on about 25% of my knives...just like them, no excuse.
Note: I'm not a good knot guy but I hope to improve as I am able. Sometimes I will complete a snake knot with a diamond. Just helps with the extraction. After seeing this thread, I will bookmark it. I did a snake knot on my zt0450 with 450 paracord (smaller dia looks nice with the slim design) but I may change it out to that bob-tail.
Thanks for the inspiration!
greg

Oh btw, I suppose the paracord interstrands could be dyed to accommodate color preference for the whipping.