Hey Guys, I've been perusing the pics on here, and am loving some of the lanyard & wrapping techniques you're doing.

I've learned the basic square and crossover lanyards, but I'm seeing what looks like monkeys fist knots, flat-style lanyards used as D-rings on the hilts and all kinds of other neat innovations. Where did you guys learn how to do this? Is there a book or website that teaches you all this? I'm starting to really enjoy using this to personalize all my knives.

if you see my paracord thread from last week there's some great links in it. I'll look for it later and try to link it in this thread.

http://www.boondoggleman.com/

I get quite a bit from the above site.

That would be paracord handle wrapping resources?

I checked the sites on that thread out, but came up with nothing for the monkey fist knot and turkish ball knots I've been seeing. Thanks for those sites though, especially that Stormdrane guy; he's crazy talented when it comes to knots. I'll have to buy some of those books he mentions when I get back in Canada. I don't have access to any book stores at the moment.

Here's a couple of good books:

Handbook of Knots, by Des Pawson

Leather Braiding, by B. Grant

Actually, Stormdrane has some links within his posts that might help; for instance, Grog's Decorative Knots Index contains illustrated instructions for both the Monkey's Fist and Turk's Head knots.

Chris Reeve has a nice page on tying Reeve coil knots.

http://www.chrisreeve.com/knotleft.htm

http://www.chrisreeve.com/knotright.htm

I put coil knots on all my folders

Here's a tutorial on the square weave lanyard on lighthound.

http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=7

Hey Sharp, the D-ring you designed for your knife, what type of lanyard knot is that??

And thanks guys, for all the great sites and info. I'm definitely gonna buy some books when I get back; in the meantine I'm gonna use the sites you've given me and practice what I can from them.

I don't know that the technical term for it is, but here is a tutorial:

OK so here we go....

First grab a knife with a lanyard hole and a talon hole, and a boat-load of paracord. I didn't measure mine but I used a lot of extra. You might want to measure out 9' or so. (if you prefer a thinner guard you can take out the strands inside the cord, however, this really makes the cord nothing more than for pure aesthetic looks. If you keep the strands in, you'll be carrying an extra 10' of paracord for what every use you need.)




Place that halfway point at the end of the lanyard hole.



Then criss-cross the the cord through the front talon hole.



Now you have just made the template for the guard. This is also the place were people mess up the most and get a weird looking guard.

Some people pull too much on the template and will get a looser and awkward guard.



Some people tighten the template too much and get a really tight and straight guard.



On most handles this is how you want it like the picture below. To check the tension, pull on the template lightly.



Next, flip the knife onto the spine. Start the guard by doing a simple overhand knot.



Tighten it extremely well.



Then begin another overhand knot, except this time it is on the "inside" of the d-guard.



Tighten it extremely well, too.



Now repeat the exact same "outside" overhand knot and the exact same "inside" overhand knot. If you don't, you'll get an awkward pattern.

Also beware of the tilt of the knot at the front talon hole. You don't want it parallel to the spine.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0014-4.jpg[/img]

You want it 30 to 45 degrees slanted to the spine.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0015-3.jpg[/img]

After a while you guard should start looking like this.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0016-4.jpg[/img]

Side view.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0017-5.jpg[/img]

"Inside" view.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0018-2.jpg[/img]

When you get near the end you want to make sure that you can cram as many overhand knots as possible. Even if you have this much space,

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0019-4.jpg[/img]

continue to create overhand knots until it is flush like the picture below.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0020-4.jpg[/img]


Now, at this point you can criss-cross the last bit of cord, cut it, and call it quits.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0022-4.jpg[/img]

Finished Guard without excess cord.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0193.jpg[/img]

Or you can continue to use the excess and wrap the handles.

Here is the finished wrap.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0023-3.jpg[/img]

It even fits in my RW sheath.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0024-4.jpg[/img]