For the Four legged variety

I have been able to branch from the usual bracelet making to focus on trying to make some different kinds of product. One of those I haven’t visited since I first started knotting about 4 years ago. Since I have been trying to learn the Turks Head and its many, many variants this is a great project to add numerous Turks Heads.
The aquatica/electric blue and the neon yellow/kelly green color leashes are six feet in length, while the scorpion/khaki colored leash measures about four and a half feet. The base for each of them is a four strand round diamond braid. The electric blue and khaki leash handle transition is a four strand plait terminated by a 10P8B 2 pass gaucho knot. The handle of the kelly green leash has a 3B21P two pass Turks Head, 3P5B base 2 pass Spanish ring knot, and a 5P4B three pass Turks Head. A 10P8B Herringbone knot adorns the bolt/leash transition for the khaki leash.
 
I would like to do a dog leash that is made from an 8 strand round braid body, or maybe an eight strand gaucho braid.  But with starting back to college, I don’t have as much time. Till then enjoy the ideas and photos. Thanks for reading my blog.

One for the Rails……….

Another customer request from the local farmers market. This time a gentleman, who works for the local train company, was looking to add some decoration to a carabiner and a lanyard with a quick disconnect for keys.

For the decoration on the car the customer wanted white and neon orange. I thought I would try my hand at a new type of Turk’s-head that I have not had a chance to attempt. I ended up with a 15L10B pineapple/herringbone. This one took me quite a while to get. I am still struggling trying to understand the core concepts behind the various Turk’s-head knots beyond the a 2 or 3 bight variation. Thank goodness for diagrams from Introduction to Turk’s-Head Knots by Tom Hall.

 

The customer had a cheaper quality carabiner previous which was bending because of the weight of his keys and normal use. Since I don’t sell carabiners he went to the local climbing shop and purchased a screwgate carabiner.

For the lanyard I chose to use a 5/8” sew on plastic side release buckle for the quick disconnect. From the ‘biner to the buckle I did a four strand round crown sinnet in orange and black (the customer wanted this color combination for the lanyard portion).

From the buckle to the end I did a two color long two bight Turk’s-head around a two color four strand round diamond braid. To finish the end I chose to do a two color 3 pass Spanish Ring knot. The long turk’s-head and Spanish ring knot was completed by doubling the four strand round braid back onto itself after passing it through the buckle. I am pleased with how it turned out and being able to adapt my skills to customer requirements has given me great experience.

Thanks David!

Custom knife wrap

I received a special request from  a customer while selling at the local farmers market. He had a knife blank that was a bit too big for dear scales, so he asked me to wrap the handle with paracord. I jumped at the chance and spent the next week mulling over and researching ideas. Initially I already had an idea of the kind of wrap i wanted to do. He chose the colors desert camo and coyote tan.

For the wrap design I went with a traditional Chinese sword wrap (tutorial link)  for the length of the handle. But, first it needed a good base wrap to cover the metal. This was done using black type I paracord. At first I had tried it with the coyote tan with cores intact, but it made it too bulky.

The next configuration was with the desert cod gutted while leaving the tan cores intact to give it some texture. This configuration turned out to look really good even before I had covered the entire tango.  A typical Chinese sword wrap uses only one piece of cord, but I really wanted to integrate the tan, so I figured a way to do it. The end of the wrap allowed me to cover the tang completely.

The next step was to create a bolster/hilt. For this I chose to do a three pass 3P5B Spanish ring knot. This also served as a way to hide the ends of the coyote tan and secure the beginning of the wrap.

The customer also requested that a wrist lanyard be added. So for this part I tied a two strand Matthew Walker knot at the base and ended it with ABOk #541 over-and-under heaving line (Rattlesnake) knot. This knot just help to finish of the theme the cord portrayed.

This was a great custom project that gave me the opportunity to try something new. I am rather pleased with how well it came out.

I would like to venture into to doing more of the these. So I have been doing some research on where to purchase knife blanks. From what I have found they are not terribly expensive. I have already ordered a couple of knife blanks so that can wrap one for show when I sell and the other will go in my own personal collection.

I would like to start offering different products than just survival bracelets. There are so many people that make them, alot of the comments that I hear at the farmers market are that ".....uncle/brother (whomever) makes them". But the one thing that I offer is not just the typical Cobra/Solomon bar bracelet, but lots of different styles and I will custom make one on the spot at no extra charge. I like doing the different style, of which some take about the same amount of time.

While bracelets are quick and fun to make I would like to try to start offering different items. I have a few of my own ideas, but of any body has any ideas that they would like to see, let me know on my facebook page or just comment below.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my website. I wish I could post more but with school work and family it really difficult to find time to work on my paracord as much as I would like to.

Spreading the Virus

Just though I would take some time to share my most recent creations. A couple of bracelets I made a week ago. It is the T-Virus Sinnet shown on JD of TIAT. It is difficult to get consistent, but I like it very much when it is done correctly. Also depending on the side you want exposed the knot has to be oriented a when tied. Having a row that runs parallel with the length of the bracelet makes it look so much better than the opposite orientation. For being such an open design, I actually uses about 10' cord on my 8.5" bracelet.  Hope you enjoy, I know I am enjoying wearing my creations.

Inventory of colors

I just posted a complete pictorial of all 47 parachute cord colors I have in stock.Just for clarification I do not sell parachute cord, but products made from it (response to some recent calls I have had). So go ahead snoop around, and if you haven’t read my previous post, you can purchase my products through the Shop Here button on my Facebook page and pay with Paypal. Again thanks for checking out my blog.

Come Shop on Facebook

I have set up shop on Facebook and you can now shop to your hearts content for all of your parachute cord paraphernalia. PayPal is the only method of payment right now. It’s still a work in progress, I am continuing to tweak minor items and options but I have some bracelet styles, necklaces, and key fobs to purchase. If you would like a custom application,  please let me know and I will add it to the store for purchase when it is finished, it may even become a featured product. I would appreciate any business that you can bring. So, pass the word along and click the like button to get a better price (up to a dollar off on bracelets).
Tomorrow I will be running a special END OF THE WORLD sale. So stock up on survival gear just in case you do actually survive.

I am not looking to make rich off of sales, rather help to meet financial obligations as I continue my progress toward my Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering OIT and trying to support my wife and four kids. I only have five more quarters to go and funds are getting tight.

Thanks for you interest and have a very Merry Christmas.

Bazar was really bazar……

Well the bazar came and went as fast a time would go. It was nice that we were in greenhouses with heaters, but it was still cold at times. Starting time was 10 am and was scheduled to proceed until 7 pm on December 14-15. The first day was much like a ghost town, where we played the role of the ghosts haunting the greenhouses. Saturday I didn’t consider much of an improvement. So, how did I do? Depends on which kind of news your in the mood for. To quote from the movie Robin Hood: Men in tights “…maybe if you put the bad news in a good way it won’t seem so bad.” Fortunately I can put both in one convenient package.
I have lots of stock as of this weekend.
If you didn’t catch on to that, the bazar went horrible. Thank goodness I didn’t have to pay space rent (whew!). I think I sold two items to outside customers, a hanger cover made by my mother and a crocheted hat made by my wife (kudos to them). I think the vendors created more business than the public did. A lot of inter-vendor selling,bartering and charity seemed to take place. I personally made out on the plus side of this scheme. One of the vendors gifted my son a set of sleeper pants and pillow case. Another gave me about a dozen or so Lindt Chocolate truffles and yet another handed out a cheese ball to all the vendors in the respective greenhouse. Two vendors purchased two paracord items.
Needless to say I think everyone walked away disappointed. The only nice part about it was the comradery that  was developed over the two days. There was a lot of standing around with not much to do (unless you worked on making more product). So, I whiled the time away by making some more bracelets. There are some lovely and generous people out there and it is awesome to be a part of a community of such great people.
All in all I don’t think I will be selling at that event again. The summary that I heard about last year was that it was pretty much the same way. There were a number of factors that seemed to be against catching the publics eye, from newspaper screw ups to holding it too late in the season and maybe little bit of inclimate weather. So any business that I get from now until the Farmer’s Market starts up again will be through webspace and word of mouth. I just started a Facebook page so click the link and check it out. Pass the word on to your friends and click the like button. I would much appreciate it.