iUnique Ropecraft

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

UNIQUE CRIMSON TIDE PARACORD GEAR III

I have been working on this post since receiving my new "Panda Camo" paracord from Supply Captain a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to publish the designs prior to Alabama winning the BCS National Championship, but once they won I’ve been celebrating and haven’t had time until now. For those who don’t understand why I am using this color paracord to tie Alabama-themed designs, I will explain. One of the greatest coaches in Alabama history often wore a houndstooth hat and I believe that this color is a great match for that design.

For those who don’t follow or care about football, I hope you will still find this post useful.

There are several designs in this post, some of which I have tied before and some new and different styles.

You’ll notice that I included another Chinese Good Luck Knot necklace, but for good reason. Prior to the Championship game starting, my stomach was in knots and I needed to find some way to ease my mind. That’s when I thought about the Good Luck Talisman I tied for my rear view mirror, if it can bring luck I figured why not give a try. I modified the end result slightly by introducing another strand to the center of the knot. To make a long story short, I wore the necklace for the entire game and I don’t know if it helped, but the other team didn’t score a point. Needless to say, for every future Alabama game, the Good Luck Knot necklace will be around my neck.

You may want to tie one of these in your favorite team’s colors and see if the luck will extend to you as well.


Chinese Good Luck Knot Necklace

One of the new designs is called the Four Lead Diamond Knot; I tied it from instructions in the Ashley Book of Knots (#790). If you don’t own the book, Amazon offers a preview of the book that includes the instructions located on page 142 (another link in Google Books is available in the Sources and References section).

Four Lead Diamond Knot (ABoK #790)

The other new design was tied using several knots; I started with a Crown Sinnet, a.k.a. the Square Stitch. I then added a four strand Matthew Walker Knot over the Crown Sinnet. Continuing down, I tied a Round Crown Sinnet, a.k.a. Circle Stitch. Near the middle, I tied a Two Pass Head Hunter’s Knot, which I thought was appropriately named to add to a football team fob. On both ends of the Head Hunter’s Knot, I tied a Wall Knot. I continued tying a Round Crown Sinnet until I reached the desired length and then I finished it off with another four strand Matthew Walker Knot.


The "Head Hunter" Key Fob

The other two designs are from TyingItAllTogether, the Stitched Solomon Bar and the Wide Zipper Sinnet.

Wide Zipper Sinnet

Stitched Solomon Bar Bracelet with White Curved Side Release Buckle

SOURCES AND REFERENCES

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

UNIQUE PARACORD KNIFE WRAP

On my last hunting trip while navigating to the tree stand, I ended up dripping with sweat in 30° F weather. It occurred to me that I needed to lighten my load so that on future trips I won’t be freezing once I get settled in the stand from the amount of perspiration on my clothing.

An easy way to lose a little weight is to change my hunting knife. I am a lifelong fan of Buck knives, these are well made with good quality materials and they won’t break the bank. That’s when I decided to purchase the Buck PakLite Skinner which looks like the popular Esee Izula knives, but about forty dollars cheaper.

I did my research prior to choosing the Bug Belly Bar, I found many knives wrapped in paracord, but most used the same designs (a weave, Turk’s Head Knots, or the basic “Izula wrap”). I liked many of the designs and I favored a Turk’s Head Knot wrap, but that seemed to be too fancy for my intended use. That’s when I thought of the Bug Belly Bar, it has the weave and attitude that I was going for.

I tied the wrap using about six feet of olive drab paracord for the Bug Belly Bar wrap. I wanted to add a little pizzazz to finish off the knife so I added a lanyard. I tied the lanyard using about two feet of acu digital paracord; I added a Square Knot (a.k.a. Cross Knot, Rustler’s Knot, or the Friendship Knot) for the loop, a Matthew Walker Knot in the middle and finished it off with an Arms-Akimbo Lanyard Knot.

There are many different styles of wraps that you can choose from on the internet, but if you think out-of-the-box just a little bit, you can end up with a better – more customized wrap.

SOURCES AND LINKS

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

UNIQUE CHINESE TALISMAN

For my final knot design this year, I thought I would tie a lanyard for my rear view mirror in hope that it will bring me good fortune next year. The lanyard is tied with three Chinese knots, the Good Luck Knot, Butterfly Knot, and the Snake Knot. The Good Luck Knot is used on monk's garments or drapes in temples signifying good luck. The snake is one of the twelve animals in the Chinese horoscope. It is regarded as bringer of good fortune, and also the guardian of treasure. If you subscribe to the notion that "it can't hurt", then continue reading to view links to the tutorials and books that I used to tie this lanyard.

I tied this lanyard using eight feet of black 550 paracord, I added two glow in the dark skull beads that don't add any luck value to the lanyard but look cool glowing in my Jeep at night. I started by tying the Good Luck Knot. I learned to tie this knot from the Complete Book of Decorative Knots by Geoffrey Budworth, but if you don't own the book, you can find other alternative tutorials at the end of this post. Then I tied the Chinese Butterfly Knot, I learned this knot from The Book of Decorative Knots by Peter Owen, although I couldn't find any alternative tutorials for this knot, you can search the book in Google Books for "Chinese Butterfly Knot" and you can view the tutorial. The last knot I tied on the lanyard was a Chinese Snake Knot, I don't remember which tutorial I used to learn to the design because there are so many available on the internet, you can use one of the links listed at the end of this post to tie the knot.

If you intend to make a closed loop on your lanyard, you can use the same method that I used. Insert one end of the cord into the other end of the cord and sing them together. Then start loosening one of the cords of the Snake Knot and continue loosening to the Good Luck Knot and eventually you will end up with one single cord and the joined together section will be hidden inside the Snake Knot.

Even if you don't tie this design, I hope you have good luck and fortune in the coming year.

Thank you for supporting my blog, Happy New Year!

SOURCES AND REFERENCES

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

UNIQUE KNOT WORKING FID

I might get corrected with the title of this article, but from my understanding of what a marlinspike is supposed to be, this fits the bill (in some ways). As you might have guessed, I debated on what to title this article because it might also be called a fid. For lack of a better term, I am going to call them "knot working tools" for the remainder of this article. If you are just beginning your journey into tying knots then you may not know what purpose these tools serve. I use one of these almost every time I tie a knot to get the proper tension. These can be made from different materials, but I chose a ready-made tool that only needs a handle to be a perfect knot working tool.

The basic materials to get started...

To make a knot working tool you will need a Knitting Needle (I used a 14" size 5) that can be purchased from your local Wal-Mart, and a wooden dowel in the diameter of your choice (notice in the photos that I used two different sizes).

Once you have the required tools, you will want to decide on how long you want the knitting needle and wooden dowel handle to be. Once you decide, cut the wooden dowel with a handsaw or whatever tool you have available for wood cutting (I chose to make the handles longer because my hands aren't tiny and I find I can get a better grip with a larger handle). To cut the knitting needle to length, you will need to remove the metal cap over the end of the needle. I removed the cap by placing the needle in a vise and then I used a set of wire pliers and a hammer. Once you have the metal cap removed, cut the needle to length (remember that the needle will be inserted into the wooden dowel so you will need to estimate the handle size and the needle size) with a hacksaw. With the knitting needle still in the vise, hammer the metal cap back on the end of the needle. The next part is tricky if you don't have a drill press, but don't let that stop you because I didn't have one either. You will need a drill and the longest drill bit that you can find that is the diameter of the knitting needle or just a fraction larger. Drill down the vertical center of the wooden dowel, making sure you hold the drill as straight as possible. Once you have drilled the hole, insert the knitting needle through the wooden dowel (a hammer might be needed to get the needle through the dowel). Once you have put the materials together, you should have a fully functioning knot working tool minus the decorative paracord wrap.

For the last part of the equation, you will need to choose how you want to wrap your new knot working tool. In this article, I chose to include four of my favorite knot working tools, from which you might decide to use one of the designs (or you can pick your own design). Whatever path you choose to take is completely up to you and needs to be a design that you really like because you will see it every time you tension or dress your other knot designs. If you want to use some of my suggestions, I will list the tutorials in the sources and links section at the end of this article.

Monday, December 19, 2011

UNIQUE EARTH TONE KEY FOBS

A year or more ago, I came across an advertisement that included lanyards, bracelets and key fobs. Though I don't remember the site or where it originally appeared, there were two key fobs in it that I really liked. I had totally forgotten about the key fobs until the other day when I was thinking of what type of key fob I wanted to tie to replace an old worn out fob. For some reason in my mind, earth tones go hand-in-hand with winter so I used three colors to tie these designs (black, olive drab and coyote brown).

For the first key fob, I used five different knots and I will explain the process I used to tie the fob. I used three-four feet of black and olive drab paracord to tie the first section.
Start by halving the cords so that you will have four strands. Then start tying a Round Crown Sinnet, after you start the sinnet, pull out a loop in one of the colors for the key ring, then continue tying the sinnet for about two to three rounds and then stop.
Next, I tied a Four Strand Matthew Walker Knot (the video is for a Three Strand Matthew Walker Knot, but the instructions are the same).
Continue tying the Round Crown Sinnet until you end up in the section of the fob that you want to add the Wall Knot.
Continue tying the Round Crown Sinnet until you reach the length desired.
Now gather a couple of feet of paracord in olive drab, black and coyote brown.
Using either olive drab or black, tie a 5 Lead by 4 Bight Turk's Head Knot that will be the base of your Herringbone Knot.
Using the coyote brown paracord, tie the Herringbone Knot. The instructions for the knot shows the bights protruding from underneath the black and olive drab strands, I didn't want that so I simply pulled them tighter underneath the other strands to hide the coyote brown bights.
Cut the ends left over on the Round Crown Sinnet and singe them in place.
Now place the Herringbone Turk's Head over the bottom part of the Round Crown Sinnet.
Tighten and dress the Herringbone, then cut and singe the ends and hide them underneath the strands of the Turk's Head for the best looking result.

The Ladder Rack Star Knot Fob is deceptively easy to tie and doesn't require very much paracord. Gather Five feet of olive drab and two feet of coyote brown paracord.

Start by tying a Two Strand Matthew Walker Knot and leave room for the loop size you desire.

Now follow the instructions for the Ladder Rack Knot, but weave in the coyote brown strand after you get the first loop started, then it will go back and forth between olive drab and coyote brown.

Once you reach the bottom, you should have four strands remaining. As far as I know, there are no tutorials available for a four strand Star Knot, but if you follow the instructions in this tutorial and do the same thing only with fewer strands, you can easily tie this knot. I think many folks in the knot tying community consider this knot to be a challenge, but it isn't. Just follow along with the tutorial and if you get stuck, I will be glad to help. You may also want to search for a video or another tutorial for any of the knots used in the article, just because I found them satisfactory, that doesn't mean that you will.

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