Knot of the Week: Lanyard Knot

We’re kicking off our 2010 Knot of the Week series today with the Lanyard Knot.

The Lanyard Knot, also known as a Diamond Knot, is an excellent decorative knot that can be used for a multitude of applications.

Primarily we like this knot for its ability to create a fixed loop in a single strand of rope. This comes in very handy when making a Solomon Bar keychain like we’ve demonstrated in the past.

It can also be used for key rings, knife lanyards and anything that needs some kind of a pull. In fact, sailors used this knot to hold a knife around their necks, which is why you may see this knot referred to as a knife lanyard knot.

Lanyard Knot » Bends

(Strength: 3/Secure: 3/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 4)

Please refer to our Knot of the Week introduction post for a description of what these ratings mean.

Uses:

• Decorative knot used for lanyards
• Can also be used to join two strands of rope

Tying Instructions:

1. Hold the rope in your hand using your pinky to stabilize
2. With the working end, form an underhand loop
3. The standing end becomes your new working end and wraps around the old working end and under the itself in the center of the loop.
4. As you’re bringing the last coil past the top, form a bight in the working part
5. Leave the knot loose and pull your pinky out from the knot, leaving a diamond pattern in the center of your knot
6. Thread the standing end counter clockwise through the underside of the created diamond pattern
7. Repeat this step for the working end as well
8. *Now both ends should have been fed though the underside of the diamond*
9. Grasp the working and standing ends and pull (you should still have a bight around your fingers)
10. Slide the knot off of your fingers and continue pulling on the bight and the ends to tighten
11. Clean up the knot by pulling individual strands as we demonstrated in our Monkey’s Fist video

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!

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