Lanyard beads, without sculls?

[enderwiggin]

Didn't want to hijack the other thread in here. I've been looking for beads that will fit 2 strands of paracord, but the only ones I've been able to find are the plastic grade school project kind, or scull beads.

Anyone have good examples of lanyards with other types of beads, or sources for the beads themselves?

 

[stitchawl]

I like to make my own beads when I need something with a larger opening. Not real hard to do if you give it just a little thought. A wooden dowel spinning on a handdrill works like a mini lathe. A file in your other hand shapes the dowel into a bead. Another method I use is to cut a glossy magazine page into a long, very very thin isosceles triangle, put a birthday candle along the short side to hold the hole, and roll up the triangle with a few dabs of white glue holding the paper. The smaller you make that short side the rounder the bead can become. Makes for some pretty designs when finished. Rub a coat of white glue over it all to harden up the finished bead and remove the candle. If you use one-color paper you wind up with a bead in that color. If you use a magazine, you wind up with nice random colors. Only takes a few minutes per bead to do. You can't tell that the bead was made of paper when you finish.

Stitchawl

 

[Creepo]

Lighthound.com has some nice beads and SOSAKOnline (Rotokid Shop) has a nice selection of beads as well.

 

[Rupestris]

I've made a couple lanyards using simple stainless steel nuts. Gives it kind of an industrial look. You can also buy some round or square tubing from Home Depot and cut to length.

 

[spiralarchitect]

Go to a bead store or find one online. You would be amazed at that you can find. When I lived in Morgantown, WV I used to go to a place called Bead Monster with my wife on a regular basis. They had some incredible stuff (much of which would fit on paracord) in a huge range of materials. They can be kind of hard to find and often present themselves are "design you own jewelry" stores, but, rest assured they are out there.

Try this link:http://www.guidetobeadwork.com/localstores/states/CA.zip.html

It should get you started. Keep in mind that these places are usually populated with middle age women....but, If you have a special lady in your life, you can play it off as a shopping trip to pick something nice up for her...

ETA: ebay is also a great source of carved wooden and bone beads.... some very cool stuff available there.

Also note: my wife is the crafty type....that's why I know about this stuff

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Check out a toy store. They have beads in craft kits.

 

[Haze]

It's really easy to make your own lanyard beads, I've done them in G-10, carbon fiber, aluminium, damascus and titanium.

These are some simple Ti beads I made.

This is a link to a "ghetto" approach to making beads. The pics don't seem to be showing up in the posts but you can still see them on the "attached thumbs" line.
If you have access to a lathe and such they are a piece of cake to make.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=617647

 

[Josh K]

There are some nice wooden beads to be had:

But I found that if you take the "cheap" plastic beads and carefully use a small round file on the inside and some fine sandpaper on the outside you can make them look pretty good. They hold nice and snug too.