Lanyard Holes and Lanyards, Your Thoughts?

I wouldn’t say it’s either you get it or you don’t. I would say some like them and some don’t. Some use them and some don’t. But regardless of which, almost everyone here has at least one fob hole.
 
Lanyards are great for short handled knives to get more grip on or large chopper types to keep control of. Can’t see the use otherwise...just decorative.
 
Me personally I attach lanyards to my knives so it makes them easier to twirl around my finger. (Seen some space cadet in Walmart doing this). But seriously a few of my knives and lights have small orange paracord lanyards to make them easier to find when dropped in grass, brush, water or whatever. Mainly I use then for ease of finding and grabbing while in compromising positions around the cars I work on.
 
I typically carry EDC folders clipped to my RFP using deep carry pocket clips for discretion, so I don't want a lanyard hanging out of my pocket. I have deep carry clips on nearly all of my EDC folders. However, there are occasions where I need to clip IWB and the use of a deep carry pocket clip can make it a bit more fussy to draw; that's when I find lanyards useful.

On a separate but related note, a martial arts instructor once demonstrated to me the use of a lanyard (which is looped to the fourth or fifth finger) to extend the reach of a small folding knife and produce a powerful and effective "snap" cut. The concept is exactly the same as that when using fixed barongs, bolos or other large machete type knives.
 
I like my knives (whatever size) to have a lanyard hole (or a bail, but I prefer the hole). This way, if I need or want to use a lanyard (or a fob), I have the option. Like hanging the knife from a branch by the camp fire instead of putting it on the ground. The hole is rarely a nuisance, a bail can be trickier. For cleaning, for example.
 
For me it’s depends on situation and the knife. I have a quite large hands and my usual EDC knives normally is not bigger than 3,5 blade long, so sometimes the fob works like hand extension for my pinky. At winter time, when I use gloves, for me more easy to pull knife from the pocket when I have fob on it. Well and of course for some of my knives just for fancy factor ))) like the scull bead on my Emerson Gentleman Jim.
 
I am not a user/fan of fobs and lanyards.

I don't mind that all of my folders have lanyard holes but I have no use for them.
 
Some people like them and find them useful, some not so much. I have them on a couple of fixed blades that ride too low in their sheath but otherwise, to each his own.
 
Hardly use them but for example had a short one on my böker caracal. Drawing it normally wasn't that great because it's rather slippy on the butt end and being able to grip the lanyard with pinky meant it was straight in my hand and ready to use. I've done so with a few knives(the spyderco southard is another example that comes to mind) but nowadays I only have one on a single knife I think and that's mainly because of aesthetics(small leather band on GEC Beer scout)
 
I've tried them on a couple folders but never found them useful as they seem to get in the way. However, I do have one on a flashlight that is long enough to hang around my neck when I go down into the basement to invariably fix something. I also have one around my fixed blade "kindling batoning knife" that I use to hang the knife on a nail beside the woodstove.
 
Wow, your post is aligned with just what I personally think of lanyards on CRK's. They are the first thing that come off when my purchase arrives. Its like politics 1/2 will lean one way the other 1/2 leans the other. There is no right or wrong regarding lanyards its just personal taste and I agree with everything you posted about them. Yes, I can see them only on smaller knives, but I personally don't like small knives. I caught and released a small Sebenza 21 as its just too small for me (I'd like to see a medium sized Sebenza 21 someday). I prefer 3.4 to just under a 4 inch blades, which keeps the blade NY legal.
I too don't want to advertise by a lanyard hanging out of my suit or jeans pocket in a crowd that I may have a $350 to $1000 knife on the other end. I'm sure pick pocketers love to see a lanyard hanging which makes it even easier for them to have you part with your expensive knife.

I only use deep carry clips on all my knifes to look as concealed as possible especially in my daily office enviroment. Also, at night when walking from say a restaurant to my car as I typically park far from the crowd to avoid door chips and dings. If I ever had to defend myself or scare someone off whipping out a 2.75 inch blade with a beaded lanyard is that really going to instill much fear into a Perp :eek:

Aesthetically, especially the ones with the beads, for a guy they remind me of the hippy days when guys used to wear Gimp or bracelets woven with Paracord on their wrists and Gimp necklaces. Not saying I don't like them when members show them here in pics they do look cool, but they are just not for me.

One thing I do like is "the lanyard hole" as I remove the lanyard and cut the cord, melt the ends and replace the colored lanyard pin which serves to balance and class up the look of the knife with its matching thumbstud. The small I had, the lanyard pin had shoulders which is great as I wouldn't have to look at a grungy looking piece of black melted paracord in the ends of each knife. When I asked here once why doesn't CRK make lanyard pins with shoulder for their large 21's no one came up with a decent reason. The after market providers like MXG always seem to be a little off in their anodized colors from OEM.

But I'm glad you brought the lanyard thing up. If I had brought it up, this thread would have opened the floodgates and would have already been banished to "Whine and Cheese" thread in purgatory, before you even finished your popcorn :D
 
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I sometimes use a short lanyard with a snap clip. Use the snap clip to attach to a belt loop, the lanyard is short enough to suspend the knife in my pocket. This prevents the knife from settling to the bottom of my pocket. I like to use the Nexus snap clips (plastic, light weight, never has one fail yet).
 
Why use a lanyard or clip on your knife?

When riding your horse into battle you don't want to accidentally drop your revolver in battle. This is where I first saw the use of lanyards. Maybe the same goes for your bowie knife. For the policeman it makes it harder for the bad guy to take away your pistol and shoot you with your own gun. It probably also makes the knife easier to find if you drop it into grass, leaves, snow, mud, etc.

Another reason for the lanyard hole is that you can pound a bunch of brad nails into a piece of wood and hang your guns and knives on it by the lanyard hole to display them!


 
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Lanyards are a great place to carry your bottle opener

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As was mentioned, lanyards have a use if you're someplace you don't want to loose your knife.

I've spent a lot of time from early spring to late fall in small boats on the Chesapeake bay, Potomac river, Shenedoah river, and numerous small lakes fishing from small boats. canoes, rowboats, sailboats. A lanyard will keep your knife with you if the lanyard is looped around your wrist. My better half, Karen, the woman who's been the love of my life for well over 4 decades, lost a knife of mine over the side of the boat one day. She had been cutting bait, and she dipped the knife in the river over the side of the canoe to rinse it off by swishing it around.

I heard her say "Oh Damm" and I asked her what was up. She told me that she was sorry but my knife was sleeping with the fishes. Since it was just a old Gerber LST, I told her not to worry about it. She then asked me for my Buck stockman, and I told her to go dive down and see if she could find the Gerber. She was not amused.

Now living in Texas, I don't have any lanyards on my knife. They are a PITA, get in the way, and on dry land serve no real useful purpose. Even back in Maryland, if I wasn't out on a boat, I'd take the lanyard off and shove the knife down in my pocket.
 
I have to disagree with my newly Texican friend J jackknife . Although like him I too have a knife swimming with the fishes. Helping a friend, when I was a kid, check his crab traps. Had something snarled on one of the lines and he asked to borrow my knife to free it up. Spa-lash there went my early 70's Buck 110, down to the bottom of the Pacific.

Anyhoo back to dry land. I'm watching my then girlfriend, now wife, ride this bucking horse across the arena. It was a BLM mustang that we had in training. It had been badly spoiled by the owner prior to sending it to us, now the horse was out of control. Ya know, let the trainer fix it. DO NOT spoil your horse, you do not want a 1,000 lb lap dog, trust me on this. Didn't get its way and went snorting, and bucking across the arena. I watched her small fixed blade go flying across through the air. Lots of G forces here. Few jumps later she did too, fortunately, not landing on the blade. This got me onto a quest to develop safe and effective sheath designs for horseback use. Now a bunch of years later I got it down. We don't use the term fob or lanyard we call it a thong. Easy boys... leggings ain't yoga pants to us neither. So lets look at this pic, (he's got on leggings by the way):


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If ya look close ya see one of my knives and sheaths above his left front pocket. Them thongs are straight up, he's getting whipped pretty good and he rides boucny horses on purpose. But the knife stays put. Part of this retention is that most of my designs do not expose a whole bunch of handle to grasp when drawing the knife.

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The thong is braced against the pinky when drawing and becomes part of the drawing mechanism. Its absolutely necessary in this deal. Your knife ain't no good if it got bounced out jumping that crick back there when you were long trotting after those snorty yearling steers. Sometimes ya ride things when you are young that aren't really designed for riding. Ya still want that retention.

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I get a lot of other folks knives in to make my sheaths for. First thing I hear from the customer is can ya put a thong in there for me? In our world its not only wanted its flat out demanded. Why? Cause it is useful and it does work.

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Eight in the box on the left I didn't make. Put thongs on four, three others didn't have holes and one didn't ask for a thong. Kinda just my thoughts on the deal.
 
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