Reason for Lanyards?

F

footballplayerchris

Joined
Jan 1, 2011
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I have seen several pictures of knives on this forum that have lanyards on them. What is the point. It just seems to me that they would get in the way and be a pain. However, I have seen some that look really awesome and some that I think are really ugly. Really why do you use them and/or want them?


BTW: I got a Kershaw Volt II yesterday. My first knife! Wahooooo!
 
A lanyard serves a couple of purposes for me:
- It allows you to "choke down" on the handle of the knife and the lanyard gets squeezed into the outside palm of your hand and little finger. This helps prevents slippage and can give you a little more swing if you're chopping or hacking at something;
- You always have a little bit of cordage with you if ever needed;
- For the sheaths I make, the handle of the knife doesn;t always stick out much. The lanyard allows a little more purchase for withdrawing the knife.
 
footballplayerchris said:
I didn't think of the havin some cordage always. I can see how that would be really useful. Are they usually made of Para Cord?
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Hi Chris. Typically yes, 7 strand cord seems to be the most utilitarian choice. The inner 7 layers can be used independently if the cord is "gutted". In my experience, I will use a lanyard on very small knives like the Strider PT CC. It has no clip so the lanyard is a helpful way to remove the knife from your pocket without fumbling around through keys, pens, or other pocket stuff.
 
I use lanyards simply to assist with retrieving the knife from my pocket, especially those knives that sit real low.

The lanyard design I like the best right now is Chris Reeve - he integrates a lanyard pin into the knife (Sebenza & Umnumzaan).
 
I think paracord is the best material if you have it on there mainly for emergency use. Like RedDevil said, you have those 7 (sometimes 5) interior strands that can be used.

But, some knives just do NOT look right with paracord hanging from them. I'll use leather on those - braided, cord, or latigo, depending on how thick I want the lanyard (thickness is also based on the individual knife).
 
On big woodcraft knives I find a big lanyard helps ensure that I don't drop the knife by winding around my wrist.

On folders I use them to help pull out knives from my front pocket as someone already said.

Some might say done tastefully it adds some class to the look.

I use silk cord and leather cord on a few to make my own look unique and not all the same as 550 cord ones you see on most for sale on EBay.

I am not into the skull thing either but do have a titanium bead on one I made.
 
Some lanyards are long to be able to retrieve the knife if you drop it. In my youth I was a rock climber. If you dropped your knife without a lanyard it was gone at least until you finished the climb. They are good thing to have in boating and sailing as well for obvious reasons.
 
There are downsides to lanyards as well. Sometimes, they just get in the way. I've also had a knife pulled from it's sheath because the lanyard had gotten caught on something. Fortunately, this happened in the car, so I didn't lose the knife. Some of my knives have lanyards. Others don't.
 
I use a crown signet lanyard on many of my knives. Basically gives you a handle extension if you use it right. With a knife like my cheapo gerber profile, I cord wrapped the handle and threw a crown signet on the back. It allows me to grab the knife as far back as possible, with only a couple fingers on the handle itself, and I still feel in control of it. Allows me to get some great leverage, and can turn a 4" blade into a pretty decent chopper for small stuff. That, and paracord is like duct tape to me. I use it everywhere I can, and it looks great.
 
(From Scott Free's link:)

Orange Lanyard Saves the Day

A few days ago, I finally drilled and put a orange paracord lanyard on a olive drab handled Mora. Two day later, I was hopping a rock at the edge of a river, and the knife and kydex sheath bounced out of my pack's elastic side pocket. I've made this same little jump literally hundreds of times. This was the first I've lost anything. It took a few moments of examining the pack before I finally figured out what made the splash. The pool was four or five foot deep with big rocks and crevasses of unknown depth and the water was covered in tannin foam. After swooshing away the foam, I squinted and cupped my hands around my face and could just barely see a flash of orange through the dark water. The lanyard had snagged on a rock. I rolled up my sleeve and retrieved the knife. I've had the knife for months. Only two days earlier had I attached the lanyard. Sometimes Murphy loses.
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...and that's why I put bright orange fobs on my work knives. Makes it much easier to find a black knife if it has a chunk of neon orange cord attached to it. :thumbup:
 
I use a lanyard around water only. I wouldn't want any of my good knives to go ker-plunk.
 
I have tried a lanyard on my working knife once. Did not help much - somehow was getting caught by things and in the way all the time. Got rid of the thing.
 
Lanyards help me with extracting a knife out of my pocket. It also gives me a little more to grab onto when waving a knife out of my pocket.
 
Mora clipper in a side pocket of a pack on the right, makes it easier to pull it out. Picture the pack stuffed with things and objects mounted to the Molle loops aside it, the fob makes it easy to snag the knife.

Also, with the fob flipped over, on the left side, it becomes part of the grip, just gives more to hang onto.

Also with a pack as an example, you can pull the zipper closed on something but leave the fob sticking out. So you can grab the fob, open the zipper and pull something specific out of an otherwised filled up area inside the compartment.

Not forgetting it's just fun to fiddle around with paracord.

mora_fob.jpg
 
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