I made a thing, for my thing, the one you all "helped" me buy last winter. Photos below. You'll notice that I took some liberties with the instructions given here: I started in the other direction (i.e., with knife blade toward me), so that the tag end (the lanyard end) would end up forward, by the choil. Additionally, I did not attach the warp (see bottom for some thoughts on crafting a D-guard) directly to the forward eyelet, but rather to a small loop of material which was later removed. These two methods in combination resulted in a D-guard attached only at the pommel. I am able to use the lanyard extension to tie the guard to the forward eyelet when I want it so, and otherwise leave it dangling as a fancy tassel of sorts. This I feel better retains the versatility of a wilderness knife. Sometimes you want the D-guard on to improve your grip while wailing on a tree. Other times, you are doing small work in camp and you want to be able to pick up, set down, and take multiple grips on your knife without a D-guard getting in the way. Also, sometimes you want the knife to fall clean away to the limit of its lanyard on a missed stroke, rather than risk twisting or otherwise injuring your hand. Reference the lanyard-loop method described in John Wiseman's survival guide. This construction of the D-guard preserves the greatest number of options.
Note: When the D-guard is in place, the lanyards can be threaded through the hollow rivets and thence back to the pommel, where the excess may continue to serve as a lanyard loop. I find that the two lanyards, run from the forward eyelet to the rearmost rivet or the pommel eyelet makes an excellent tension strap over the top of the hand or fingers, holding them tightly once cinched and tied.
For formatting convenience, the photos are not embedded, but linked below.
http://www.sharplight.org/images/other/dguard/knife1.jpg
http://www.sharplight.org/images/other/dguard/knife2.jpg
http://www.sharplight.org/images/other/dguard/knife3.jpg
Some thoughts on crafting a D-guard, as threatened: (Note that these are given in the spirit of tutorial, for those who have not yet tried one and are considering doing so. Consider this an addendum to the above-linked pictorial instruction.)
First off, this is not braiding, this is weaving, as on a loom. You need not reinvent the wheel. The three (or more) strands stretched taught between the pommel eyelet and choil eyelet are your warp yarns, and the line you weave back and forth through the warp is your weft yarn. In most basic form of loom weaving, the warp is held taught across the loom (in this case, from eyelet to eyelet), and the shuttle (in this case, your fingers) maneuvers the weft through the warp, back and forth. After each pass, the weft is pushed up into a tight, consistent position against the previous weave. You will achieve the most consistent results if you imitate this sequence. Rather than make several passes and then try to tighten them, make one pass and push it up, then come back the other way, push it up, and repeat. Be sure to push up both the end and the middle. If you came from the right, push up the right end and all the middle bumps. Then come back from the left, and push up the left end and all the middle bumps. Consistency of motion and technique through each weave will achieve the uniform pattern you envy in the photos on this thread.
Having established that principle, you now have a couple of areas for variation, because your warp and weft are yarns of equal diameter. You can go for a tighter weave or a looser one, a wider weave (there are pictures in the original thread of guards with 5 warp yarns) or narrower, down to three warp yarns. Additionally, you can affect the style of the weave: If you hold the warp taught and maneuver the weft up and down through it, you will get a lateral, interlocking look, with no warp showing, as mine above. If you go with a looser warp, and pull the weft taught each time you push it up, then you will see the warp rising and diving down the length of the guard, and the weft will only be visible where it reverses direction at the edges. Theoretically, you could split the difference and create a perfectly balanced, checkered weave, though I think this might be easier with a wide guard than a three-warp guard. Whichever look you attempt, it will be consistency technique (weave to the left; push it up; weave to the right; push it up) which produces the dense, attractive pattern you're after.
The above being my first attempt, you may be able to observe in the images my technique refining itself over the first five or six weaves (nearest the pommel, in my case), as I figured these things out. The first six are checkered and inconsistent. The rest is a tight, uniform weave emphasizing the weft and almost completely hiding the warp, as intended.
When the guard is complete, you likely will be able to push the weaves up the warp a little, but you will not be able to tighten them laterally, so consistency of technique with each weave is (again!) key.
Specific to this particular guard: As the final end was not secured to an object (i.e., not secured to the eyelet), it was important to ensure that the outer warp lines were joined at that end. Bear in mind that the three warp yarns are in fact a single cord, which reverses direction once at each end. At the free end, that bend must be from outer left to outer right. I was then able to weave right to the end of the warp. The center warp yarn extends to become the lanyard, and the weft can be "tied off" to it to secure the last weave.
For this guard, I tied off the weft to the warp lanyard using a constrictor knot, which would require a post of its own to teach. Suffice to say that it is an overhand knot with an extra wrap which ends lying over the overhand fold, so that when the knot is tightened, it cinches down on itself and makes itself permanent. It had the added benefit of releasing the tag end of the now secure weft parallel to the warp lanyard. I chose then to cut them both to equal length, giving me what I think is an attractive and versatile twin lanyard.
I finished the two lanyards by drawing back the nylon sheath from the cotton core yarns and clipping the cotton yarns slightly shorter. I then stretched the nylon sheath to full length (allowing the cotton yarns to disappear inside) and used a blow-torch-style lighter to melt and weld closed the end of the nylon sheath. This is only possible with genuine 550 cord or similarly-constructed line.
Note: When the D-guard is in place, the lanyards can be threaded through the hollow rivets and thence back to the pommel, where the excess may continue to serve as a lanyard loop. I find that the two lanyards, run from the forward eyelet to the rearmost rivet or the pommel eyelet makes an excellent tension strap over the top of the hand or fingers, holding them tightly once cinched and tied.
For formatting convenience, the photos are not embedded, but linked below.
http://www.sharplight.org/images/other/dguard/knife1.jpg
http://www.sharplight.org/images/other/dguard/knife2.jpg
http://www.sharplight.org/images/other/dguard/knife3.jpg
Some thoughts on crafting a D-guard, as threatened: (Note that these are given in the spirit of tutorial, for those who have not yet tried one and are considering doing so. Consider this an addendum to the above-linked pictorial instruction.)
First off, this is not braiding, this is weaving, as on a loom. You need not reinvent the wheel. The three (or more) strands stretched taught between the pommel eyelet and choil eyelet are your warp yarns, and the line you weave back and forth through the warp is your weft yarn. In most basic form of loom weaving, the warp is held taught across the loom (in this case, from eyelet to eyelet), and the shuttle (in this case, your fingers) maneuvers the weft through the warp, back and forth. After each pass, the weft is pushed up into a tight, consistent position against the previous weave. You will achieve the most consistent results if you imitate this sequence. Rather than make several passes and then try to tighten them, make one pass and push it up, then come back the other way, push it up, and repeat. Be sure to push up both the end and the middle. If you came from the right, push up the right end and all the middle bumps. Then come back from the left, and push up the left end and all the middle bumps. Consistency of motion and technique through each weave will achieve the uniform pattern you envy in the photos on this thread.
Having established that principle, you now have a couple of areas for variation, because your warp and weft are yarns of equal diameter. You can go for a tighter weave or a looser one, a wider weave (there are pictures in the original thread of guards with 5 warp yarns) or narrower, down to three warp yarns. Additionally, you can affect the style of the weave: If you hold the warp taught and maneuver the weft up and down through it, you will get a lateral, interlocking look, with no warp showing, as mine above. If you go with a looser warp, and pull the weft taught each time you push it up, then you will see the warp rising and diving down the length of the guard, and the weft will only be visible where it reverses direction at the edges. Theoretically, you could split the difference and create a perfectly balanced, checkered weave, though I think this might be easier with a wide guard than a three-warp guard. Whichever look you attempt, it will be consistency technique (weave to the left; push it up; weave to the right; push it up) which produces the dense, attractive pattern you're after.
The above being my first attempt, you may be able to observe in the images my technique refining itself over the first five or six weaves (nearest the pommel, in my case), as I figured these things out. The first six are checkered and inconsistent. The rest is a tight, uniform weave emphasizing the weft and almost completely hiding the warp, as intended.
When the guard is complete, you likely will be able to push the weaves up the warp a little, but you will not be able to tighten them laterally, so consistency of technique with each weave is (again!) key.
Specific to this particular guard: As the final end was not secured to an object (i.e., not secured to the eyelet), it was important to ensure that the outer warp lines were joined at that end. Bear in mind that the three warp yarns are in fact a single cord, which reverses direction once at each end. At the free end, that bend must be from outer left to outer right. I was then able to weave right to the end of the warp. The center warp yarn extends to become the lanyard, and the weft can be "tied off" to it to secure the last weave.
For this guard, I tied off the weft to the warp lanyard using a constrictor knot, which would require a post of its own to teach. Suffice to say that it is an overhand knot with an extra wrap which ends lying over the overhand fold, so that when the knot is tightened, it cinches down on itself and makes itself permanent. It had the added benefit of releasing the tag end of the now secure weft parallel to the warp lanyard. I chose then to cut them both to equal length, giving me what I think is an attractive and versatile twin lanyard.
I finished the two lanyards by drawing back the nylon sheath from the cotton core yarns and clipping the cotton yarns slightly shorter. I then stretched the nylon sheath to full length (allowing the cotton yarns to disappear inside) and used a blow-torch-style lighter to melt and weld closed the end of the nylon sheath. This is only possible with genuine 550 cord or similarly-constructed line.
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