The "Graley Diamond Whip" lanyard

bflying

bflying

Joined
Mar 4, 2014
Messages
3,646
Everybody's doing it. So I jumped on board. I really like having some lanyard on clipped folders to assist with draw.

Loving Gary Graley's creativity and amazing photography, I decided to try one of the favorites that I've seen in his pics. Before anyone slams me for the title, I know Gary didn't invent the knot, or a standard whip tie. But it was his photography that made them look amazing to me.

I'd like to attempt flush cutting the knot, but I'm afraid I'll burn more than the ends and destroy it. Will probably try with a finer tipped butane flame and hope for the best. But this is what I came up with so far.

My new Kizer has a very slight green hue to the grey anodizing. I happened to have some green/grey/gold cord handing around that didn't match too many of my knives, but looked great against this one. And this knife is so thin and rides so comfortably in the pocket, the lanyard really helps with the pull.

Unfortunately I only have my phone for pics. But here is....

2hpprg1.jpg
 
Wow that looks excellent! very well done and nice looking knife too! Colour me impressed sir and as to trimming off the ends and hitting it with a lighter isn't too much concern, I trim them off fairly close and then light them up to melting and press the knot down on a highly polished metal surface, usually the handle on my Swiss Army Tool which I use to really pull the knots as tight as possible and also to adjust where the knot ends from the end of the knife.

Thanks for the photo I may needs check one of those folders out too, like the inlay.
G2
 
Very nice! Just a thought on the flush cutting. I've got a buddy who sells ropes and he cuts and seals all in one pass with a hot knife. Maybe get ya a cheap knife from the .99 cent store, heat the blade up with your torch and then cut. Might be worth a try.
 
Here is a quick shot of a genuine Gary Graley Diamond knot :)
Gary sent me a couple of these very early on in his Diamond knot career .
They ride on my SAK and Flashlight in my BBQ sheath .
These lanyards are extremely well traveled , they started life in PA , moved to Australia and have been on several trips to New Zealand and also to Fiji and Samoa .
Please excuse the poor quality of pic , but it's dark here and I just snapped a pic while sitting up in bed drinking coffee at 5.00 am .
It shows the way the ends have been cut and sealed .



Ken
 
Well I decided to bobtail both of my new knives with the diamond knot. I don't have a hot knife (but have always thought over the years that one would be handy to have around, especially since I like crafting that relates to knives and guns). At first I was going to try to recess the end so it wouldn't even be seen. But in the end, opted for Gary's tip to just heat, and press flat. And I really like the look of it.

The one on the left is a standard wrap with a 99.9 pure silver wire wrap/bead that I made a while back. When I get some time, I'd like to try more silver beads (made out of my now near worthless silver bullion.

2vs3wuw.jpg
 
Nice there, and yes a hot knife for this kind of work I think would be more trouble than just one of the bbq long barrelled lighters that I use to melt the cut off ends, I did a short video, less than 2 min showing tightening the knot and then cutting and melting the ends, but here at home it's over 4 hours to upload!!! ugh, so I'll do that on Monday during lunch at work, we have a high speed connection there that I will see if it uploads faster...it should! :) and post it here and in the tutorial thread.

It features that Coyote knife I picked up from Dave Ferry :) neatly cutting the two strands of paracord, which was kind of a trick to do while looking at the camera, your hands are not where you think they are!!!
G2

forgot I was going to comment on the orange lanyard thingys I sent to you Ken, glad to see they are still out and about, that was a while ago !!! back when I first started, now the melted end is flush with the knot, much neater! In the video the example will be used as a pull cord on a pouch.
 
Here's is a short video I made showing how I tighten up the diamond knot and then how I cut and finish off the end so it's flush with the knot.

G2
 
Last edited:
Nice vid. That's pretty much how I did mine based on your description. Though I flattened them out on my granite pounding board. I also used a Ronson butane (torch type) lighter with a very fine tip, so I could more precisely hit just the strands and less of the surrounding knot.
 
Cool video Gary. Glad that knife is working for ya. See ya got some life on that sheath. Good deal
 
Thanks guys and the polished metal of the pliers works about the best, provides a polished end on the knot. You can use the pliers to also 'adjust' the position of the knot from the end of the knife to get it to where it will work the best when gripping the knot to retrieve the knife, either fixed or folder.

G2
 
One key on doing the whipping knot is to wrap it tightly around as you are going and before you slip the end through the loop, grab one side of the loop that goes back under the thread and pull that very tight, it will cinch things up stronger for you and THEN slip the end through the loop and pull that down and under the thread, nip the end off and pull the small tail completely under and then nip the other end as close as you can.

Here's one I did recently for my Carother's EDC knife

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top