Why Lanyards?

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platbuck

Joined
Nov 16, 2006
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82
I come across lanyards,lanyard making materials, photos of knives with lanyards all the time.

I dont' use any on my knife and don't understand what the attraction is. I suppose they have so many uses and they are so obviously useful that people don't talk about them.

Could the pro lanyard people please explain some of the main reasons why they keep one attached whether it be for the look or for function.
 
I carry my saks on a neck lanyard because it's easier to keep up with them and it also keeps the grit out of them.A lanyard also alows you to remove the knife from your pocket with out digiging though everything else.Plus you always have some cord if you need it.;)
 
I have/will have lanyards on 3 of my knives. All of them are fixed blades. The two I did/will do are 550 cord, in OD. The one that came from the factory is an uknown type of cord. All three knives are woods knives, and besides looking wicked cool, it's a means of keeping control of my knife.
 
In the Army, I always used a "lanyard" on my knives, GPS, NVG's, etc, and looped them through a belt loop, clip on my gear, etc. We called them "dummy cords" and their sole purpose was to keep from losing things if they came out of pockets or off of their clips while running/crawling/jumping or just getting snagged on branches. Thats my only use for one.
 
Lanyards are typically used by seafaring folk beacuse droping a knife/tool can mean it going over the side and into the water and being lost forever.

I personally have never had the need to use a lanyard, but recognise there value to those that do need it.
 
Decorative lanyards look nice, but mine is a simple shoestring. Looped on my belt, it suspends the knife vertically into my RF pocket so that it lies along the rear seam and doesn't touch bottom. A quick release clip allows the knife to be easily detached for use. Carried this way, the knife doesn't get jumbled up with keys, saves pocket wear and is less likely to slip out of my pocket and get lost. In fact, over many decades since Boy Scout days of clipping my EDC to a lanyard I have never experienced a loss.

Usually, that is all the lanyard gets used for, except very occasionally I loop it around my wrist if I am going to use a knife in the dark, over water or other places it could be lost if dropped.

Just in case, I knotted the shoestring at several fixed lengths to use for measuring, although that has not been needed yet. A few times I used the string to tie up something.
 
I've quickly made a lanyard on several occasions when I had work to do on a ladder or on a job at work 40 feet up. They do look nice, but I don't need one in my way unless it's gonna save the tool (or prevent an accident).;)
 
Easier to fish the knife out of the pocket when you have a bunch of other stuff crammed in there. Also, some use bright colored lanyards to help locate the knife in dark conditions, if dropped, or inside a pack. I've also seen some lanyards with a plastic ball sewn to the end for flotation purposes. Many uses.
 
All good reasons given above. Personally, I don't use lanyards on all my knives, but lanyards are great when working on a ship, up under a bridge or anywhere that a drop would equal a loss of your equipment. I'm looking into getting a coiled lanyard for my LM since I never separate it from it's sheath unless I'm working on something at hand.

Also, for a survival-type knife having a lanyard means always having a knife capable of being lashed to a stick to serve as a spear. Other than that, 550 is really handy to have around, the more the better. If it doesn't get in the way too much I'd recommend a 550 lanyard on every knife/tool you can put it on. I don't have a lanyard on my EDC folder because it's primarily a defensive tool and I find a lanyard gets in the way with my particular style of knife self-defense. However, if I suddenly found myself with nothing but my folder to rely upon and had to use it for other tasks it would very quickly become acquainted with some type of lanyard.

New post? What is the best emergency lanyard? Shoestring, strip of cloth, braided grass, braided hair, wire? Throw some ideas, I'm listening!
 
All my knives with lanyard holes have lanyards on them, in 550 paracord.

Why? Well, they're easier to grab that way. Folders are easier to withdraw from the pocket they're clipped to, fixed are easier to withdraw from their sheath.

I keep the lanyard length on each about the same as the length of the handle of the knife.
 
I put lanyards on everything. My keys are on a lanyard, my knives are, i even keep a my flashlight on a lanyard. The nice ones I use on my knives, I'm going to get some from this guy
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=387434
otherwise I just use plain ones. I just hang the end of the lanyard out of my pocket, and then I have instant access to whatever i am looking for. If it's my flashlight, I keep it on a short lanyard that fits like a bracelet so thet I will never drop it. Once you start carrying lanyards on things, you will never know how you managed without
 
I agree. I like simple, loop-style lanyards on my SAKs in order to produce the results you describe.

- Tim
 
Ease of extraction from pockets, and extra grip are reasons why I put layards on near everything. I find that the lanyard kind of 'floats' to the top of the stuff in the pocket, and makes what you are looking for easy to find. this is only for those of us who have a large number of things for EDC. Before I started useing one on my keys, it used to take me quite a while to find them, now it's no problem.

I also use lanyards to keep things that i don't want to loose in my pockets, or atleast dangling from my belt. (i'll have that setup for sale on my website this weekend)

Work requires me to wear dress pants, and often the pockets on those are made so that once you sit down, whatever is in your pockets starts to shift towards the opening. I carry a usb thumbdrive with important information on it, and i've lost one in the past this very way. I now carry it on a lanyard attached to my belt, and unclip it when I need to use it. If it falls out of my pocket, I know it will be hanging there from my belt.

Kydex Secrets & Paracord Products
 
well, it took me a little longer than expected, but the Paracord Retainer is up on my site as promised.

The Retainer


item_retainer.jpg

-Impact
 
I use a 3" paracord lanyard with two knots on my Champ. It is a lot easier to get it out of the sheath by pulling on the lanyard than trying to grab the knife with two fingers.
 
I carry my Micra on a lanyard string setup around my neck under my shirt and I have a lanyard attached to my minimag when i camp. other than that i don't have any lanyards on any of my fixed blades or folders. However i'm a SAK-aholic and i notice a lot of my brethren are into the lanyard thing in a biiiiiiiiiig way.

Lately i've been wanting to get some of the quick release clip things for the SAK Executive on my keychain, for my Micra and maybe to attach the SAK in my pocket to my belt. Anybody here know a good internet source for quick release (but compact) clips?
 
I've always hated lanyards, i'm useless when it comes to tying anything other than my boots. I've found a nice little section of chain similar to what's on sale on the Victorinox website though, and it seems to be working out pretty well. I either keep my keys on the end or clip it to my belt loop.
 
Here is a lanyard I made for my SAK farmer. It was my first attempt at this, but I think it turned out quite well.
 
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