Check out the ITS Online Store for awesome new products!

Posts tagged as:

Knot Tying

Post image for Knot of the Week: Paracord Deployment Lanyard

The Paracord Deployment Lanyard has been a long time coming on our Knot of the Week and much like our last KOTW on the Paracord Storage Lanyard, this too is a request from a reader.

This lanyard enables you to not only carry paracord ready to use, but can quickly deploy various lengths of it in a way that’s easy to manage. As most know that have worked with stored paracord, it can easily become unwieldy and tangled.

Just as the storage lanyard keeps paracord ready to deploy, the deployment lanyard is a vast improvement that we think you’ll immediately integrate.

[Read More…]

{ 10 comments }

Post image for Knot of the Week: Paracord Storage Lanyard

This knot of the week started off as a request from a reader who wanted to know how to create a lanyard he saw at the end of a knife sheath.

On analyzing the knot, typically tied to shorten up loose ends, we’ve come up with a few more uses for it and another way to tie it.

When tied in this manner it creates a way to keep a few feet of paracord ready to deploy quickly. While not a quick-release per se, there’s just one knot to untie at the end to unwrap it. [Read More…]

{ 11 comments }

Post image for Knot of the Week: Adapting the Diamond Hitch for a Truck Bed Tie Down

In our previous two knots in our Knot of the Week series, we showed you how to tie a Diamond Hitch and Artilleryman’s Loop. Today we’re going to show you how to combine these two knots for use as a tie down in a truck bed.

There were some comments in our Diamond Hitch article asking for a method to be able to use it with only four lashing points rather than the six our article required. Utilizing the Artilleryman’s Loop and some extra paracord, we’ll show you how to make this happen! [Read More…]

{ 1 comment }

Post image for Create a Dragline or Secure a Climber with the Artilleryman’s Loop

Our newest Knot of the Week features an intermediary step in what we’ll be showing you next week, which is a method requested in the comments of our last KOTW to use four points to secure a load

While the intent is to show this knot used in that, The Artilleryman’s Loop is a quick method for tying a loop on a bight. Tying this loop on a bight requires your line to be free of tension, as tension would make it difficult to pull the slack needed for tying this.

The Artilleryman’s Loop can be used for creating a tie-in point on a line or dragline, securing a third climber on a line or simply making a quick drop loop for attachments or adding tension to a lashing. [Read More…]

{ 9 comments }

Post image for Versatile Option for Securing a Load with the Diamond Hitch

In our latest installment of the Knot of the Week, we’ll teach you how to tie the Diamond Hitch and explain what benefits it offers over traditional methods of securing a load.

What’s truly versatile about the Diamond Hitch is that once tied, it creates a diamond pattern in the center which not only is where its namesake comes from, but is what gives it the ability to compensate for the load shifting.

Whether being used to secure a load to a roof rack, truck bed or even a pack animal, the Diamond Hitch is definitely one to put into your knot tying toolbox. [Read More…]

{ 11 comments }

Post image for Knot of the Week: Paracord Wrapping a Germ Grenade

Today’s Knot of the Week is a bit of a departure from our usual knots and is more of a paracord wrapping. What we’ll be demonstrating is wrapping a small hand sanitizer bottle, often referred to as a Germ Grenade.

We’re demonstrating this not to simply have a bottle of hand sanitizer at the ready, but to show the overall wrapping with a Solomon Bar and get you to see that you can realistically wrap just about any bottle or container using this method. [Read More…]

{ 4 comments }

Post image for Knot of the Week: DIY Boleadora Throwing Weapon using Monkey’s Fists

On today’s Knot of the Week, we’re going to go over instructions for creating your own Bola or Boleadora from natural fiber rope and a few golf balls for weighted cores. While we’ve gone over the Monkey’s Fist Knot in a previous KOTW, we’ve never show in quite like this.

Bolas throwing weapons were primarily used by South American Gauchos to capture/hobble running cattle or game, by utilizing an over-the-head swinging motion and releasing it on target. While I’m sure our readers could come up with a multitude of uses for these, one could come in handy in case of Zombies! [Read More…]

{ 19 comments }

Post image for Get Twisted with a Solomon Bar Paracord Bracelet

This isn’t a bracelet to relive the 80s, simply a different take on the standard Solomon Bar Paracord Bracelet that resembles a DNA strand.

Funny enough, this knot is what happens when you don’t tie a standard Solomon Bar, or a Cobra Knot for some of you out there, the right way. You’re left with a twisted pattern that actually makes a neat design.

We wanted to not only highlight the Twisted Solomon Bar with this week’s Knot of the Week, but to also demonstrate an alternative method of closure on a paracord bracelet with a loop and Lanyard Knot. This closure can be used for any type of paracord bracelet. [Read More…]

{ 7 comments }

Post image for Whipping and Fusing Your Fast Rope Into Shape
3 of 3 in the series Make a Fast Rope

Making a Fast Rope for Climbing has certainly been a fun project to undertake for our Knot of the Week!

Today we’ll be demonstrating the last steps in completing your rope, which are whipping and fusing the bitter end. Whipping and Fusing are traditionally methods to prevent a rope from unraveling and to stop fraying. We’re essentially using these techniques in the same way on our Fast Rope, to strengthen and protect the end.

The reason we chose to terminate the Fast Rope in this fashion is that in reading the Mil-Spec for Fast Rope construction, it distinctly mentions that “The free end shall be seared and whipped.” Seared is just another word for fused and fusing is actually the proper terminology. [Read More…]

{ 11 comments }

Post image for Lash on an Angle with Diagonal Lashings

Today we continue our KOTW Lashing series with the Diagonal Lashing.

The Diagonal Lashing is “diagonal” because it’s used to bind poles that cross each other at a 45° to 90° angle. Binding poles together in this way will prevent racking and add stability, thus preventing them from moving apart.

A Diagonal Lashing can replace a Square Lashing (which is stronger), but not vice-versa. [Read More…]

{ 3 comments }