How many of you have either purchased or made your own Paracord Bracelet and ever had to unravel it to actually use the paracord? If so, you’ve probably realized how much of a pain it is to untie each part of the Solomon Bar Knot that’s used to tie these bracelets.

Today on our latest Knot of the Week, we’ll show you how to use a Chain Sinnet knot concept to tie a Paracord Bracelet that will allow you to quickly pull apart your bracelet for immediate access to your continuous 10 feet of paracord for emergency use.

This method will take a bit longer to tie than a normal Solomon Bar Paracord Bracelet, but if quick access is what you need out of your bracelet’s paracord, then this is the answer.

ITS now offers Mil-Spec Type III Paracord in our store!

Paracord Bracelet » Decorative

(Strength: 4/Secure: 4/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 4) **Ratings shown are for Solomon Bar Knot, not the Quick Release Paracord Bracelet**

Uses:

• Decorative Bracelet
• Carrying Paracord for Immediate Access in Emergencies

Tying Instructions:

Pay particular attention to the beginning steps of this instruction in the video, photos and description below. If the beginning doesn’t get started correctly, it won’t tie right as you progress through.

This method of tying was first discovered by a Dan, a reader who sent in this YouTube video of a Chain Sinnet Square Knot tied by Andy Smith. In Andy’s video he actually ties this so that the buckles fall off as the bracelet is pulled apart. We’ve chosen to tie this as shown below so that the buckle is retained as the paracord is unraveled.

Note: The buckle we show is a National Molding Weinerlock buckle. These contoured buckles are definitely nice to have when you’re wearing your bracelet all day. You also don’t have to use a buckle and this can be ended in this configuration shown on our Twisted Solomon Bar Paracord Bracelet.

ITS now offers Mil-Spec Type III Paracord in our store!

1. Find the middle of a 10-12 ft. section of Paracord and halve it
2. Take the middle and girth hitch it into the female portion of the buckle
3. Thread the two working ends through the bottom bar of the male portion of the buckle
4. Now place what you’ve created around your wrist and tighten the working ends until you have the desired size
5. *You’ll want it snug, but not tight, as the pattern we’ll be creating will add some girth to the bracelet
6. Once the size is determined, you’re ready to start the pattern.
7. Take the right side working end and create a bight (loop) and bring it over the standing center part
8. Take the left side working end, create a bight and loop it through the loop you just made with the right side working end
9. Ensure the new bight passes through your initial bight from the top, not the bottom
10. Pull on the standing right hand strand to tighten the loop that’s now holding your second bight
11. Take this secondary left side working end bight and take it under the standing center part
12. Repeating the same type of work you just did, you’re now going to create a new bight with the standing right side line
13. This bight now passes through the bottom, rather than the top as you just did with the last side
14. Now you’re just repeating those steps, alternating from the right side going over the standing part and the left side going around the back of the standing part
15. Remember to tighten and push the “knots” down as you go
16. As you pull through your last bight near the male buckle, you’ll actually pull this side all the way through and into the female buckle (see photos)
17. The opposite strand you’re left with will be also threaded into the male buckle
18. Now that both strands are out the backside of the male buckle simply tuck them behind the topmost loop of the solomon bar type wrapping
19. Tighten them up and trim to your desired length, in the video you can see that we’ve melted these ends together slightly so that they’ll stay together until pulled apart, but not so much that these ends won’t pull apart
20. To quick release your bracelet, simply untuck the ends from the loop and pass them back through the male buckle and unlock the side you pulled through the bight
21. You can now pull the two sides of paracord apart quickly to deploy your paracord!

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above, be sure to let us know in the comments if you have any questions!

Have you always wondered how to achieve the technique that Strider uses to wrap their knife handles with paracord? On Today’s Knot of the Week we’ll show you exactly how to do it with a detailed video in HD!

We’ve previously demonstrated this method on a County Comm Breacher Bar, but if left a lot of you asking further questions and if we could demonstrate it on a Strider Knife. Using a Strider/Triple Aught Design DUK we’ll show you how you can utilize this wrapping on anything that has at least two holes drilled and optionally a lanyard hole as well.

You can apply this wrapping principle to just about anything you want to and we hope you find something of your own to wrap!

Strider Knives / TAD Gear DUK Paracord Wrapping » Decorative

(Strength: 3/Secure: 3/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 3)

We’d highly recommend you have a vise to hold your knife while you wrap the outer layer of the pattern. In fact, its almost mandatory, as without a tight wrap on this section it may loosen up with use.

This paracord wrapping will require two separate lengths of 550. A gutted section being around five feet and another right around 15 feet. Another benefit to this wrapping is that you’ll have around 15 feet of paracord at your disposal should you need it.

If you’re wrapping a knife with this method, do yourself a favor and tape the blade up so you don’t get cut. It will also prevent your knife from getting scratched up in the vise if you don’t have rubber jaws.

Uses:

• Increase the grip of an object
• Storing Paracord
• Decorating an object

Tying Instructions:

1. To follow along with these instructions, your object will need to have at least two holes for paracord.
2. *Have your two sections of paracord ready (5 foot gutted section and 15 foot section)*
3. Starting with the longer of the two sections, find the midpoint of the paracord and double.
4. Insert the doubled end in and through the top most hole.
5. Pull the doubled end out through the bottom most hole (not the smaller lanyard hole).
6. Insert the remaining paracord ends through the loop, creating a girth hitch.
7. Tighten up the girth hitch and pull the paracord ends up and out of the way.
8. Take the small five foot section of gutted paracord and wrap it tightly, starting above the created girth hitch.
9. *The wrapping of the gutted paracord should lock around itself holding tightly*
10. Wrap the remaining paracord all the way down and tuck it into itself to lock it down.
11. Trim the excess and burn the end, pressing it into the wrapped paracord to bind it.
12. *Now return to your new working ends on the longer paracord*
13. Where these ends now exit the wrapping, pull them behind to the backside.
14. To make the weave/hook pattern, remember right over left then left over right.
15. Create the pattern on this side of the handle, ensuring its tightness.
16. Bring the paracord to the opposite side and repeat the same pattern *right over left, left over right, tighten*
17. Continue this pattern, alternating from one side of the handle to the other, until you’ve reached the bottom.
18. Once at the bottom, tie a tight square knot to hold your wrapping in place.
19. Feed the ends through the remaining lanyard hole in the handle, flip the handle over and tie a second square knot.
20. This effectively locks the wrapping completely and allows you to know work with the remaining paracord.
21. You can tie any kind of lanyard knot with the remaining paracord, or if desired, trim the paracord and forgo the lanyard.
22. Enjoy!

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.

Germ Grenade Paracord Wrapping » Decorative

(Strength: 4/Secure: 4/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 4) **Ratings shown are for Solomon Bar Knot**

Uses:

• Enclosing and Carrying Hand Sanitizer
• Wrapping Larger Containers for Transport

Tying Instructions:

We wrapped this Germ Grenade using a 8 ft. length of paracord for the foundation and a 9 ft. length of paracord for the working cord.

1. Find the middle of the foundation cord (8 ft. section) and halve it.
2. Take the bight (loop formed) and check that the size will fit over the shoulder of the object your wrapping.
3. Find the middle of the working cord (9 ft. section) and halve it.
4. Place the middle of the working cord across the bight in the foundation cord and tie and overhand knot.
5. Bring the left side over the front of the foundation cord.
6. Let the right side hang down in front of the left side.
7. Run the right side behind the foundation cord and through the loop created.
8. Repeat steps 8 – 10 by bringing the right side over the front now.
9. Continue alternating between starting from the left or the right until you have the length needed to span the length of the object you’re wrapping.
10. Take the leftover working ends of the working cord and tie and overhand knot.
11. Attach the loop created by the foundation cord around the neck of the object.
12. Take your foundation strands and girth hitch through the loop.
13. Use a pen and loosen the outer wrapping of the Solomon Bar and weave the foundation cord through the respective sides (see video and photos).
14. Don’t forget to trim and fuse the ends of the working cord (see video).
15. Continue weaving the foundation cord on each side until reaching the desired amount of wraps on each side.
16. At this point you’ll want to terminate the working ends by cutting and fusing them (see photos and video)
17. Your germ grenade is now complete with the exception of threading a keychain or any desired attachment method to the bottom of the Solomon Bar.
18. Please refer to the instructions in our Lanyard Knot KOTW to create a lanyard, or you could even simply use a length of paracord with a CordLoc on the end.

Video and Photo Instructions

Check out all our detailed photos of the Germ Grenade Paracord Wrapping on Flickr!

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.

Twisted Solomon Bar

While we’ve chosen to demonstrate the Twisted Solomon Bar with standard Type III Paracord, it creates a bulky bracelet that you may or may not like. An option is to use smaller Type I Paracord, or Dummy Cord, to weave your new bracelet.

You’ll loose the functionality of carrying paracord with you wherever you go, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices in the name of Tactical Fashion, right? Another option to slim down the bracelet girth is to gut the paracord on both the inner foundation strand and the outer working strand.

There’s a detailed video for tying this complete bracelet below, but we’ve added some photos and here’s a link to the Solomon Bar KOTW and the Lanyard Knot KOTW these should help you if you’re having trouble following along with the video and photos.

Twisted Solomon Bar Paracord Bracelet » Decorative

(Strength: 4/Secure: 4/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 4) **Ratings shown are for Solomon Bar Knot, not the Twisted Solomon Bar Paracord Bracelet**

Uses:

• Decorative Bracelet
• Carrying Paracord for Emergency Purposes

Tying Instructions:

We tied this Twisted Solomon Bar Paracord Bracelet using a 3 ft. length of paracord for the foundation and a 10 ft. length of paracord for the working cord.

1. Find the middle of the foundation cord (3 ft. section) and halve it
2. Find the middle of the working cord (10 ft. section) and halve it
3. Place the middle of the working cord across the halved foundation cord and tie and overhand knot
4. Take the right side working end over the foundation cord
5. Take the left side working end over the right side you just brought over, around the back of the foundation cord and up through the loop you just created (stay to the right of the foundation cord)
6. Tighten up the knot you’ve just created
7. Repeat the same process; over with the right and down, around and through with the left
8. Continuing this pattern will create the natural DNA like twist in the paracord
9. Continue repeating steps 4-6 until you’ve reached a good ending point and the length is right at your wrist size (a little bit more length will be added with the lanyard knot)
10. At this point you’ll want to terminate the working ends by cutting and fusing them (see photos and video)
11. Using your foundation cord you’re now going to tie the Lanyard Knot and finish the bracelet after cutting & fusing the remaining working ends
12. Please refer to the instructions in our Lanyard Knot KOTW for tying the successive steps or view the video below

After today’s Knot of the Week, you’ll officially have no excuse not to always have paracord on you.

Yes, everyone and their mother has a paracord bracelet nowadays, but seriously. Either carry some instead of shoelaces, stuff some in a pocket, or keep reading to find out how to make a bracelet using a continuous 8-10 ft. section of 550.

Most tutorials you may have seen for these go through the process of using two different strands of paracord in order to facilitate the closure method. Do yourself a favor and pick up some of these small 5/8″ Weinerlock contoured buckles (yes, you read that right), made by National Molding and get yourself a real way to secure your bracelet.

We’ll show you how to weave the Soloman Bar, aka the Cobra Knot, through these buckles to create a bracelet that’s both easy to make and easy to take apart in an emergency situation. You never know when and where you may need 550!

Paracord Bracelet » Decorative

(Strength: 4/Secure: 4/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 4) **Ratings shown are for Solomon Bar Knot, not the Paracord Bracelet**

Uses:

• Decorative Bracelet
• Carrying Paracord for Emergency Purposes

Tying Instructions:

Note: The buckle we show in the demonstration is a 3/4″ ITW Nexus buckle that lacks the contour of the Weinerlock buckles. While these work fine, the contoured buckle is definitely nice to have when you’re wearing your bracelet all day.

1. Find the middle of a 10 ft. section of Paracord and halve it
2. Take the middle and girth hitch it into the female portion of the buckle
3. Thread the two working ends through the bottom bar of the buckle
4. Create a wrap (loop) with both working ends to the respective right and left of the initial working end entry
5. Now place what you’ve created around your wrist and tighten the working ends until you have the desired size
6. *You’ll want it snug, but not tight, as the pattern we’ll be creating will add some girth to the bracelet
7. Once the size is determined, you’re ready to start the pattern.
8. Take the right side working end and bring it over the standing center part
9. Take the left side working end and ensure it runs on top of the right side working end you just brought over
10. Take the left side working end and bring it around the back of the standing center part and up through the space left near the right side working end (see photos)
11. Now you’re just repeating those steps, but the opposite starting with the left side working end instead of the right
12. And after that, you’re just alternating which side you start with, much like weaving or braiding
13. As you make your last wrap near the female buckle, you’ll take your working ends through the buckle and tie a simple overhand knot
14. Cut the working ends close to the overhand knot and fuse them as you desire
15. Too much fusing will keep the overhand knot tight, but make it difficult to unravel the paracord in an emergency

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above, be sure to let us know in the comments if you have any questions!

Ever wonder how to achieve the cool technique that Strider uses to wrap their knife handles with paracord?

On this week’s Knot of the Week we’ll show you exactly how to wrap a handle with this method, using a County Comm EOD Breacher Bar, a breaching tool for prying, cutting and pounding.

You can apply this wrapping principle to just about anything you want to. As you’ll see in our demonstration, we’ll take advantage of the four holes that the Breacher Bar offers to aid in securing the wrapping.

These holes are not mandatory though, and you can adapt this to any knife / handle you’d like. It is, however, handy to have a vise to hold your knife while you wrap the outer layer of the pattern. In fact, its almost mandatory, as without a tight wrap on this section it may loosen up with use.

This paracord wrapping will require two separate lengths of 550. One being 120″ and another right around 70″. So another cool thing about this wrapping is that you’ll have nearly 16 feet of paracord at your disposal should you need it. The inner wrapping (the 70″ piece of 550) can also be gutted to give your grip a thinner profile.

If you’re wrapping a knife with this method, do yourself a favor and tape the blade up so you don’t get cut. It will also prevent your knife from getting scratched up in the vise if you don’t have rubber jaws.

Strider Knife Paracord Wrapping » Decorative

(Strength: 3/Secure: 3/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 3)

Uses:

• Increase the grip of an object
• Storing Paracord
• Decorating an object

Tying Instructions:

1. To follow along with these instructions, your object will need to have at least two holes for paracord (breacher bar has four)
2. *Have your two sections of paracord ready (120″ section and 70″ section)*
3. Starting with the longer of the two sections, find the midpoint of the paracord and double
4. Insert the doubled end in and through the second hole up from the bottom
5. Pull the doubled end out through the second hole down from the top
6. Insert the remaining paracord ends through the loop, creating a girth hitch
7. Tighten up the girth hitch and pull the paracord ends out of the way
8. Take the small 70″ section of paracord and insert around an inch through the remaining topmost hole
9. Hold this working end down with your finger while you symmetrically wrap the remaining paracord all the way down
10. At the bottom of the wrap, make one more loose turn and insert this working end through the second hole up from the bottom
11. Tuck and tighten the remaining working end to hide it in the wrap
12. *Now return to your new working ends on the longer paracord*
13. Where these ends now exit the wrapping, pull them behind to the backside
14. To make the weave/hook pattern, remember right over left then left over right
15. Create the pattern on this side of the handle, ensuring its tightness
16. Bring the paracord to the opposite side and repeat the same pattern *right over left, left over right, tighten*
17. Continue this pattern, alternating from one side of the handle to the other, until you’ve reached the bottom
18. Once at the bottom, tie a tight square knot to hold your wrapping in place
19. Feed the ends through the remaining lanyard hole in the handle, flip the handle over and tie a second square knot
20. This effectively locks the wrapping completely and allows you to know work with the remaining paracord
21. You can tie any kind of lanyard knot with the remaining paracord, or if desired, trim the paracord and forgo the lanyard
22. Enjoy!

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!

This week’s Knot of the Week isn’t a true knot per se, but a way to wrap objects to increase their grip and also to store extra paracord.

Today we’ll be wrapping a County Comm Micro Widgy Bar, which is a miniature pry bar. It’s made from hardened D9 steel and is around 3″ in overall length.

The wrapping we’ll show you today isn’t a very complicated wrapping, but still provides a nice secure way to lock in the paracord.

Some people like to wet paracord before wrapping which will enable you to get the wraps tighter, but if you’re concerned about that, you should also use a vise to hold the object you’re wrapping.

We’ve used around two feet of paracord to wrap this Micro Widgy Bar, but depending on your lanyard length you might want to use a few more inches.

Paracord Wrapping » Decorative

(Strength: 3/Secure: 3/Stability: 2/Difficulty: 1)

Uses:

• Increase the grip of an object
• Storing Paracord
• Decorating an object

Tying Instructions:

1. To follow along with these instructions, your object will need to have two holes for paracord
2. Start my taking working end and passing it through the backside of the uppermost lanyard hole
3. Give yourself plenty of line when passing out of the hole, as this length will determine the length of your lanyard
4. The standing part now becomes your working end as you wrap a single turn either clockwise or counter-clockwise around the object
5. This first wrap is also placed on top of the standing part
6. As you wrap the second turn place your standing line on top of the turn creating and under/over pattern
7. The third wrap will be an “over” turn and you’ll start to see the pattern emerge
8. Repeat this under/over pattern until you reach the bottom hole in your object
9. At this point thread your standing line through the hole
10. End the final wrap with your working end so that it winds up enabling you to thread it through the backside of the bottom hole
11. What you should have is opposing ends at this point
12. Tie your knot of choice, whether it be a simple overhand knot or a lanyard knot to finish off the wrapping

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!

Our Knot of the Week series continues today with the Turk’s Head.

The Turk’s Head is a Decorative Knot that has so many different versions, books have been written just on this family of knots.

They can literally be used for nearly any type of decorative knot project you can think of. The most common use of a Turk’s Head in the Military is it’s use on presentation paddles.

This is definitely one of the more involved knots we’ve showcased here on ITS Tactical, but we’ve tried to make the video explanation as simple as possible.

As a whole the Turk’s Head is not a difficult knot. If you don’t get the initial steps exactly right, or loose your place while tracing the line through, it’s easy to get frustrated though.

Turk’s Head knots can also resemble a turban, but they won’t make your carpet fly…

Turk’s Head » Decorative

(Strength: 5/Secure: 4/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 4)

Uses:

• Decorative Knot for a seemingly endless number of uses
• An alternative to a girth hitch in certain situations

Tying Instructions:

1. Make a turn around the object you’re tying onto and cross the working end over the standing part
2. With the working end, make a second turn around the object to the right of the first
3. Thread the working end underneath your original turn around the object
4. *Here’s where it gets tricky*
5. You now want to now take your standing turns and cross them over each other while making a split in them
6. Your working end now goes across the left side and underneath the right side of the turns
7. Turn your knot so you can see the standing end hanging off to the right
8. Now run the working end parallel with the standing part
9. Tighten up your work and the standing end now becomes your working end
10. From this point forward, depending on the number of wraps you want, simply trace parallel to what’s now your standing part
11. The more complete traces you make around the knot, the more “leads” you’ll create.
12. The Turk’s Head shown is a 3 lead, 4 bight.
13. Please ask any questions you have, we know this can be a bit confusing to tie at first!

We’re trying a different angle of shooting for this week’s YouTube video, so be sure to let us know what you think about it in the comments. It’s is a bit more lengthy than the others, but we wanted to show what a simple mistake can do to the tying of this knot.

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!

We’re kicking off our 2010 Knot of the Week series today with the Lanyard Knot.

The Lanyard Knot, also known as a Diamond Knot, is an excellent decorative knot that can be used for a multitude of applications.

Primarily we like this knot for its ability to create a fixed loop in a single strand of rope. This comes in very handy when making a Solomon Bar keychain like we’ve demonstrated in the past.

It can also be used for key rings, knife lanyards and anything that needs some kind of a pull. In fact, sailors used this knot to hold a knife around their necks, which is why you may see this knot referred to as a knife lanyard knot.

Lanyard Knot » Bends

(Strength: 3/Secure: 3/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 4)

Uses:

• Decorative knot used for lanyards
• Can also be used to join two strands of rope

Tying Instructions:

1. Hold the rope in your hand using your pinky to stabilize
2. With the working end, form an underhand loop
3. The standing end becomes your new working end and wraps around the old working end and under the itself in the center of the loop.
4. As you’re bringing the last coil past the top, form a bight in the working part
5. Leave the knot loose and pull your pinky out from the knot, leaving a diamond pattern in the center of your knot
6. Thread the standing end counter clockwise through the underside of the created diamond pattern
7. Repeat this step for the working end as well
8. *Now both ends should have been fed though the underside of the diamond*
9. Grasp the working and standing ends and pull (you should still have a bight around your fingers)
10. Slide the knot off of your fingers and continue pulling on the bight and the ends to tighten
11. Clean up the knot by pulling individual strands as we demonstrated in our Monkey’s Fist video

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!

We continue our Knot of the Week with a decorative knot called the Snake Knot.

The Snake Knot is a common pattern in decorative knot work, and produces an almost round design.

We’ve constructed a Snake Knot Lanyard for this demonstration, with the intent to girth hitch it around something.

The method we used is just one way of attaching the lanyard. A lanyard knot, overhand knot or simply tying it on will work just as well.

Using paracord to make a keychain, bracelet or something else you carry daily, will ensure that you always have some readily available in an emergency.

If you remember back to our article on the Mini Survival Kit, we recommended that in addition to the kit, you also carry some paracord with you.

Snake Knot » Decorative

(Strength: 3/Secure: 3/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 3)

Please refer to our Knot of the Week introduction post for a description of what these ratings mean.

Uses:

• Decorative knot work
• Lanyards
• Keychains
• Carrying paracord for emergency purposes

Tying Instructions:

We tied this Snake Knot Lanyard using a 24″ tan length of paracord and a 24″ ACU length of paracord, which resulted in a 3″ lanyard pull.

1. Start with two 24″ pieces of Paracord
2. Ensure the ends are melted on one length, and only one is melted on the other
3. The side of the paracord length that hasn’t been melted now has it’s sheath pulled back
4. About 1/2″ of the inner seven strands is removed and the sheath pulled back down
5. Slightly heat up the frayed portion of the sheath to prevent further unraveling
6. Insert one side of the other length of paracord into the open ended sheath and melt to fuse
7. You should have wound up with a bicolor single strand of paracord
8. Using the joint of the paracord as a reference point, halve the paracord
9. *These next few steps can be tricky to read, so follow along with the photos too*
10. Make a loop with the right side, wrapping around the backside of the left, and over the top
11. With the left side, come inside the loop you just created (from the backside)
12. Around the back of the right side standing part, and again through the backside of the initial loop (see photo for clarification)
13. Tighten the knot
14. *The next few steps are a repeating pattern*
15. Loosen the right side, take the right most strand, and go around the back of the left strand and down into the loose part
16. Turn the knot over, loosen the right side, go around the back of the left most strand, and down into the loose part
17. Repeat steps 15-16 until the desired length is achieved
18. *At this point you can trim and burn the ends, or tie a stopper knot, such as a lanyard knot or overhand knot*
19. Cut off the ends of paracord leaving about 1/16 of an inch
20. Burn the ends and provide pressure while cooling to fuse the melted paracord into the surrounding paracord
21. Show it off to all your friends!

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!