Is there anything wrong with putting a compass on a lanyard around your neck while hiking?

Blake

i would say no,i carry a digital camera on a lanyard with the camera in my shirt pocket and never of had a problem.the hassle comes if you have more than one lanyard around you neck and they get tangled up or crossed over.at home on dog walks i have carried a water bottle on a shoulder strap,the camera and a small gear bag with the lunch and odds and ends,the dog walks are more like hikes,and its a struggle getting one or the other off.
if it's just one item you may want to be a Safety Sam and use a break-away lanyard like hospital workers use to carry their ID's.

I had not thought of the safety breakaway. Wonder how I'd do that.

Great suggestion,

Blake

You can buy a lanyard with a break-away, most companies only buy this type now (health and safety).

I purchased some online a while ago, if you do a search for something like "Lanyard Safety Breakaway Connectors for Paracord" you should find something, as well as ideas for custom made options.

If you have a flat ribbon type of lanyard, cut the lanyard and then stitch the break back together with thread. It will be strong, but not strong enough to strangle you.

If you have a paracord necklace, you can use the stitching method or use heat shrink tubing to connect the two pieces since both the heat shrink and the paracord are round.

I've done the stitch method and it worked well - breaking strength was somewhere 50lbs. I've never tried the heat shrink tubing method, but I've read about this method being successful for others. If you try the heat shrink, let us know how it goes, I'd really like to hear more about it.

Why bother? In the hilly/mountainous country where I spend most of my time, I actually refer to my compass about once a decade or so - terrain reference is all you really need with decent topo maps.

On the water it is a different story, but I want the compass mounted on the foredeck of my kayak or in the binnacle of whatever I might be steering.

I tie my compass lanyard to my pack.

Issue with breakaway is that you might not notice when it happens while bushwhacking.

My compass lanyard is looped through my shirt pocket button hole, or attached to my pocket some other way, depending on the shirt. it stays in my pocket until I need it, and if my cold wet hands lose their grip, it is not lost. I hate things hanging around my neck. Just a personal preference thing.

My compass rides in a small pouch (old 1st Aid Pouch) on my belt. The cord is looped over the belt, between belt loops. The only way to lose it is to lose my pants.

Lots of people are hung up with the fear of getting hung by their own necklace. I'm not one of them. Here's my setup which includes a compass and pace counters. For centuries people have work things around their necks without breakaways. besides maybe factory folks, I'm not aware of any epidemic of hangings.