Paracord has a nominal strength of about 550 lb. As such, many lanyards are a safety nightmare.

Assuming that my assumption that lanyard's primary purpose is to reduce the risk of loosing a tool (such as a knife) when using it, it SHOULD break-away when unusual forces are applied, say tool getting caught in machinery.

I prefer to use paracord as my lanyard for its multipurpose roles. My current solution to avoid getting killed is to tie the loop with thin string around the two ends. The string would be the point of failure.

Is there such a things a very WEAK bend or hitch such that it would fail prematurely? Most bends/hitches try to MAXIMIZE the reliability. My current favorite hitch is a constrictor, which pretty much needs to be cut off. My current favorite bend is the Zeppelin bend which is highly reliable.

My least favorite bend right now is the sheetbend and my least favorite hitch is the clove hitch. Both have failed on me in the past but unfortunately can not be relied upon to fail when my tool gets caught in something.

Thanks.
Conway Yee

There are a couple of ways you could use a small home made S hook to join the paracord...

1. tie an end to each side
2. capture a knot in each end of the S

Here's how the hooks were made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NoKutkIWvE&feature=player_embedded#!

I leave the ends loose and use a cordlock, so they can slip out under enough force.

I like glove hooks, two reversed like you would carabiners.

lots of places to get em. glove hook Here is one.

I use magnetic clasps. You'll want to glue them into the ends of the paracord.

I have heard of cutting the cord and inserting a short piece of shrink-to-fit tubing. Never tried it, though.

On the military and police style pistol lanyards a small split-ring like a key ring is used as the engineered failure point to break away if the item becomes entangled.

These rings are 1/4 to 1/8th inch in diameter and tend to have a small loop of 550 cord (about 4-5 inches long) tied between the item and split ring, then the split ring is attached to the lanyard.

I used to carry a Surefire Flashlight with wrist lanyard with no break away feature. I looped the lanyard around my thumb over the back of my hand and up the palm parallel to the flashlight body. The head of the flashlight stuck out the little finger side of my hand. If the flashlight ever got tangled I could open my grip and pull my hand free without the lanyard hanging up on my hand.

Hope this helps.
-joe

lighthound has black plastic breakaway connectors for use with paracord here.

Joe, just seeing if I understand what you're describing. It sounds like the split ring only keeps you safe if the item attached to the split ring is what gets pulled, not the lanyard itself. That is, does the main loop of the lanyard have a weak point in the arrangement you describe? It doesn't sound like it.

Edit: Re-reading it today, I realize that I was thinking of a loop you wear around your neck. But your example is more of a leash concept, I believe. So there's no loop that needs to give way.

Connect loops with an O-ring. Attach extra O-rings for ready replacement. This design works quite well, but improve it if you can and share!