Yeah, I meant to spell it that way.

Normally when I'm out and about I EDC my mini-Rittergrip clipped ot my front pocket and have had no problems with the knife accidently coming loose, but ...

When out camping, such as with my son's scout troop, I tend to attach a short 3' paracord lanyard from by belt to my fullsize Rittergrip. I do the same with my son's Kabar spearpoint folder too. I simply run a 3' piece of paracord through the lanyard hole, tie an overhand knot in the knife end, and then a bowline knot large enough to thread the knife through on the other end, and then loop it around my belt or belt loop.

Last August my son & I spent two weeks at summer camp, and we used my favorite CountyComm orange paracord as a lanyard, and this worked very well. I'm fairly convinced that my 11 year old's knife would have been lost sometime during the two weeks had it not been on a lanyard.

Last weekend, I grabbed some red paracord that I'd purchased from an online Army surplus store a few years ago, and wow, what a difference. The red paracord simply would not hold a knot for very long. The bowline kept untying on its own! I'd never seen that before.

The moral of this story is that clearly not all paracords hold knots the same. The cheaper stuff is stiff, kind of lumpy, and simply does not hold a knot well. On the other hand, the CountyComm paracord is much more pliable and holds a knot very well (through 2 weeks of daily wear).

Lesson learned!

Ken K.

"...tie an overhand knot in the knife end..."

Doesn't seem that just an overhand knot alone would be very effective.

I have always had trouble getting paracord of any color to hold a knot. But I always have some of the stuff around...

The overhand knot is just to keep the cord from pulling back through the hole. It worked - even in the cheap stuff.

In the past I've used paracord for all sorts of things including tent guylines (works very well), clothes lines (a bit too stretchie over long lengths), tying gear to backpacks, and, as mentioned, knife lanyards. The cheap paracord lanyard was the first time I've seen well-tied knots fall apart.

Wow, I've had just the opposite experience. Unless I slip the knot, my paracord knots are just shy of untieable. All paracord I've bought in recent years is the real-deal 550 stuff, but I do have some older cheap stuff from years ago before I knew the difference between imitation and 550. But I don't remember the cheap stuff having problems holding knots though.

Standard bowlines, though popular and well known, are not the most secure of loops. A finishing overhand in the running end is recommended for added security. Or use a double, water, or Eskimo bowline instead (if you want something in the bowline family).