The problem of making a break-away lanyard (to prevent accidental strangulation) has been discussed here before and several good solutions were brought up, but here’s a solution that can be made out of any piece of cord with no additional materials required. This would be handy if you suddenly needed a lanyard in the field and had limited supplies. All that is needed is a piece of paracord or a shoe lace, etc.<br><br>The trick is to tie the two ends of the cord together using a break-away knot. All the knots I learned in Boy Scouts hold tighter under increased tension, but I realized that it is pretty easy to tie a knot that holds well under light tension, but suddenly gives way under heavy tension. This may be a well-known knot, but I’ve never seen it before so I don’t know the name of it. I’ll just call it the “break-away knot.” I wish I could post a picture or diagram of this knot, but it is pretty simple, so maybe a description will do.<br><br>First, this knot is a variation on the double fisherman’s knot, so an understanding of that knot will be helpful. Here is a diagram of the double fisherman’s:<br><br>(NOTE: this diagram is not the break-away knot!)<br><br><br>Note that the above knot joins two ropes (or two ends of the same rope) using a pair of double overhand knots to tie each end around the other end. The variation that allows it to break away is that with one end of the rope, you don’t tie a knot at all-- you simply make a bight (bend the rope back onto itself). With the other end of the rope, tie the double overhand knot around the bight. That’s it.<br><br>Once tied, test your knot's strength to be sure it will break away to your satisfaction. The type of cord and variations in tying can alter it's performance. Use at your own risk.

A tiller's hitch makes a great "break- away" knot if used appropriately.

A tiller's hitch like this:<br> <br>is basically a sheet bend with a quick-release tail. It requires a deliberate action to release (a tug on the "tail"). The knot I described should release automatically. Although, if you tied the tiller's hitch backward, putting the load on the tail, it would work the same way as the knot I described (good call).<br><br>By the way, the above diagram is a good example of tying a knot around a bight, the bight being the black rope. That might be helpful in interpreting my earlier description.

I have used this "half" double fisherman knot as a breakaway lanyard knot also. I have found it slips best using stiff solid core line like a round shoelace better than it slips using Paracord. It seems like the looser Paracord jacket sometimes binds.<br><br>Another knot that I have used as a breakaway is the hangman's noose. Sounds like a bad idea, but you wear it so that the sliding part of the cord is short and free to pull out of the loops.<br><br>This diagram is from Chris Reeve's site.<br><br>You place the item you want to carry in the top loop static bight in picture 1 (right hand side).<br><br>Then start the coil around a big loop with a circumfrence you want to hang around your neck.<br><br>Adjust the coil tension so that the free end has the correct tension to retain the item but still slide freely out of the nest of coils. Make this sliding end as short as possible so it will slip out of the coils not tighten the loop. Try it, and adjust to suit, also use at your own risk.<br><br>

I find that the small, spring loaded keepers used to keep draw strings snugged up work very well as a break away on a lanyard.