Braided Lanyard Pictorial part one

[Schwert]

Here is Part One of my 18 step pictorial for making the Braided Lanyard discussed in this thread

http://www.ckdforums.com/showthread....threadid=11169

I refer all to David Morgan?s excellent ?Braiding Fine Leather? book for the basic skill needed to do this lanyard. See http://www.davidmorgan.com/proddetai...sequence=67775

Leather was hand cut 1/8? Kangaroo lace in tan and black from David Morgan. The design was to start with 4 strings of lace, 2 of each color, and make the lanyard in a continuous process. I wanted the lanyard to be about 8? long. I usually cut my lace about twice as long as the finished product with an additional allowance for fringe and working. For this lanyard I started with 4 string each about 24? long.

My design was to braid 4 plait in the middle of the 4 strings, thread this through the knife lanyard hole, then join the braids together. I would then braid 8 plait for a bit, tie a knot then separate the stings into 2-4plait strings again for the tails. I then terminated the tails with the same knot and trimmed the ends for a fringe.

I decided to use 2 color braid as I thought the pattern would look good against the streaked Buffalo Horn scales on the knife. I also thought pure black would get lost against the sheath and pure tan would not see right.

Step 1
First thing I do is stretch the lace and look for even widths. I then dress the strings with braiding soap. I use a mixture of Ivory bar soap and lard melted together with water. Because this was a two color project I let the soap dry on the stretched strings for a couple of hours before braiding. The black dye will and did bleed across, but less than if I braided wet.

Step 2
I organized the strings and started the 4 plait braid a few inches from the middle of the strings. I began with the black strings in the middle and the tan on the outside. Choosing a different pattern will result in a different final look. (sorry no picture)

Step 3
I threaded the round braid through the lanyard hole and then brought the two braids together. I put a half twist in one of the round braids to bring the grain side of the leather forward to match the other braid. You can see the under one, over one braid of round 4 plait. Notice I have tan on the inside of one braid and black on the inside of the other.



Step 4
For me this is the crux move. I need to neatly bring the 8 strings together. I then went straight into 8 plait 4 seam braid?under two, over two. I did this loose for a couple of rounds to make sure all was going to look OK then tightened up.



Step 5
I braided for an inch or so then went to single diamond braid?under one, over one, under one, over one. This was to bring the strings closer together for the terminal knot.

Here is my Bobble. Single Diamond braid is supposed to be done OVER one, under one etc. Picture shows my mistake. Mike this lets the evil spirit out. (Acutally braid can be done loads of ways but this is not what I wanted to do here).



Step 6
I grabbed the round braid with a clothes pin and organized the 8 strings, again being careful to have alternating colors.




Step 7
Now I begin the crown knot. Each string flops over its neighbor to make a crown.



Step 8
Each string in now on the outside of the knot and I now bring them to the center of the crown. Each string goes around its neighbor?s leg then into the middle. Here I have tucked the black string at about 9 o?clock and am bringing the tan string to the middle.



Step 9
Now all strings are in the middle.



Step 10
Start to tighten up the knot. Here it is real easy to screw up. I tighten each string in turn a little bit at a time to hopefully not get the knot skewed. I also needed to go back down the braid and do some minor sorting. I also try and bring the ends of the strings out of the center in a semi-organized way to make the next steps easier.



Step 11
Tighten



Next steps continue in Part two

[Schwert]

Part Two continues


Step 12
I now separated the 8 stings into 2 pairs and started 4 plait braid on one set. I decided to follow the same pattern as the beginning, but you can deviate here if desired. The spirals may be altered or you could bring out a tan braid and a black braid. Again to match the beginning I started the black stings in the middle.



Step 13
I now am going to use the same crown and wall knot termination as before, but it is clearer to illustrate with only 4 strings. Here is the crown on the end of the first set.



Step 14
Do the wall knot. Bring the strings from the outside of the knot around the neighbors leg to the center.



Step 15
Tighten this end up.



Step 16
Repeat for the other set of 4 strings. I made this leg shorter for ?beauty?.



Step 17
Roll the round braids, tighten up everything, and trim the fringes.



Step 18
Done.





Tools

[Chuck Burrows]

Randy this tutorial is outstanding. Muchas Gracias! It;s already been bookmarked.

Your talents are going to be much appreciated. Braiding is an area I have only delved into a bit, just enough to know how difficult yet rewarding it can be and your work is very nice.

Keep 'em coming.

Chuck

[Ansoknives]

Randy..This is VERY cool...thanks alot for posting.......I need to try this when I get some time.......I have allways liked the way the knots look!....

[MtMike]

Randy -- great work my friend !! Is it true you need LOTS of black coffee to get thru one of these projects?
Don't quit your day job -- YET !!
MtMike

[Schwert]

Chuck, Jens, Mike,

Thanks for all your comments. I appreciate your consideration to an amateur braider.

I had been wanting a digital camera for about a year, and it was fun putting this together. The braid for Mike just seemed like a good idea to document. I am glad you like it.

[MtMike]

Well everybody, Mr Postman just delivered Randy's package, and I've got to tell you as good as his pics are, they don't do his braidwork justice My wife has a much finer eye for art than I do, and she loves it. What's the perfect compliment? Requests for more, of course !! I just sent Randy a note asking when (if?) he wants to do a couple more, one for my Dozier K-1 and one for my J.N. Cooper (the knife hidden in my last sheath post).
Thanks my friend, hope my order doesn't get lost in your pile of other requests. I assume there will be others, because I can't believe it's as easy as the tutorial would have us believe.
Mike

[PrattBard]

a few days after you posted that I just HAD to go out and get some lace just to try out what I can do. I do have a book on Leather braid (NOT NEARLY as simple as your tutorial) and I tried a basic chain braid with two thongs. I LOVE IT. I attached it to my leatherman squirt. Going to try to do more soon too, though all I could find lace wise was Latigo lace. Better than nothing I guess. I'm currently working on a pouch that can be warn around the neck or attached to the belt. I'm considering doing a braided cord for it. We will see how that goes though LOL

Lara

[Schwert]

Looks like the site where I posted the photos is down. Hopefully this will return. If not I will try and find another host site soon. Sorry for the lack of images.

[whv]

ok - now that your host is back up, i can see what everyone has been raving about.
well done!
and i'll add my thanx, too.

[Schwert]

In a bit of shameless self-promotion and primarily as a great big thanks to Chuck I am replying to this old thread.

My images are now available again on this braiding tutorial.

Thanks,
Randy

[Chuck Burrows]

This was just too valuable a resource not to have working. Just glad I could help.

Chuck

[Crex]

Randy - You make it sound/look so easy (it's just a bunch of knots right!?!) Great tutorial, Well done! Hate to admit it but I've tied a few like that with my flyrod on a windy day.
And just wow, just a never ending resource around here.
Also - Thanks, Chuck for the extra efforts you always seem to put into helping the rest of us out here.
Carl Rx