Paracord Lanyard Instructions
For Complete Beginners

An intricately woven paracord lanyard to hold your keys or pocketknife. The "king cobra" design looks cool, and you'll always have 12 feet of super-strong paracord handy.

There are loads of ways of braiding lanyards. My favorite, the one I'll show you how to do on this page, is an elegant design created by Stormdrane. He already has a nice tutorial on his blog, but I thought I'd make my own tutorial targeted at complete beginners. So on this page I'll document how I followed his design, and talk about one or two minor changes I made.

Paracord Lanyard Materials

You will need:

• 13 feet (approx 4m) of 550 paracord*
• Metal clip - from key-cutter shop
• Ruler or tape-measure
• Rubber band
• Scissors
• Lighter

*Stormdrane's original instructions recommended 10 feet, but I'm sure I used at least 11 or 12. I recommend starting with 13 feet, because it's really annoying if you run out of cord right near the end after all that weaving.

550 paracord is about 4mm (somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4") in diameter. It feels a bit like a nylon shoelace. You can buy it at army surplus stores, camping and outdoor stores, or ebay.

On eBay, I've seen paracord selling at $8 per 100 feet. That's pretty cheap - about $1 per lanyard! If you live in the USA, it might be worth scanning the listings below to see if you can spot a bargain. Clicking on a link will show you more information about the auction at eBay.

I've tried using other, slightly thicker cords, but they produced rather chunky lanyards. I'd stick with the 550 paracord if you can find it.

Got your materials? Great! Time to learn how to make a paracord lanyard with them...

Paracord Lanyard Instructions

Step 1 - Mark the Center of the Paracord

Fold the paracord in half. Mark the center by tying the rubber band around it like this:

Of course, you could just as well use a piece of string/wire/chewing gum/whatever you like to mark the center instead. But I happened to have a rubber band nearby so that's what I used.

Step 2 - Tie a Lanyard Knot

What's a lanyard knot? It's this decorative, round-ish knot:

How do you tie it? Just follow my easy step-by-step lanyard knot video. I promise it's not that hard. But if the lanyard knot looks too intimidating, you can always just do a simple overhand knot instead like this:

Whichever knot you choose, you'll probably need to adjust its position a bit once you've tied it. Make it so that the loop on the end is about 2" (5cm) long. Also, you want the center of the paracord (marked by the rubber band) to be right on the end of the loop.

Once you've got the loop sized & positioned correctly, you can get rid of the rubber band.

Step 3 - Measure Lanyard Length

Poke the two loose ends of paracord through the loop on the metal clip. Pull them through until the distance between the lanyard knot and the metal clip is 5" (about 12.5cm).

Optional: If the metal loop is quite wide, you can poke the loose ends through the metal loop a second time, like this:

Step 3 - Cobra Stitch

What's a cobra stitch and how do you tie one? It's sort of like a "granny knot". You can learn how to tie it on my cobra stitch page. Don't worry, it's easy!

Use the two loose ends to tie 11 cobra stitches down toward the lanyard knot. You will end up with 11 little "bumps" on each side, like this:

Step 4 - King Cobra Stitch

Double back and do another set of cobra stitches on top of the set you just made. This is called the "king cobra stitch". You can watch my king cobra video instructions for more detail. This is what the king cobra stitch looks like:

Continue all the way back up to the metal clip. (In this pic I'm using a mini carabiner as a clip.)

Step 5 - Tidy Up Loose Ends

It's time to snip off the loose ends from the king cobra stitch. Pick one loose end to start with. Cut it short, to leave about 1/4" (5 mm) poking out of the bracelet.

Melt this end with a lighter, and press on the molten end with a wet finger. This stops it fraying. Also, by pressing on the end, you squash it into a sort of mushroom shape (like the head of a nail), which stops it working loose. Just be careful not to burn your fingers!

Repeat for the other loose end.

Here's a picture of one of the molten ends to show you what I mean:

Well done! Your paracord lanyard is finished.

Using the Paracord Lanyard

Option 1 (left): Metal clip onto a belt loop, and other end holds keys.
Option 2 (right): Belt goes through loop, metal clip holds keys.

Maybe this is kind of obvious, but just for completeness, here is how you get your keyring onto the loop end of the lanyard: Slide keyring onto loop at end of lanyard. Poke other end of lanyard through loop. Easy!

Variation: Two-Color Paracord Lanyard

You can do the king cobra stitch in a different color to the underlying cobra stitch. Here's a close-up of one I wove in green and black:

To make one like this, start off with 7 feet of green paracord and 7 feet of black (or choose your own colors). Using the black paracord, follow the instructions up the end of step 3, and cut and melt the loose ends as in step 5. Then, using the green paracord, do a layer of king-cobra stitches on top, as in step 4, then cut and melt the ends of the green paracord.

Not sure how to start off the king-cobra stiches with the green cord? It's just the same as how you start the cobra-stitch in step 3 of the paracord bracelet project.

What Next?

How did you go making your paracord lanyard? You might also like to have a go at making a paracord bracelet.

If you have any comments or suggestions on my instructions, or just want to say hi, then please contact me with this handy form.

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Happy Gifting!

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