DIY Para Cord Key Fob

After my last attempt creating something with parachute cord, I decided to try making a key fob using a snake knot and two different colors of para cord.

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My current fob was just a piece of cord tied together, nothing really fancy.

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End cuts of black and white para cord were lying around so they would be the materials of choice. The first, and what turned out to be the hardest, part of the project was joining the two pieces.

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Here I am heating and melting the end of the white cord.

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Then quickly heating the black. If we weren’t trying to take pictures doing both at the same time would make this much easier.

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Then stick the two melted ends together (while they are still melted) and push them together. You can wet your fingers and squeeze the joint to get it a bit smaller but be careful, the molten material will be hot! Now that the hardest part of the project has been completed, we can start making snake knots.

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Put the cord through the slot on the key.

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Notice how the black cord is on the left. When you start each knot, the cords will be in the same locations, black on left, white on right. Take the black cord and go over and around the white cord, then back under the black.

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Now take the white cord and go under the black, then over and through the hole created by the black cord. Tighten everything up and one knot has been completed.

One thing I learned is to keep the tension on the knots as you tighten them consistent. That will keep everything looking nice and even when you finish.

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Keep up the same routine. Black cord: over then under. White cord: under then over.

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Quickly you will see your fob taking shape. This is really a simple knot and using two colors of para cord makes it even easier.

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I just used my hot knife to seal the ends of the cord so everything would not come undone.

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Which gave me a key fob that looks like this. You can see that I was not really great at keeping the tension on the knots consistent, next time I will do a better job.

DIY Para Cord Camera Strap

I wanted a wrist strap for my camera and in looking around the internet I found that it would be easy to make one out of parachute cord. The only problem was the best description I could find was a video produced by a German photographer, Bo Ismono (link to his video) and I found that I was always having to start and stop it to figure out what to do. Also missing were lengths so I had to make a couple before getting it right.

My version of this strap used 12 feet of parachute cord and a 1″ split ring. I decided to forgo a carabiner to keep the assembly simpler and quietier. The cobra knot is what we will be tying.

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First you need to find the center point of the para cord.

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Then measure about 14″ from the center point

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Like Bo, I secured the center of the cord to something I could pull on to make it easier to tighten up the knots.

The first pair of knots are the hardest. Below is the first of the pair-

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Now the second of the pair-

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Once you have figured out how to tie a pair of these knots you are on your way to quickly finish up the project. Below you can see how I am progressing-

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Now all I need to do is cut the extra cord and melt it so it won’t unravel.

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Here is a melted end-

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All that needs to be done now is attach it to the camera and go take pictures!