Paracord guild Empowering the paracord community.
Today’s paracord project is an interesting dog leash.
The lazy man’s dog leash is not called such because it would be made or used by a lazy man. The “lazy man” part of the name refers to the way the leash is made. Instead of tying and braiding the leash using a single working strand at a time, we are using two. This is a way speeds up the making process and makes it simpler.
The concept behind this design originates from Bruce Grant’s Encyclopedia of rawhide and leather braiding. The book describes several techniques done in the style of two strands at a time, so the “lazy man’s” way.
The result is a dog leash with an unique look. It is fairly easy to tie and it stands out among other designs. Naturally, every design also comes with a specific number of challenges to overcome. In the case of the “Lazy man” style, the most important one is to keep your cords lined up one next to the other when using them.
With this said, let’s move on to the tutorial. This time, the tutorial is in video form and it is quite a quick one comparing to some of my other tutorials (still shows all you need to make it).
Supplies
The supplies for this leash are the same as with most dog leashes:
- paracord 550. We will need 4 strands. For a 4 foot leash I recommend 17 feet per strand. For a 2 color effect, use 2 strands of one color and 2 of the other color.
- snap hook or a carabiner used to attach the leash to a dog collar.
- scissors and lighter, a standard for working with paracord.
The tutorial
As mentioned earlier, the full tutorial is available below in video form. Still, a quick description of the making process:
I start by feeding my 4 strands through my snap hook and making sure the ends are of equal length. This results in 8 working ends.
I pair the ends up, getting 4 pairs of 2 strands. Then I tie a footrope knot, using 2 strands at a time (much like tying a 4 strand footrope knot).
After tying the footrope knot I then start braiding the leash. Again using 2 strands at a time I start a round braid. This results in a braid resembling the 4 strand round braid, but done with 8 strands (4 pairs of 2).
I braid until I have about a foot, maybe a foot and a half remaining in my working ends. Then I fold a part of my leash into a handle and splice in my 4 pairs of strands back into the braid.
Finally I tie either a footrope knot or a multi strand turk’s head knot to cover the splice.
Now, let me show you the whole process!
