How to make a paracord lanyard

In this tutorial I demonstrate how to make a paracord lanyard using the snake knot.

I realized that I did not feature a tutorial on an easy to make lanyard yet. The snake knot lanyard featured in this tutorial is one of the most common ways of making paracord lanyards. It did take me a bit of time to figure out how to make it in a clean way and this is the tutorial that is the result of that effort.

The lanyard can be made for wearing ID badges, keys, wallets and other items you want to keep on you without losing them. Neck lanyards require a bit of a larger loop than the wrist ones, but the principle is basically the same.

So, let’s get tying!

Supplies

To make this style of lanyard you will need the following:

snap hook or carabiner. I recommend using a smaller size.
paracord 550 in one or two colors
lighter, scissors

The paracord lanyard tutorial

The first thing we need to do is to join two pieces of cord (I highly recommend the Manny method). If you are making a single color lanyard, you may skip this step.

After that, we attach the cord to the snap hook by placing the ends through the hook and pull them through to about the spot where the cords are joined. We will now start to line up snake knots.

We start off by making a loop with the left cord and placing it over the two middle cords (as seen in the photos below). The right cord goes into the newly created loop and then behind the two cords in the middle and the left one. Finally it travels through the loop again. Tighten and you have your first snake knot. We are now going to flip the lanyard around, take the right cord again and pass it behind the three cords- two middle ones and the left one. Loosen up the first snake knot and insert the right cord through it. Tighten, flip and repeat.

When you reach a length you like and have also covered the bond where the cords join, you can cut the cords and melt, or use the lanyard knot to finish it up. You simply tie the lanyard knot and before tightening it, insert the loop part of the lanyard through the middle, then tighten up the lanyard knot.

See the images and video below for a clearer picture on making this style of lanyard.

The video tutorial: