Introduction: Paracord Wrapping a Knife Handle

By eagle eye forge
About: Hi, I'm stephen, I'm a certified welder, working on my machinists cert, and working part time at a hardware store. Mixing in all of that with my hobbies of blacksmithing and knifemaking, only makes for more f…

When I make a knife, I usually use micarta or wood for a handle, but sometimes I'll do a cord wrap.

When people think of a cord wrapped handle they usually think of a single color wrapped circularly around the handle, BORING!

  So I decided to come up with a good way of mixing two colors for a wrap, this is the second knife I've made with this method, the first one was black and glow in the dark paracord. I was sitting in front of the tv, a knife in one hand, and some glowing and some black paracord in the other, I started messing around, and this wrap is what I came up with.

Hope you like it.

Step 1: Supplies

You need:

ruler

paracord (2 colors)

lighter

multi-tool (or you can just get pliers, pointy pokey thing, and a knife for cutting cord)

Step 2: Cut and Gut.

Cut the paracord into the needed lengths, I used 4' of each color, just remember that it's easier to cut off extra cord than it is to add cord.

Go ahead and gut the cord also, make sure any melted ends are trimmed and pull out the inner strands.

Step 3: Readying for Wrapping

Ducttape the blade (I hate cutting myself while wrapping a knife).


Push an inch or so worth of cord through the starting hole. This is where we need to think this through. Whichever side you put the strands on, it will create a bump on that side, so I always put them on the inner grip side of the handle. The inner side of the grip is the side where you fingers wrap around, not your palm. It's more comfortable to hold it with the bump on the inner grip side, so I always put it there. 

Did that make sense? 



Okay, after you push the end of the cords through the starting hole, take a drop of superglue, and glue the ends of the cords down, this just helps keep them tidy and out of the way.  Just don't superglue your fingers together.

Step 4: The Wrap

You know the first knot you do when you tie your shoes? This is the knot we'll use.


Pull the cords around to the same side that the cord ends are on. Make sure the black goes under the orange, then pull it over the orange (just look at the pictures, I'm not really making sense here am I?).

Then you flip the knife over and do that knot on that side. Make sure you pull it tight. Then you just keep flipping and repeating.

Step 5: Entertainment

I like to watch a good tv show or something while doing wrapping. Just make sure your still paying attention to what your doing.

Step 6: Ending

When you get to the end hole, one cord will be right at the hole, one will be further away. In this case black was closest. Pull the closest cord through the hole right there, and pull the other one around and then through the hole. Tie a knot to end it, and do what you will with the rest. Typically I would end it by putting on a cool looking bead and knotting it again. But, I don't have anything good on hand, so I just trimmed them at about 1" long and left them there.  

Step 7: Resin Coating

Take the now wrapped knife, and tape off most of the blade and any areas you don't want resin on, you can typically pop the resin right off of bare steel, but might as well just tape it and save time.

Mix up a small amount of fiberglass resin, I used 1 oz, but 1/2 oz would have easily sufficed, I just couldn't measure that small in my mixing cup.

Use a cheap (I repeat, cheap) paint brush and carefully brush resin all over the cord. Let it soak in, and brush on more as needed. Then carefully clamp in vise to cure.


After a few minutes, remove knife and turn it over, that way any resin gathering at the formerly bottom end, will not cure into drops or bumps on the side facing down (did that make sense?).