Introduction: Make a 4 Strand Round Braid Paracord Leash With Hand Loop and Decorative Diamond Knot

By Texas Airways
About: I am an Eagle Scout. I love Hunting, Fishing, Camping, Ropework, Chain Mail, Making things in general, and i love my family.

Hello! in this Instructable, I will be teaching you how to make a 4 Strand Round Braid Paracord dog leash with a loop and Decorative Diamond knot.

Step 1: Materials

Your materials for this trip are straight forward.

1) paracord color [s] and length of your choice. Make sure you have enough paracord for your particular needs.

2) Metal clip of your choice. I used a skydiving RSL (Reserve Static Line) Clip.

3) Knife

4) Lighter, I prefer a torch lighter.

5) *optional* permalok needle. since I had a pliar knife I didn't need the needle, but it would have made things easier.

Step 2: START TYING!!!

*IMPORTANT NOTICE*...if you are using an RSL clip, you'll want to remove the split ring and replace it with a Brad nail. see the picture of the RSL clip and you'll see that's what I did. the split ring is just too flimsy for a dog leash and gets caught in the paracord, making it easier for the bail to come loose.

1) Take your colors and loop them EVENLY through the Clip.

2) Take each set of strands and angle them as in picture #4

3) Loop the top standing end on the left around the back and then through the two strands on the right.

4) "sinch" up the four strands.

5) repeat the process of the two left strands on the right side.

6) Repeat steps 3-5.

Step 3: Continue Braiding

Continue braiding the rope as in the last step until you feel the leash is long enough, and to the point where you want to add the hand loop. Keep all the braids tight. when you get to the point where you want your loop's back splice to end, loosen up the braids. these loose braids will tighten up in the next step! Continue the tight braiding.

Step 4: Make the Loop

Now it's time to make the loop. By now you know how big the loop should be. I prefer to have my loop big enough that I can easily stick my hand through it and also quickly release it if I trip, BUT small enough that it isn't too loose so there's a better grip.

1) For the bend of the loop

2) Just as you see in the second picture you'll insert one of the sides as you see there. Since I'm left handed I preferred to hold the leash in the left hand and fish the right side working ends as you see in the picture.

3) Next, you need to switch hands and splice the left side working ends as shown in picture 3.

4) Now you'll just "back braid" or "back splice" till you feel there's enough back braid appropriate enough to support the pull of the size dog you may have. This is where the permalok needles come into play. I would have used permalok, but I lost mine and was stuck with a makeshift permalock in the form of my pliar knife...Oh! and needle nose pliar work very well too!

At this point you have two choices...cut the working ends and weld the tips, OR add a useful and Decorative stopper knot. That will be detailed in the next step.

Step 5: The Diamond...Knot

This step is a little tricky. it took me a few practice runs on a much smaller version of the leash to get right. at first I was tying a kind of "twisted turks head" then I figured out what I was doing wrong.

1) from the back braid, take the lowest two working ends and remove them from the back braid as shown In picture 1. in order to make the diamond knot stopper to work all the strands have to be at the same height.

2) You can start with any strand you wish the result will be the same. again I'm left handed so n I held the project in my left hand and worked with the right. take the first end and loop it under around and over the next strand. In my case it's the strand to the right.

3) keep repeating this process till yo have the final strand looped in as shown in picture 5. now tighten up the strands.

4) Now here's the hard part. start at any strand and loop it to the outside over and behind the strand of the same color as shown in pictures 6-9. now tighten the knot as best as possible and form it as well to keep it uniform in shape and appearence. the diamond knot was never designed to be used as a four strand stopper knot on a back braid with a core of rope through it. so you will fail a few times. no biggie, just try and try again.

5) I decided that one diamond knot wasn't enough, so I decided to add two more. Note pictures 11-12.

6) When you're satisfied with the product, cut the working ends flush as possible to the rope and then weld each tip to keep it from further fraying. This is where the torch lighter comes in. you can get a super flush weld without worrying too much about melting the mail rope and compromising the leashes integrity.

Step 6: Finishing Touch

In this final step, I just added a diamond knot on a bight to the RSL clip release. this makes it easier to grab and quick release the leash in a potentially dangerous situation where the leash just needs to go. I realized that I never took pictures of the process, so when I add an update to this instructable, I'll be sure to add the steps RIGHT HERE on this Finishing Touch step.

Step 7: TADAAAA!!

If everything has worked as planned, you now have a stylish dog leash that doubles as an emergency prep tool. I hope ya'll were able to successfully make this project, and if you do make one, please by all means share it with the rest of the IBLES world on this Ible, so others and myself may admire your work! Till my next Instructable, have a goodin!!