I enjoy hiking and being in nature but I hate having to cram my pockets full of the things that I like to have easy access to while out on the trails. I created this simple system for quickly attaching and releasing my favortie tools onto my belt using paracord. Check out the following steps to learn how to make a paracord hiking belt of your own.

Step 1: What You're Going to Need

Materials and Tools

-Leather Belt
-Ruler
-Knife or Scissors
-3/4" Wooden Beads
-About 10' of Paracord
-Leather Hole Punch
-Two Cord Toggle
-Lighter

Step 2: Making the Belt - Marking and Making the Holes

Starting on the side of the belt with the holes for buckling the belt, mark sets of holes that are about 1" to 1.5" apart, (I alternated the sets of holes I punched doing one set 1" apart and the next 1'5" apart and so on and so forth, but you could just space each set an equal distance.) Continue marking and punch holes until you have an odd number of hole sets as shown in the picture, ( I marked and punched 9 sets of holes but if you want to carry more things you can punch extra sets of holes.)

Step 3: Making the Belt - Weaving the Paracord

Once you've marked and punched the holes the next step is to weave the paracord through the holes. Start weaving on the back of the belt and continue weaving as shown in the picture until you have woven the paracord through all the holes that you punched.

The ammount of paracord that you will need will depend on the number of holes you punched and on how far apart you decided to place the holes.

Step 4: Making the Belt - Adding the Toggle and Finishing the Ends

After you've finished weaving the parcord through the belt secure the loose ends using your double cord toggle on the front side of the belt as shown in the picture. At this point you can also seal the ends of the paracord using a lighter to keep them from fraying.

Step 5: Making the Tool Lanyard - Cutting the Paracord

Start by measuring roughly 15" of paracord.

Step 6: Making the Tool Lanyard - Adding the Wooden Beads

Lace a 3/4" wooden bead onto one end of the 15" length of paracord and use overhand knots on either side of the bead to hold it in place.

Step 7: Making the Tool Lanyard - Tying the Loop

Next, tie a loop onto the end of the paracord opposite the end the wooden bead was tied onto as shown in the picture. Continue this process until you have made enough tool lanyards to suit your needs.

Step 8: How to Attach the Lanyards to Your Tools

To Attach tool lanyards to your tools:

1. Start by passing the loop end of the tool lanyard through the lanyard loops on your tool (in this case a Leatherman Wave Multi- tool).
2. Next, pass the end of the tool lanyard with the wooden bead through the loop end of the lanyard.
3. Lastly, pull the wooden bead end tight to fix the tool lanyard in place.

Step 9: Attaching the Tool Lanyards to the Belt

To attach the tool lanyard to the hiking belt start by releasing the double toggle. Next pull some slack into the loops where you want to attach the tool lanyard creating loops as shown in the picture. Lastly, pass the bead end of the tool lanyard through the loops and pull the slack out of the paracord laced through the belt to lock your tool in place. Once all of that is done, you can retighten the toggle to make sure everything stays fixed in place so that nothing gets lost while you're hiking.