The Redneck Collection: Paracord Improved Camping Supplies

This is more of a showcase of what I made this week for a camping trip I'll be going on, than a step by step on how to make all these things. Most of these projects have their own instructable and I'll link to them and show the minor variations I made to them to sort of add my own flare.

Step 1: The Lanyard

I'm proud of this project most of all because, to my knowledge, there isn't anything out there for this. This took some time to get right, but once I got it right, it looked damn good. The swivel hook was from Home Depot, and the beads were from Michael's, but you can make paracord beads by doing a little turk's head around a strand of paracord, but they are a little bulkier. The beads are threaded on gutted paracord which is more or less an add on to the lanyard. If you wanted you could make the tail longer and the loop smaller to make a dog leash or something. If there's interest in this I would be willing to make an instructable on this separately.

Step 2: The Zippo

This was originally derived from Stormdrane's EDC Paracord Pouch, which I don't think he made an instructable for, but I found another instructible that's basically the same thing as I made. Stormdrane does a beautiful job with his pouch, and mine doesn't even do his justice, but I'm happy with it. The button was just in a sewing kit at my house, most likely from some old, old garment that's been gone for years. It originally had 4 small holes, which I filed down with a small drill bit to make two wide slots. This one was very time consuming.

Step 3: The Koozie

I had been working on this for a while, and found it here. craftydan says to not use your last beer to make this, but honestly, I think this can is well over a year old. I don't think they even make punch top cans anymore (it was a gimmick anyway). It looks like he was able to push that bottom through all the way, but when I was finishing up mine, it was too stiff to do that. Also mine looks nowhere near as good as his. I suggest following his instructions, because I clearly did a sloppy job. That's not to say I don't like what I've done, but it could be better. Maybe the next one will turn out right.

Step 4: The Bic

This one is just turk's head 2 bight, 11 leads, and doubled. If you don't know how to make a turk's head, it's pretty simple and there is a TON of info on it. I made it loose and started out on the end of a pool cue, before moving to the lighter. I put both of the standing ends through the inside and tied it off with a diamond knot which is described in Tying It All Together's (TIAT) youtube tutorials and book, "Paracord Fusion Ties, Volume 1". That book has helped me a lot, and I bought it on kindle for less that $10, I think it was something like $5 at the time on kindle. I downloaded the Kindle app on my phone and have been using it from there. I really like this lighter because it has a can P-38 can opener, which you can buy for super cheap on Amazon, and it has a bottle opener. On the bottle opener side, the knot I used was from TIAT's book called the Ringbolt Hitch Viceroy, which is also on youtube in that hyperlink. On the can opener side I just tied a series of half hitches together.

Step 5: The Germ Grenade

The germ grenade is a rather popular paracord project and very easy to do. I tied it loose and then wove the ends up behind the wrapping, between the bottle and the wrap. After the ends were tucked, I tightened the wrap and snipped the ends, and then melted them. It looks more complex than it is, and after you do the first and second layer, you won't even have to look at the paracord to get a good looking grenade.

Step 6: That's It

Thanks for checking my crap out, back in November I made some paracord watches that I made for Christmas gifts, if this gets enough attention, I'll post some of those for everyone to see.