Paracord Keychain

To make a stylish two-color Paracord Keychain we need to fuse two lengths together.  Fusing paracord together can be done in many ways; here is one approach that will conceal the join as best as possible.  You will need 2 ½ feet each of two Paracord Colors, a split ring, sharp knife or sharp scissors, crazy glue, and a jig with two carabineers to hold the strands taught, while your hands and fingers work freely to weave the paracord.

With the red length of paracord make a 45-degree cut on one end with a sharp knife or sharp scissors.  Then hold and twist this newly cut end above a flame from a lighter as evenly as possible to uniformly melt the end tip. While melted and very hot work quickly to fashion it into a small point using your moistened fingers or with gloves. Melted nylon is very hot and very sticky so be careful to not burn your skin.  Two or more colored strands will make a great looking paracord keychain.

With the black strand of paracord carefully pull out the interior white strands within the sheath about two inches, cut and dispose of these interior white strands. Lightly run your fingers up the paracord and past this end and retreating inner strands leaving a portion of “hollow” paracord.  Now slip the pointed red end into the hollow and push in as far as possible.  With the flame again lightly melt away the frays, gently and quickly roll in your fingertips a bit and then carefully add one to drops of crazy glue to the join. It will soak in quickly but pause to let the glue dry and you should be good to go.  Again melted paracord is burning hot and sticky, be very careful to not burn your skin.

With one “top” end of a jig holding a carabineer and a split type key ring and the bottom end of the jig holding in place a carabineer you are set to begin the weave for your paracord keychain.  Pull the black cord up through the bottom carabineer until you get to the middle and have the red cord underneath the black.

Now pull the two cords together and taught, up and over into the split key ring and then back down and under and through the bottom carabineer and repeat, but stopping after going through the top split key ring for the second time. Keep the paracords straight and the red cord will naturally weight to the left, don’t let them tangle all up..

To put the red in the middle of the keychain, hold the taught paracords at the ring with your right thumb and middle finger. Grasp the red paracord on the left and bring it over the taught paracords leaving a little backward “red P” shape on the left side of the ring and then bringing it to the right and letting it go on the right side.  Bring the black cord over the red cord on then to the right and thenunder the taught paracords and from under and up through the “red P” loop.  Now you should have a loose red paracord strand on the right and a loose black paracord strand on the left.

Working from the ring, kind of flatten the loops while pulling the loose strand to tighten the “knot”.  This first “weave” is the hardest and it will get easier.  Just don’t tighten this first weave to tight because it will create a twist in your keychain braid.

Next, make a “red P” loop on the right and drag the red paracord over the taught cords and to the left.  Bring the black paracord on the left (next to the ring) up and over the top of the red cord leftover on the leftside and then under the taught cords, bringing it to the right and then from under, up through the “red P” on the right of the ring and snug the weave together.

Now repeat by making a “red P” on the left and drag the red paracord over the taught cords and to the right.  Bring the black cord on the right (next to the ring) up and over the red cord leftover on the rightside, then back and under the taught cords bringing it to the left and then from under, up through the “red P” on the left of the ring and snug the weave together.

Keep alternating the above two steps to make the weave reach the carabineer at the bottom end of the rig.  Be sure to gently but firmly push the weave up a little towards the ring after each weave to keep it looking nice and even. Then just cut and burn the ends and you are done.

By using two colors fused together you have visually taught yourself one way to weave paracord.  Best of luck, take your time.  You will get the hang of it and quickly your fingers will want to help out, and make the whole process easier as you get used to it!

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