Tutorials: Cord Wrap Handles

Click on any of the thumbnails below for a more detailed photo

	A traditional and good looking handle treatment is the cord wrap. It's popularity with survival knives comes from the fact that it's easy to do and provides a superb, non-slip grip in all adverse environmental conditions. Cord wrap is a technique that can be adopted in a variety of ways to give you a wide range of attractive looks. Be creative: if you don't like the look, undo it and try it again.  To be honest, I still prefer the look of wood scales, but I guarantee that once you wrap your hand around a cord grip,  you'll never be satisfied with the feel of anything else.
		For this tutorial, I picked Darrel Ralph's new and absolutely gorgeous Delta 5 Chute Knife. The matching hardware that comes with this excellent kit was beautiful, too, and I hated to put it aside. The cord used is called paracord and yes, it's the same stuff they use on parachutes. I found a nice forest green paracord at an Army surplus store. Available in several colors and it's cheap.  Very durable stuff.
		The Delta 5 had a few extra holes meant for mounting the hardware, but they would be extraneous for this type of handle. I'm going to leave the large center pin ( these holes won't be seen under the cord wrap)  and thong holes , but am going to fill the 3/32" holes with some short lengths of peened nickel silver pins.
		The cord wrap is going to consist of two layers to build up a comfortable grip of appropriate thickness. Simply for purposes of illustration, I'm going to use two contrasting wraps, starting with a white first layer wrap for contrast so you can see the technique. In practice, you'll probably use a single color paracord for both layers.  Start wrapping, over a tail left down the side.
		Wrap tightly and tuck the last half inch under the last wrapped row to hold it tight. I used a drop of superglue and trimmed both tails flush. A quick flash with a cigarette lighter or match seals the ends of the cord.
		This is what it looks like after being trimmed. I probably should have told you to place some tape on the sharp edge during this wrap process. Did you notice the band aid? Yes, the purpose of these tutorials is to learn from my experience.
		Start  the second layer of wrap by looping the paracord through the back hole. This will anchor it securely.
		Wrap it around the other side and start the first twist. Flip it over again and repeat twisting the two cords around each other. Keep repeating. Pay special attention to make sure the twists are always the same and that the knots remain consistent.
		Get into a rhythm and keep flipping and twisting. Every once in a while squish the wrapping towards the back to keep in tight.
		When you get to the end, use a double hitch ( or your favorite choice of knot) and a drop of super glue to permanently fix the ends so they don't loosen.
		Done. Please keep in mind that this would obviously look better with a same color first layer that wouldn't accentuate the contrast between the layers. Keep the knots consistent! This was my third try and it could use some improvement but it's not bad and it's very easy to re-do.
		This is a technique that begs for experimentation. Here's an example to try: a basketweave wrap. Very nice.
		OK, now that you've seen my meager attempt at explaining how to cord wrap a handle, I found this nice video on YouTube explaining how it's really done. Part 1Click HERE , Part 2 (Basketweave) click HERE