*Security Lanyard*
By: Pyrotech
28 April 2011

I was looking for a way to secure valuables while traveling. Light weight, strength, and cut resistance where all traits I was looking for.

I decided to make a security lanyard. The lanyard was made with 1/16” wire rope covered by Para cord to hide the steel cable. I started with a 4 foot length of 1/16” steel cable from Home Depot. It has a breaking strength of 120 lbs. The gutted Para cord is cut shorter to allow for the eye splices.

Wrapping the cut end of the cable makes sliding the Para cord over a lot easier. Leave a small tail past the cable end and crimp it shut to form a stop, otherwise you may find that the tape will slide over the cable with the Para cord sheath. It also prevents a wire splinter from snagging on the sheath or your fingers. The sheath slides fairly easily, but if you get hung up you may need to work the sheath like a Chinese finger trap to create some room.

The sheath only covers the middle of the lanyard. The eye splice gets a separate piece of sheath. Before sliding the shorter section for the splice, make sure you slide the crimp fitting and the heat shrink tubing on first.

After sliding the sheath for the eye splice over the cable, you will want to use a small piece of tape to wrap the cut edge of the Para cord. This makes sliding the heat shrink tubing in place a lot easier. For this portion, I used 1/4” heat shrink tubing. Try to keep the tape neat and wrinkle free, this will become a permanent part of the assembly under the heat shrink tubing. Shrink one end down, then pull the sheath taut and shrink the second end down. Leave enough cable exposed to go through the crimp fitting plus 1/4"

The first eye is nearly finished. You can see where both ends of the Para cord are covered in heat shrink, the fitting is crimped and the main sheath is pushed up to the crimp fitting. IF you have not already, slide the 3/16” heat shrink over the main cable and thread it on from the still open end.

I covered the end of the main sheath, the crimp fitting and a portion of the heat shrink on the eye splice.

The finished eye splice.

Here's the finished product...

The most expensive part of this would be buying the swage tool for the fittings. The cost for the swaging tool was under $25.00. The cable ran 26 cents per foot and the crimp fitting ran $1.25. I already had the Para cord and heat shrink.
Pyrotech

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