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paulr said:
What's a "real lanyard", anyway?
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Probably something between the size of a round, braided lace for a dress shoe and any old piece of paracord.
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paulr said:
You don't want it to be too strong, since it could hurt you if it snags something. That's the point of those breakaway connectors, right?
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No. Not at all. I don't think it would hurt me. You can use systems which are difficult to inspect and evaluate if you like, but that will not be good enough for everyone, in all situations.
Most of the following is relevent to this discussion:
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Sub_Umbra said:
When using a wrist lanyard I also rarely slip the lanyard onto my wrist. For safety reasons it is nearly always better to grip the light with the doubled lanyard wrapped around the back of your hand and only actually looped around your thumb. The advantage of this method is that you can nearly always let go of it, instead of being sucked into a machine or left dangling from an overhead. Remember, if something has got hold of your lanyard/light it may have grabbed enough of it that you may no longer be able to slip your hand out. With practice you can train yourself to retain the lanyard with your thumb and the light will be quite secure.
EDIT 08.26.04: The same would be true of knives, ice axes, saps or anything else that you may feel is important to have the ability to get away from whenever you decide you need to. END EDIT.
While on this subject it should also be noted that in most environments if you are using any type of lanyard in any manner, you should probably have a knife on your person, ready for instant use.
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I should mention that my above comments do not include many new lights which seem to use the same way too thin lanyard, which is very much in fashion at this time. The issue with the too thin lanyards is not that they are not strong enough; it's that they are so thin that they may be too damaged to be effective before you even notice the damage. Even if noticed in time to fix, the user is severely limited in materials that may be used for repairs. There is something really creepy about the idea of having to fix the lanyard on an $80 light with a paperclip because nothing else will fit. Of course, that's only if you're lucky enough to have a paperclip. If you are 'in back of beyond' when these lanyards need fixing, (and they will) you will just be out of luck. No replacing these new lanyards with a piece of para-cord or a spare shoelace. These ultra thin lanyards so popular today would have automatically disqualified many otherwise fine lights for use when I was far more active and adventurous. These new lanyards also fall way short in that they are one size fits all and cannot be fitted to the user. They are lanyards in name only.
INOVA and TEKTITE, among others, have a very good understanding of what lanyards are all about, IMO.
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It depends on what your needs are. You may deny that others may have different needs than you but that does not make it true.