What makes a good 'break away' neck lanyard?

Since I will be now wearing my shiny new ARC AAA around my neck, I need something to hang it by.

I'm using 550 cord now, but I don't like how strong it is. If it got caught on something it could be bad. Someone has suggested beaded dog tag chain, but that's cold and fairly unfashionable. Any suggestions?

Also, this light is not as bright as I had expected, and the beam is very blue.

Do a google search on "breakawya lanyard". Here is one source lanyard factory

PS "breakaway lanyard" will probably work better.

One suggestion I saw is to use a piece of 550 and connect the two ends together with a piece of heat shrink tubing instead of tying a knot. The cord will pull out of the tubing if you yank it.

Lotsa lanyards out there. Safety IS an issue.

I settled on the beaded "dog-tag" chain. You can find it at Lowes, Home Depot, and hardware stores... in both steel and brass. I think they charge about .07 to .10 per lineal inch. Cheap, and it'll break away under pressure w/o strangling ya.

I wear mine under a shirt (with a Peak Matterhorn or Kilimanjaro) and only flip it out when needed, so the "fashion" issue isn't a concern. OTOH, I've found that the dog-tag beaded chain IS fashionable in certain circles, though I'm too old to give two hoots if my style offends teen-age ditz-babes or those who are adverse to anything looking/smelling "military" (such as effete metrosexual poodle-groomers and citizens of San Francisco).

The brass beaded chain looks a bit spiffier than steel, some say. The brass does tarnish and give you a slight "ring" around the back of your neck. Kinda charming.

You could always visit some Las Vegas pawn shops and get a deal on real 18 K gold chain/neckware hocked by desperate High Rollers, pimps, and bouncers. If you're into that "look," THAT would do your new Arc some justice!

Berkeley Point, a CPF advertiser, sell a variety of neat lanyard and chain retention items. See their website.

paulr said:

One suggestion I saw is to use a piece of 550 and connect the two ends together with a piece of heat shrink tubing instead of tying a knot. The cord will pull out of the tubing if you yank it.

Click to expand...

I have been using this setup on my photon for about 6 months now. I picked up this black string from Hobby store. Its pretty small in diameter and I like that, as I hardly know it's there.:thumbsup:

I used heatshrink and did a TEST run... separates at about 10lbs of pull.

I use the breakaway from a VisionTek USB drive. It's the ideal length and well built. You might try to see if VisionTek sells them seperate from the USB drive.

I never considered this before. I almost always use Paracord with a fairly gnarly knot.

The heatshrink thing looks more elegant and safer!

I've been lax, and only carrying my Lambda LUXIII minim*g. But either beaded chain or shrink connected Paracord is gonna keep my ARC AAA on me too! Because one is none and two is one!

one of the best lanyards I have found at any price came on infinity ultra G.

purchased several lights just for the lanyard. got a secure breakaway, yet will break if it really needs to.

real test is if you can EDC it 7x24 without irritation

BrightGuy sells a very nice lanyard for $4.25. Lanyard
They are well made, breakaway and have a very secure quick detach. A little heavy duty for the ARC, but then most of them will be.

My ARC-P is also very BLUE.

Mark

Or you can use a combo. Take a length of 550 cord and remove the inner lines from it, then put a slightly longer length of ball chain in it. Still breakaway, less likely to snag hair, may or may not be a lower-profile means of carry. Spyderco does this with their neck knives as well.

John at Lighthouns sells lanyard supplies, he got breakaway connectors that fit 550. I've made a few lanyards using stuff I bought from him, no breakaway though.

Zipper Pull Lanyard Closure $.75 ea at link above is what you want.

breakaway test should be, is lanyard secure enough to hold a Larry light?

Finding a good breakaway neck lanyard is quite a bit more complicated than most users imagine.

First of all, the 'weak link' part must be located on the lanyard in such a way that when gravity pulls the light into it's normal hanging position the weak part will be right at the center of the back of your neck or very close to it. Any so-called breakaway lanyard that has the weak link out near the light will be nearly worthless from a safety point of view. It's easy to see that if whatever sucks up your light grabs any slack in the lanyard before straining the weak link to the breaking point it may very well have a death grip on your lanyard way beyond any point that will break before causing death or serious injury to the user.

Many of the friction approaches (like heat shrink tubing, for example) are fatally flawed because they are inconsistent. One heat shrink joint may offer just the resistance you wanted while the other may be too lose. One or both of the joints may become too lose as time goes on since the joint is based only on friction. It should also be noted that in many circumstances, loss of your light because of a faulty breakaway link may be just as hazardous as the choking threat of a standard lanyard.

In my experience there are really only two viable approaches to this problem:

• The most straightforward and probably safest tack would be TonkinWarrior's advice -- that would be to make the entire lanyard out of a material that does not have the strength to do great injury in case of a mishap -- like bead chain. I think that general strategy is probably the safest and most fool-resistant.
  
• Under some very demanding conditions where abrasion and wear are a problem a weak link in a heavier lanyard may be all that will work. In that case a weak link of known strength must be attached in such a way that the joints will not lose much of their strength with time and use. In most cases sewing a weak link of known strength into a heavier lanyard will be very stable over the long haul. Remember that sewing or nearly any means of attaching the link will usually bring the breaking strength of the link below it's normal rating.

Breakaway lanyards should be periodically tested throughout their lives to assure that they are still able to hold your light so it will be there when you need it.

Of course, you can always tie your light to your belt and bypass the whole neck-carry worries.

SubUmbra's thoughtful analysis of the SAFETY issues with neck lanyards certainly merits our careful consideration.

After reflecting on his Breaking-Point and Friction issues, I now see why the military has long relied on beaded chain... instead of readily-available paracord type solutions to this problem. Whether one lives/maneuvers like a Navy SEAL/flies jets/crawls-about various machinery/woodsy vegetation/potentially-hostile human entanglements, or simply lives in a deceptively "safe" urban bubble, it's clear that neck lanyards CAN BE a serious hazard.

I just Googled "beaded chain" and got a raft of interesting hits. There's a huge world of beaded-chain selections out there, far more than I realized. Many colors, platings, and bead-sizes... and there are even some "stylish" variants for the aesthetically-sensitive.

Our collective penchant for small, EDC lights is actually pretty smart/tactical/practical behavior -- notwithstanding the smirks of our "Lumination Illiterate" critics. Accordingly I believe we need to dig into this not-so-simple issue a bit deeper.

Any volunteers to buy/test a batch of these beaded chain neck lanyard options?

One thing that bothers me about the beaded chain though, is that it's not silent. Good enough for the military I guess, but not a ninja.

Daravon said:

One thing that bothers me about the beaded chain though, is that it's not silent. Good enough for the military I guess, but not a ninja.

Click to expand...

If you run it through the gutted 550-cord as suggested above, it's plenty silent. That's how I wear mine and the privates never hear me sneak up on them...

If someone wanted to sew in a part to be a weak point, they sell stuff called "break cord" that has a designated breaking strength...used to be used in parachuting...some places still use it (but I don't jump there... )...

JM-99

I wear my ARC AAA with beaded dog tag chain, not a problem and looks really cool:rock: .

ARC AAA is amazingly bright compare to others AAAs, perhaps you have a faulty one?

I am now offering a break away option on my custom lanyards.

I just got the parts in, so I dont have any pics or info yet.
Hope to post it beginning of the week.

They are basically two cylinders that snap into each other.
And will pop apart if jerked apart.

~John

jtice said:

I am now offering a break away option on my custom lanyards.

I just got the parts in, so I dont have any pics or info yet.
Hope to post it beginning of the week.

They are basically two cylinders that snap into each other.
And will pop apart if jerked apart.

~John

Click to expand...

Like this one?


(From lighthound's webpage...no affiliation...)

JM-99