Lanyard holes in Knife Handles
Knives and lanyard holes, my thoughts
This is something I wanted to write about for a while. This won’t be a long-winded post.
For years knives in general as far as I know knives did not have lanyard holes. There are countless examples of blades in every fashion from bowie knives to hunting knives, kitchen blades, Trade knives, and so on, that didn’t have a lanyard hole in the handle.
I have often referred to the book. The Knife in Homespun America. By Madison Grant. This book is a great reference to early-style knives. As I type this I don't have the book in hand, but going off memory I believe some blades go back before the eighteenth century.
Might be one knife in the book that has a skeleton key in the buy end of the grip as a sort of lanyard hole. Often thought of making a knife similar to this one day.
Some of the most beautiful vintage blades such as the old butcher blades, Sheffield-style bowie knives had an arrangement of pins in the grip without a lanyard hole.
The lanyard hole in a knife can be useful, however, and is now used in many different knives. Most of the custom-order knives I make are picked with a lanyard hole.
Uses of a lanyard hole in your handle. Just some thoughts:
If a piece of leather, paracord, or similar type of cord is run through the lanyard hole this will help with pulling the knife from the sheath. I find this helpful with a lanyard.
Another thing I have found a lanyard hole useful for is if you place your knife and sheath in your front or back pocket, you can hang the leather outside your pocket to keep it from falling deeper into your pocket.
This is another thought on a piece of leather or cord through the lanyard hole. You can place the leather behind your belt if you wear one for extra security on long treks. You could also sort of tie off the leather behind a belt loop for the same effect.
This might be more obvious but if you want to hang your knife around camp or in the wild for a moment while you're doing something else.
A piece of leather or cord through the grip can also help with your grip at times by placing your pinky through the looped leather.
I guess it depends on what you like in a knife. I like both but a lot of times lean toward the non-lanyard hole as I love the vintage or classic look on a knife or in most things.