MacLanyard

The fine folks over at Gemtech have a pretty nifty pistol retention lanyard. I think Kel is a swell guy, but buying one of their lanyards would deprive me of the fun of making it myself.

About 6 years ago I worked framing houses, for thankfully only a short while. Holy hell did that job suck! Once while up in the roof trusses I had my Leatherman slip out of my hand and clatter down to the ground below. I then had to make my way back to where the ladder was, climb down, get it, climb back up, clamber back through the trusses. Leatherman was fine though.

I went home that night, rummaged through a box of old Macintosh parts, and found a couple of their old style keyboard cables. While admittedly they were about twice as long as what I wanted, I nonetheless fashioned my own ghetto retention lanyard. Utilizing nothing more than 200MPH tape, shrink tubing, a lobster clip and a duty belt keeper I had kicking around. For the duration of my stint working the shittiest job I’ve ever had, I didn’t have to worry about tools falling to the ground, either inconveniencing me or potentially hurting someone down below.

Continued to use it for about two years, but gave up on it after a while. It just presents its own problems because it catches on thing. One of the nice things abot the fancy Gemtech lanyard is that it has a breakaway. Mine doesn’t. I do however still use it canoeing. Attached to my camera that is housed on the front of my map case, I don’t have to worry that it will slip out of my hands into the water. And as a testament to how absurdly strong 200MPH tape is, it’s held up all this time. Never had to replace it.