How-To: Raptor Leashes

How-To: Raptor Leashes

Materials:

  • Heavy duty sewing needles
  • Size #8 Sampo Swivel
  • Trigger Clasp
  • 50# dacron thread / string / fishing line
  • Colored Silk thread, or other wrapping material.
  • 100# parachute cord (colored or white)

Steps:

  1. Measure your leash from the paracord to the length that you are comfortable with. There is no set length, it is definitely a personal preference. I suggest a 24″ length for a gauntlet leash, and 6’ft. leash for a tether or perch leash.
  2. Peel off about 2′-3′ feet of dacron thread from the spool and thread your needle. Make a nice knot in the end of the dacron. Loop the paracord through the “neck” end of the the Sampo Swivel. This is a key step. You want to have the swiveling neck end pointed down (when suspended) so that it doesn’t collect dirt and debris. The “barrel” end of the Sampo Swivel will be connected to the Jesses, or to a clip to the jesses.
  3. Start sewing the dacron as pictured below. Make several passes and then sew back to the original knot. Tie it off and pull the dacron tight.
  4. Follow the same steps for sewing the trigger clasp to the other end of the leash. This is the clip end that will connect to the D-Ring on your gauntlet or on the perch.
  5. Now that you have secured the paracord to the swivel and the clasp, you should wrap the sewn paracord with a silk wrap or something else that looks nice and produces a finished look.
  6. The finished wrapping.
  7. Once you have your leash, you can now attach to jesses, and/or clips as you prefer. A swivel to clip to jess configurationon the left and a clip to swivel to jess configuration on the right (picture below).

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How-To: Make a Braided Raptor Leash

Materials:

Swivel
2-4 lengths of Dacron or Nylon cord

Instructions:

These instructions will show you how to braid a four-strand raptor leash out of Dacron or Nylon cord.

[picture borrowed from Apprentice Falconry]

Step 1: Align your cords on the Swivel, interlocking the cord strands over one another, and the swivel. Pull two strands in a 90-degree angle away from the other two strands. Cord strands are now numbered 1 through 4, starting left to right.

Step 2: Take cord 4, and pass it behind strands 3 and 2, wrap around back to your right hand.  Strand 4 is now strand 3, and strand 3 is now 4.

Step 3: Take cord 1, and pass it to the right, behind strands 2 and 3. Wrap it around and over strand 2 back to your right hand. Strand 1 is now in the 2 position, and 2 is now in the 1 position.

Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 as many times that it takes to complete the braid on down the length of the cord.

Notes: You should make the length of your cords (before braiding) 1 and 1/4 times longer than the desired length of  the completed leash.

The finished leash, with swivel, snap, and trigger clasp.

 

Update:  Here is a pic of a  matching set of a braided paracord leash with a set of jesses, complete with goucho knots on the end of each braid.

Made this set the other day

Made this set the other day